Chocolate Cream Pie (4 stars)

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Chocolate Cream Pie

5/27/12

The issue of Cook's Country came just in time with a recipe for a reduced calorie Chocolate Cream Pie. I learned that neutchatel cheese is actually reduced fat cream cheese. It didn't taste reduced, it has a very chocolaty flavor. 

Filling

Adding Cream

Cream

Crust:

6 whole chocolate graham crackers

3 Tablespoons sugar

3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1 ounce neutchatel cheese, softened

Filling

1/2 cup sugar

3 Tablespoons cornstarch

2 Tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa

1/8 teaspoon salt

Finished

2-1/2 cups whole milk

1 large egg

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine

2 teaspoon vanilla

Topping

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 Tablespoon powdered sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Process graham crackers and sugar in food processor to fine crumbs. Add butter and neufchatel and pulse until combined. Spray pie plate with vegetable oil spray, press crumbs into pie plate. Bake for 15 minutes in a preheated oven at 350 F. Cool completely.

Combine sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt in bowl. Beat milk and egg together in a medium saucepan, Whisk sugar mixture into pan. Add bittersweet chocolate and bring mixture to a boil, whisking constantly. Reduce heat to low and cook for 3 minutes, whisking constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour into pie shell, cover with wax paper an refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

Whip cream, sugar, ad vanilla until soft peaks form, cover pie with layer of cream.

Peanut Butter Pie (4 stars)

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Peanut Butter Pie
5/20/12

It turned out to be quite a weekend. Abby graduated from Seminary and we had a solar eclipse. Of course we didn't get to see the eclipse because we were at Seminary Graduation but we are proud of Abby. Kerry didn't think you could have peanut butter without chocolate. It must be a Reeses thing: "You got your chocolate in my peanut butter", "No you got your peanut butter on my chocolate". So this is a variation on a recipe by adding a black bottom of chocolate fudge. Natalie didn't think we had enough chocolate, maybe we should add another layer.

Close-up

Abby's Seminary Graduation Certificate

Crust: Single pre-baked buttermilk crust

Filling:

3/4 cup peanut butter

1-1/2 cups powered sugar

2 cups whole milk, divided

1 cup half-and-half

1 Tablespoon butter

3/4 cup sugar, divided

2 egg yolks

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup cornstarch

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

6 oz Smucker's fudge ice cream topping.

Layer bottom of pie crust with about 6oz fudge topping. Mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar with a pastry cutter until it resembles course corn meal. place on top of fudge layer, saving some aside to place on top of pie.

Place 1-1/2 cups milk in top of double boiler, add half and half, butter and 3/8 cup sugar. Cook until butter is melted and milk is scalded.

In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks until broken up, add remaining sugar and whisk very well. Add to hot mixture slowly, stirring constantly. Allow to cook for 15 to 20 minutes stirring occasionally.

Mix 1/2 cup milk and cornstarch together and slowly add to the hot mixture. Sir constantly to avoid lumps forming. Stir for two minutes then every 5 minutes until mixture has cooked for 15 - 20 minutes.Add vanilla, stir well.

Pour filling over peanut butter mixture in pie shell. Sprinkle reserved peanut butter filling on top. Chill.

Finished Product

Peanut Butter Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie (4 stars)

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Lemon Meringue Pie
5/13/12

A friend told me he took his wife to an urban planning meeting for Mother's Day. I wasn't sure that would work with Kerry so decided to go with flowers and a pie. I asked her which pie we should make on Mother's Day and she chose Lemon Meringue from the Lion House pie book. The meringue didn't turn out and I'm not quite sure why. I have never been a fan of meringue. The lemon was excellent, very smooth and a great flavor.

Double Boiler

Baked shell

Crust: Single buttermilk crust pre-cooked

Pie with wax paper

Filling:
1-1/2 cups sugar
7 Tablespoons cornstarch
5 egg yolks
2 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 Tablespoons butter

Meringue:
5 egg whites
3 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon Cream of Tartar

Cutting the pie

Mix together sugar and cornstarch and pour into top of a double boiler. In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks until well mixed. pour 1/2 cup of water into egg yolks and whisk well. Pour in remaining water an mix, add to egg yolks and stir well. Add lemon juice, stir well. Place double boiler on top of water pan and cook stirring frequently, cook for 30 to 40 minutes until thick and clear. Remove from heat, cut butter into pieces and add to hot mixture. Stir until butter is melted and well blended. Pour into baked pie shell. Cover with wax paper and place into refrigerator until cool.

Beat egg whites until foamy, stir in 3 Tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon and continue beating until stiff. Spoon on top of lemon pie. Bake at 425 F for 3 to 5 minutes, or until meringue is lightly browned.

Mother's Day pie

Lion House

Bumbleberry Pie (4 stars)

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Bumbleberry Pie
5/6/12


We love Zions National Park and have been there many times. As you pass through the small community of Spingdale, Utah, just outside of the Park, there is a hotel called The Bumbleberry Inn, home of the famous Bumbleberry Pie!. I've never stopped but I will some day. On their website they have this description: "According to Grandpa, bumbleberries are burple and binkel berries that grow on giggle bushes, so named because they giggle when the berries ripen and the bush begins to quake, and at the precise moment that they ripen, they giggle. If you were to eat a berry while it was giggling, you would spend the rest of your life giggling!." 

Cutting the pie

Natalie asked what is the difference between bumbleberry and jumbleberry pie. Our jumbleberry is usually a combination of two or three berries where bumbleberry has a lot more. The Pie book has a couple of bumbleberry variations and here's our own. 


Crust: Buttermilk Double Crust


Filling:
1 cup blueberries
1 cup blackberries

Bumbleberry

1 cup cherries (if canned, don't use 
   the pie filling kind in heavy syrup)
1 cup strawberries
1 pear, diced


1 Granny Smith apple, diced
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
3/4 cup sugar
2-1/2 Tablespoons cornstarch

Bishop and pie

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
2 Tablespoons butter, in small pieces


Prepare crust and chill. Combine fruit, lemon juice in large bowl. Combine cornstarch and sugar, mix and tehn add to fruit mixture. Stir well but avoid crushing fruit. Turn filling into pie shell, dot with butter, add top. Brush with cream and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at preheated oven at 40 F for 30 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 F and rotate pie 180 degrees. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes until the steam vents bubble thickly.

Almond Chocolate Pie (4 stars)

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Almond Chocolate Pie
4/29/12

Everyone loves chocolate pie so I should have doubled the batch. This is from Lion House and is very sweet, very rich, and very easy to make. I used a store-bought graham cracker crust which was too small for the filling but there wasn't enough for a second. We used a large symphony bar and a dove bar to add up to 7 oz. I should have made my own crust in a deep dish and it would have fit and had more than just micro-slices for everyone.

Melting chocolate bars

Heavy cream

Crust: Graham Cracker Crust

Toasted Almond Slivers

Filling:
1/2 cup almond slivers, toasted
1 (7oz) chocolate bar
1/2 cup half-and-half
18 large marshmallows
1 cup heavy whipping cream

Toast almonds on a cookie sheet at 350 F for 7 minutes, don't over-cook. Place chocolate bar, marshmallows, and half-and-half in a double boiler and heat until everything is melted. In a large bowl, whip the cream until stiff; fold cream and almonds into chocolate mixture. Pour into crust and refrigerate to cool. Once cool, place in freezer. Remover from freezer 1 hour before serving.

In the crust

Slicing the Pie