Well, the Kentucky Derby is fast approaching, and as a Louisville-born gal now living in the Big Apple, it falls upon me to provide the Derby Day festivities for my crowd in my small apartment. (This consists of Derby pie, Kentucky bourbon, the Derby pool and yelling at the horses.)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to make my pie low-carb this year, to the extent possible. Last year one of my friends altered my recipe into a vegan pie, which was... interesting to say the least. It was good! Don't get me wrong. The appearances were just deceiving. That's it. No, really. It didn't LOOK like Derby pie. Tasted good, sure. But something was missing. The regular pie I made beside it was still much the preferred one.

So my goal is to still make the pie I'm famous for, but make it healthier without anyone even realizing. I'm willing to include some carbs where necessary to keep the consistency and flavor of the pie, this doesn't have to be an Atkins induction pie by any means! But I don't have any experience with low-carb baking, so I thought I'd turn to you well-informed folks here for ideas.

Here's the original recipe as per Mom, from my family cookbook:

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup flour
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 sticks melted, cooled margarine
1 cup broken pecans
6 ounces chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 jigger bourbon (*or rum if you're Karen's mom)
1 9 inch pie crust

Mix sugar and flour. Add eggs, butter, pecans, chocolate chips, vanilla and bourbon. Pour into 9 inch pie crust. Bake at 325F for 45 minutes. Serve warm with whipped cream.

So where and in what proportions can I cut carbs in this? Off the top of my head, I know I could substitute Splenda for sugar if I could get ahold of it... what proportions would I need? Are there any flour substitutes? I'm willing to include it if I have to, but I'm very anti-flour at the moment in general. Would whole wheat flour make a difference? I don't know if I can afford Atkins bake mix, but how would that play into the recipe? I'm already planning to substitute butter back in - the margarine was Mom's alteration to the recipe in an earnest attempt to be health-conscious. Are there any ideas for a low-carb pie crust?

Like I said, a few carbs are okay, this doesn't have to be free of them. If the substitutes aren't satisfying enough, I'll just do elements of the regular recipe (i.e. I see no way to get around the bourbon/rum - but does anyone know which is lower in carbs?). I'd just like to cut the carbs where possible. Ideally, I'd also like for nobody to even notice they're missing.

Thanks in advance! You guys were a great help over on the veggie forum already.

Since the pie already contains pecans, you can make a pecan or ground almond crust. Beat 1 egg white till foamy, stir in 2 cups. ground nuts, sweetener to taste and a pinch of salt. Press into a 9-inch pie pan and bake at 350 F for 10 minutes. Let cool.

You can make your own chocolate chips by melting unsweetened chocolate with a bit of unsalted butter and adding sweetener to taste. Pour into a waxed paper lined pan and chill until firm. Cut into small bits.

Instead of flour in the filling, try whey protein isolate and butter instead of margarine. The bourbon is OK.

YOu can also look through the pies at the Low Carb Luxury website for some more crust and filling inspirations.

Karen

Thanks (fellow) Karen! This is all very helpful.

I found some whey protein isolate at the Vitamin Shoppe, but it was big and expensive. Is it really worth it? Would I use it again? (Or should I just look at the website for more ideas? ). I'm considering using the smaller, and more economical, Atkins Bake Mix.

I'll probably figure this out on my own (I'm on vacation starting Thursday, so I plan to do a good deal of footwork in preparation for the Derby Party), but can you find unsweetened chocolate at a regular grocery store? I'm in Manhattan, so I can get to specialty shops if I have to. Also, can you find pre-ground nuts at the store? As mentioned over on the veggie forum, I don't have a food processor yet.

Same question with Splenda. Do people buy this at the grocery store? I didn't see it at GNC or the Vitamin Shoppe. I should probably stock up on it anyway; it would be nice to have low-carb baking options given the fact that my best cooking skills are still my baking skills!

This forum is great!

2/3 of a tablespoon of guar gum would give you the thickness that you would otherwise get from the flour. A little guar gum goes a long way, and I find it totally without taste.

There is a "measures-like-sugar" version of Splenda (look in the sugar section of the grocery store) that has some carbs in it but is still better than using sugar.

Here is a general comment about making the pie "healthier".

For Atkins and other low-carb dieters, Atkins-style food is healthier for us. HOWEVER, this is NOT true for high-carb - most - people.

The reason is that these regular folks are NOT in ketosis, and thus their bodies deal with high-fat food in the BAD way.

Make the Atkin's version for Atkin's folk, and the other version for the unenlightened eaters in the group.

If you plan to do any more lowcarb baking or drinking it as protein shakes you will. Advance warning: all lowcarb baking ingredients are expensive.


Yep! Bakers in the most common brand.


Yes. The best place to get them is in a natural foods store.


It's in the same section as the baking supplies.

Karen

Well, I've got my Splenda-sweetened chocolate cooling in the fridge! I've got a busy week ahead, so I figured I'd get the sugar-free chocolate prep work out of the way now.

It came out pretty gritty. The Splenda didn't really dissolve. Is that normal? Hopefully that will remedy itself when it bakes.

I also didn't have wax paper. So I substituted aluminum foil... hopefully that won't completely backfire on me! It worked fine in my test run.

Still haven't found pre-ground nuts. Hoping Whole Foods carries them - I thought surely the Manhattan Fruit Exchange at Chelsea Market would, they've got every kind of nut, but nope.

Update:

The Splenda-sweetened chocolate turned out... interesting. The grittiness disappeared with the cooling, so that's good. But despite using about a box of Splenda (I didn't really measure) it still didn't quite taste right. Maybe I'm just looking for the taste of sugar? I had my roommate, who is on full textbook Atkins (as opposed to me and my aversion to counting ) taste it, and she thought it tasted "chalky". But we hypothesized that it might just be that it was baking chocolate, and it might taste better in a pie? We'll see.

As for the process, the aluminum foil was no problem. In fact, once it had chilled in the fridge for about ten minutes, I took the foil carrying the chocolate out of the pan and set the whole thing in the freezer (I'd had to remove all my drinks from the fridge in order for the chocolate to fit!) I let it cool the rest of the way in the freezer, then pulled it after about an hour or so.

The worst part was the mess. This stuff stuck to everything! I got it all over my hands, and the part that made it onto the countertop I had to bust out the soap to clean it off.

Anyway, I made more than I need, so now I need more ideas of what to do with it!

I'll keep you updated on the rest of the Derby Pie process... six days and counting!

Try dissolving it in a bit of cream and adding some unsalted butter to the melting chocolate. I find that the granularity disappears but it will never be like chocolate made with sugar.

Karen

Thanks for the tip! I'll try it next time!

The Run for the Roses is tomorrow, so I'm doing some heavy-duty baking tonight (to be followed by more of the same tomorrow, as well as heavy-duty cleaning).

I never did find ground nuts, so I settled for a non-Atkins-approved, but still healthier, whole wheat crust that I found at Whole Foods. Which left me with two white pie crusts and two wheat pie crusts. I was planning to make two regular pies and one SF (I'm expecting a crowd), but then my best friend called and wanted to know if I was making one without nuts. I do adore him, and I didn't make him a nut-free pie last year, so I decided I could use that extra crust and make a nut-free pie.

Now. In checking my supplies, I discovered that I had enough eggs for four pies, but not enough butter. Only enough butter for 3. So rather than actually get off my butt and run to the store, I decided to make one pie using Mom's recipe variation completely - rum, margarine, and all. Then one for Jon with no nuts, my SF pie, and one more. This inspired me to shake things up and start having a little fun.

I developed four combinations of ingredients, each slightly different. I named each one, and plan to place name cards by each, with the ingredients on the back, so that people can taste and compare.

Pie 1:
"I Can't Believe It's Not..." (considering nicknaming this one "ICBIN", so that people won't guess the ingredients from reading the front of the card)
SF chocolate (sucralose-sweetened)
Splenda sweetener
Atkins bake mix
Butter
Bourbon
Whole wheat crust

Pie 2:
"Unbridled"
Regular chocolate
Regular sugar
Regular flour
Butter
Bourbon
Whole wheat crust

Pie 3:
"Everything's Coming Up Run For the Roses"
(No pecans)
SF chocolate (I had extra!)
Regular sugar
Regular flour
Butter
Bourbon
White flour crust

Pie 4:
"Mom Pie" aka "You Can't Go Home Again"
Regular chocolate
Regular sugar
Regular flour
Margarine
Rum
White flour crust

So we'll see how it goes! So far only "I Can't Believe It's Not..." is out of the oven. It overflowed a little on the side and lost some of the crust, but smelled pretty good. "Everything's Coming Up Run for the Roses" (the no-nuts friend is a big Gypsy fan, it's appropriate) is in the oven now, and I think Mom Pie and Unbridled Pie will wait until tomorrow.

Wish me luck!