Thanksgiving Pies

Raspberry Key Lime

We took a well deserved break from pie making and posting. With the holidays, however, we made a few pies for parties. My office employees association has an annual Thanksgiving lunch and I made two pies, both variations on Key Lime. I repeated pie No, 43 Black-bottomed Key Lime (see post on 4/17/12). I also made a Raspberry Key Lime as a variation from the American Pie Council's book "America's Best Pies."

Crust: Store-bought Graham Cracker Crust

Filling:
One 14 oz can of sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks (whites not used)
1/2 cup (and a little more) Key Lime Juice

Topping:
6 oz. seedless raspberry preserves
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine condensed milk, egg yolks, key lime juice and blend until smooth. Pour filling into pie shell and bake in pre-heated oven at 350 F for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack for 10 minutes. Heat raspberry preserves in a pan, add butter and lemon juice and vanilla. Spread over pie then refrigerate. Before serving, top with whipped cream and lime slices.

We hosted Thanksgiving dinner and thought we would have a lot of people so we reserved our church. As it turned out we only had 17 (we were thinking of 50). We made Sour Cream Lemon (see post on 11/23/11)  and Coconut Cream pies (see post on 6/4/12). We forgot that the Coconut Cream recipe is for two pies so Kerry posted on facebook that we had some extra filling. We immediately had Savannah and Sage at our door who took the filling of our hands. We also tried Apple Pie Cookies which tasted okay but were a disaster to make - not recommended.

Chocolate Cream Pie (4 stars)

49

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.

Chocolate Angel Pie (2 star)

17
11/13/11

I thought we needed to branch out a little bit and even though I don't think pudding in a shell is a "real" pie I gave in and decided to go with chocolate. This is a real easy pie to make and it really is good.

Chocolate Angel Pie

Shell: Graham Cracker Crust

Filling
2  - 4.25 oz Hershey Chocolate Bars with Almonds
1-1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla



Whip cream with vanilla and set aside. Break up most of the chocolate bars into pieces and melt in microwave in a glass bowl. When chocolate is just lukewarm, fold into whipped cream and vanilla. Turn into shell and chill for two hours before serving. Grate remaining chocolate to garnish pie.

Natalie serving pie

Natalie and pie