Grace was introduced to the Pie Spot in Portland (Oregon) last summer when she and Amy visited during the Design*Sponge book tour. We all thought it would be great to reproduce one of their recipes, and fortunately, Ashley and Jessica of the Pie Spot food truck were game! This recipe for Chocolate Hazelnut Pies can be made large or in individual sizes using a muffin tin. Feel free to make your own crust, though I followed the recipe instructions and bought ready-made short pastry crust. Be sure to line or otherwise appropriately prepare the pie pan surface/muffin tins, or else you’ll have a hard time getting them out. The original recipe included Kahlua, but we have omitted that here. If you’d like to add it, do so when you add the chocolate extract. These would be great little additions to your ideal picnics, which many of you shared with us this week! — Kristina

The origin of the Pie Spot (in their own words): We started the company three years ago; we were working at the same bar. I asked Jessica, on a scale of 1–10 if she liked to bake. She said 10, so I asked how much she liked to bake pie, and she said 9. Then I asked if she wanted to start a pie company. She said yes. So we did! We started in farmers’ markets and street fairs and festivals and picked up some great wholesale accounts, then a year and a half later we decided to quit our jobs and do the pie thing full time. In no time we had made the list for top 10 new food carts in Portland and have been featured on the Food Network twice, with another filming coming this June. We have plans in the works for a brick and mortar, hoping to open by mid-summer this year, fingers crossed! Who knows, maybe by next summer we will have complete world pie domination. I mean we have to have goals, right?

The full recipe continues after the jump . . .

Chocolate Hazelnut Pies

Ingredients

• 1 prepared unbaked 9″ pie shell, egg washed OR 12 mini pie shells in muffin tins, egg washed
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 2 T. flour
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 oz butter, melted
• 1 c. corn syrup
• 2 tsp. chocolate extract (can be found through various mail-order sites online)
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 c. chocolate chips
• 1 c. hazelnuts

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