Waitress Pies

"I Hate my Husband" Pie 

Pie.  Canadians and Americans, admit it.  Somewhere, in the back of your mind, you're always thinking about pie a little bit.  Stop giggling.  I'm not talking about that kind of pie.  Ever since my brother gave me the bakebook Vegan Pie in the Sky for Christmas, my obsession with making pies has taken centre stage.

In the middle of a pie reverie, I remembered the movie Waitress, in which Keri Russell plays a small town waitress, Jenna, who tries to pie-bake her way out of a bad marriage and dull life.  And the pies!  Oh the pies!  Jenna comes up with pies that go along with significant moments in her life.  And I've been pre-occupied with the idea of coming up with vegan recipes for each of the pies she names.

And I've finally put my plan into action, and started with Jenna's "I Hate my Husband" Pie: "you make it with bittersweet chocolate and don’t sweeten it. You make it into a pudding and drown it in caramel..."


 This is what I tried as a recipe:

1 single crust pie crust

Bittersweet chocolate pudding:

1 bar high cocoa content dark chocolate, broken into pieces ( I used a bar of 85% Green and Blacks)
2/3 cup non-dairy milk (I used coconut milk)

Caramel topping:
1.5 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I used coconut milk again)
2 tbsp coconut oil (you could also use canola oil or vegan margarine)

I baked the pie crust for 15 minutes and then cooled it fully.

Chocolate:  I melted the chocolate in a medium saucepan over low-medium heat in the milk until all melty and smooth, stirring frequently.  I poured the chocolate into the pie shell and refrigerated it for an hour.

Caramel:  I whisked all of the caramel ingredients together in a medium saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolved, and then turned the heat up to medium-high until the caramel was bubbling.  I cooked it on this heat while whisking constantly for about 4 minutes.  Then I poured the caramel into the pie shell, and refrigerated it overnight.

The results?  The chocolate is BITTER, and the caramel is SWEET.  But I kinda like that.  It's intense.  It's good coffee-time pie.  But the caramel keeps leaking!  It's super thick and sticky, but it won't stay put in the pan!  Anyone have any ideas for how to fix the leaky caramel problem?