Lockdown Recipe of the Day: Black Bottom Pie

The Leo Baeck Cookbook comes from Ilana Sharlin Stone’s collection. She now lives in Cape Town, but she grew up in Los Angeles, with this imposing community cookbook in her parents’ home.

“My mom, Jacqui Sharlin, and grandma, Florence Drucker, were closely involved with the book, which was compiled by my shul. It took years to complete, and I remember my mom and grandma talking about very little else. The Leo Baeck Temple was an affluent, politically liberal synagogue, actively involved in the civil rights movement of the Sixties. When I look at the book now, I can see how old, traditional family recipes converge with new recipes from the era. The interest in ‘ethnic’ food is noticeable, but also the great dependence on convenience products such as soup powder.”

The recipe also appears in Keurresepte – Choice Recipes, published by Durbanville Primary School in 1988, in the days before recipes were so easily distributed online.

Makes 1 x 20–22 cm tart

Base

375 ml crumbled Oreo cookies (or ginger biscuits or Romany Creams) 

70 g butter, melted

Mix the biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press into the base and sides of a 20–22 cm diameter pie dish. Refrigerate.

Filling

3 eggs, separated

125 g sugar

pinch of salt

22 ml cornflour

375 ml milk

60 ml brandy

60 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped 

5 ml vanilla essence

15 ml gelatine

30 ml water

1.5 ml cream of tartar

90 g castor sugar

whipped cream for serving

chocolate shavings for decorating

Place a glass bowl over a saucepan of gently boiling water (or use a double boiler) and beat the egg yolks until light in colour. Sift together the sugar, salt and cornflour and add to the egg yolks. 

Heat the milk to just below boiling point and stir it into the egg yolk mixture together with the brandy. Simmer over the boiling water until thick and smooth. Remove from the heat. Spoon 250 ml of this custard mixture into a separate bowl.

Melt the chocolate and stir it into the 250 ml custard mixture in the separate bowl. Add the vanilla when it has cooled, and pour into the biscuit base.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatine over the water and leave to stand for 3 minutes. Place the bowl over boiling water and stir until the gelatine has dissolved. Stir a little of the custard mixture into the gelatine, then add it to the remaining custard and stir well.

Beat the egg whites until frothy and add the cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks form and then gradually add the castor sugar. Keep beating until stiff peaks form and the meringue becomes thick and smooth. Fold the meringue into the custard mixture and spoon it on top of the chocolate layer in the base. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight. Serve with whipped cream. DM168/TGIFood

From Share, by Errieda du Toit, published by Struik Lifestyle. Photography by Ian du Toit.

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