Derby Pie: A lighter version of the old classic

It's hard for me to have favorites in food categories...but Derby Pie comes very, very close to being my top pie. My mom made it pretty regularly for holidays or birthdays while I was growing up and I'm definitely hooked.

So since the Derby was this past weekend, I decided to make Derby Pie for a party. But being me, I just couldn't put whole sticks of butter and cups of sugar in the bowl. So, since I'd made it once before and was pretty comfortable with the recipe, I healthified it! And guess what, no one was any the wiser!

I went with Cooks Illustrated Easy Pat-in-the-Pan Pie Dough...but I attacked this recipe as well.

First let me give you a peek at the nutrition info. I'm basing this off of 1/12 of the pie.

Original:

Amount Per Serving
Calories		495.7
Total Fat		28.2 g
	Saturated Fat	14.2 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	2.6 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	9.8 g
Cholesterol		108.3 mg
Sodium		122.9 mg
Potassium		132.8 mg
Total Carbohydrate		61.1 g
	Dietary Fiber	1.9 g
	Sugars	49.1 g
Protein		5.2 g

Modified:

Amount Per Serving
Calories		393.9
Total Fat		22.7 g
	Saturated Fat	10.7 g
	Polyunsaturated Fat	2.4 g
	Monounsaturated Fat	8.2 g
Cholesterol		92.9 mg
Sodium		114.2 mg
Potassium		127.7 mg
Total Carbohydrate		47.3 g
	Dietary Fiber	2.4 g
	Sugars	35.3 g
Protein		5.4 g

Reduced calories by 100, fat by 6g (saturated by 4g!), and sugar by 15g! Want to see what I did??My changes are in bold.

Pie Dough
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp unsalted butter, softened but still cool
2 ounces light cream cheese, softened but still cool

1. Lightly coat a 9 inch glass pie plate with cooking spray. Whisk the flours, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl.
2. With an electric mixer, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed in a large bowl until combined, about 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the flour mixture and beat on medium-low speed until the mixture resembles coarse cornmeal, about 20 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. increase the speed to medium-high and beat until the dough begins to form large clumps, about 30 seconds. Reserve 3 tbsp of the dough. Turn the remaining dough out onto a light floured counter (or parchment paper!), gather into a ball, and flatten into a 6 inch disk. Transfer the dough to the prepared pie plate.
3. Press the dough evenly over the bottom of the pie plate toward the sides using the heel of your hand. Hold the plate up to the light to ensure that the dough is evenly distributed. With your fingertips, continue to work the dough over the bottom of the plate and up the sides until evenly distributed.
4. Roll the reserved 3 tbsp dough into three 8 inch ropes and form a fluted edge. Wrap the pie shell in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
*If you are making a different pie and want to bake the shell, prick the bottom with a fork and bake at 325 degrees for 35-40 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.

Derby Pie
1/2 cup sugar
3/4 cup light corn syrup
4 whole eggs
1/2 stick melted unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup whole or half pecans

Beat sugar, corn syrup, and eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix. Pour into shell and bake for about 45 minutes at 350. YUM!!!

Next time, I might attack it with a little more ferocity, now that I know the recipe can handle some severe changes. But this is good enough for now!