Chocolate Pecan Pie

I’ve been in a chocolate mood lately. It’s not all bad. Lately I’ve been baking a few repeats, such as mint brownies, but Saturday night I made this chocolate pecan pie. It wasn’t as popular with the Tartlets as the apple pie, but that’s not all bad, either! I’ve made this before and added a few tablespoons of Grand Marnier or Cointreau to the batter and that’s a very good variation.

Fudgy Pecan Pie

9-inch pie pastry, I used my usual recipe

1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. cocoa

2/3 c. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 eggs, slightly beaten
3/4 c. light corn syrup

1 c. chopped pecans

1 c. pecan halves

Prepare pastry shell. Set aside. Heat oven to 375 degrees.

In medium saucepan over low heat melt butter, add cocoa and stir until mixture is smooth. Then remove from heat. Cool slightly. Stir in sugar, salt, eggs and corn syrup. Blend thoroughly. Stir in chopped nuts.

Pour into pastry shell. Place pecan halves on top. Bake 40-45 minutes. Cool. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired. Serves 8.

Hay, Hay, It’s Donna Day In Deuces!

How did we get so lucky? In the last HHDD event (the wonderful tribute to Donna Hay facilitated by Bron Marshall) there were two winners, so each selected a recipe for twice the Donna Hay pleasure (and even in two languages)! Meeta of What’s For Lunch, Honey? (perfect blog title!) chose a chicken satay for us, while Tartasacher of Mil Postres (thousand desserts, I love it!) selected a lovely grilled fruit with yogurt. It was the perfect pair for our lunch today.

At our house, anything that screams ‘Meat On A Stick’ sounds like a winner. I tweaked the Donna Hay recipe slightly to match what I had in the kitchen and it turned out so perfectly I’m afraid the kids will ask me to make it again and I won’t be able to repeat it! Tartlet 1, who naturally tends toward carnivorous behavior, ate *six* skewers of meat (seriously, that’s as much as pictured above!). Instead of cashews I used pistachios and I added some grated lime rind to the marinade, giving the resulting skewers an odd green tinge that wasn’t entirely appetizing at first look, but the taste was wonderful. My other modifications were minor. Thank you Meeta for choosing a winning recipe that is sure to be repeated in our house.

For the grilled fruit and yogurt, I had intended to make something slightly different but the bottle of nutmeg that I *know* I purchased this week could not be found. No doubt someone will find it in the potato bin next week or in the drawer with yogurt cups or something absurd! Instead I used the cinnamon as called for in the recipe but found other ways to make it unique.

Because I was using my homemade yogurt, made this time with whole milk, rather than a thicker commercial yogurt, I didn’t mix it with cream. I added the sugar and cinnamon and then grated some orange rind into the bowl, not bothering to clean the grater after the lime I had used in the chicken marinade, so there were bits of lime zest also. It had a lovely flavor. The kids who thought they weren’t going to like this dessert at all were practically licking their plates to get the last drops!

The sugar grilled fruit would work fabulously for dessert for two, but was a bit more time consuming for six. I was using a smallish pan and opted to only clean it after every two batches rather than after each one. I was also finding the sugar was not adhering symmetrically to the fruit so after a couple of batches I started just sprinkling some sugar in the bottom of the pan, placing the fruit slices on top, and sprinkling the tops with a little more sugar. That worked very well for me. I chose two varieties of apples — Jazz (oh, YUM!) and Pinata (not as spectacular but good), pears, and peaches for my fruit. Although I originally chose those because I like them with nutmeg, they also work fabulously with cinnamon and orange. As I said, we were all scraping up the last bits of our dessert today. Thank you, Tartasacher, for a fabulous simple dessert that the kids have already requested that I not only make again, but teach them to make also!

Recipes after the jump.

Sugar High Friday: Childhood Delights

I grew up in a ‘homemade house’. In large part because we were poor, but also because I was born into a rural heritage of ‘make it do or do without’. My mom sewed most of my clothes, something I didn’t mind when I was smaller, but by high school it was definitely not as cool as Jordache or Gloria Vanderbilt jeans (with the comb stuck in the back pocket, of course!), so I resorted to selecting patterns from Evan-Picone (I’ll bet my mom still has a pattern like this in her vast collection). Although you might not guess we were poor when you considered our menu (broiled lamb chops for Sunday breakfast, anyone?), it was because we grew most of our food and it was abundant. So I came to think that anything ‘store-bought’ or that came in a box was inherently better, sweeter with the magic aura of rarity.  I didn’t recognize it was actually the high fructose corn syrup and preservatives. This is also why I am not insulted when the Tartlets ask for store-bought birthday cakes. I understand why they’re ‘better’.

I don’t actually remember many sweet treats from my childhood, although I’m sure they were plentiful. I remember each year ordering large tins (like 20 lb or something) of frozen cherries from Agway and how, when I was sent to get some meat or vegetables from the basement freezer, I would sneak them, one at time, from the tin and let it slowly thaw in my mouth but chewing it up quickly before I got to the top of the stairs.  No one would ever know! (Why do kids believe that?!)  I remember when my mom started taking cake decorating classes and we ate pretty cakes. I remember ice cream — homemade, from Brownlee’s stand, or Wiencek’s Dairy Bar (dipped in chocolate or cherry). But, with a look at that tag cloud, are you surprised that one of my favorites was the Pillsbury Chocolate Macaroon Bundt cake mix, with it’s separate packages for cake, filling, and frosting? I mean . . . chocolate. cake. Says it all, right? Pillsbury discontinued their Bundt mixes many years ago but, if you are willing to pay for the memory, Nordic Ware offers a gourmet cake mix line at $11/box. I decided to play with making my own.

My first attempt, pictured above, was with a finely shredded coconut and for the center I first beat two egg whites to a stiff peak, added some sugar and almond extract, and folded in the coconut. While it yielded the picture-perfect tunnel, my coconut was freezer burnt (BLECH!) and the texture was far too dry and flaky. The second time I switched methods and used sweetened condensed milk with a couple of egg whites (not beaten) and the extract and coconut. While the second attempt gave a very good texture and taste, it did not form the pretty tunnel. I actually plan to experiment with this a third time.

For this walk down memory lane, I thank Rachel of Vampituity who is our creative hostess for this round of Sugar High Friday, created by Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess.

Chocolate Macaroon Cake

Cake:
1 box dark chocolate cake mix
1 small pkg instant chocolate fudge pudding mix
1 1/4 c. water
1/3 c. oil
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

Filling:
1 1/2 c. coconut
2 egg whites
1/2 c. sweetened condensed milk
1/2 t. almond extract
2 Tbsp. flour

Frosting:
1 Tbsp. melted butter
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 Tbsp. milk
1/2 t. almond or vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease and flour Bundt or other tube pan and set aside.

Beat together cake ingredients for 2-3 minutes, until smooth and thick, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Spread 1/3 of the cake batter into the prepared pan.

Stir together filling until well mixed. Carefully spoon the filling on top of the cake batter, keeping it away from the edges and center of the pan. Spread the remaining batter over the filling.

Bake for 35-45 min or until done. Cool for 10 minutes then invert on rack and cool completely.

Stir together frosting ingredients, adjusting consistency with milk or sugar. Drizzle over cake.

No Problem, Honey

One of Tartlet 1′s favorite jokes is: When is a chef cruel?
A: When she beats the eggs and whips the cream!

My Christmas baking still hasn’t progressed very far as we’ve been wrapping up school work and we’ve had a lot of things on our ‘to-do lists’. So this didn’t involve beating any eggs, just whipping a bit of cream!

Tuesday, as we were anticipating the arrival of The In-Laws the next day, The Husband called to ask if I could provide a dessert for a party on Thursday he had forgotten about. Although my initial sarcastic response was ‘Sure, honey, I’m not really doing anything this week’, I started thinking of something easy I could make that would still not let him down. The In-Laws weren’t able to arrive after all, but I still went with something simple — a repeat Turtle Truffle Tart. But this is a dessert that stands repeating, and I don’t think I’ve made one for this group before. It looks far more complicated than it is. The base is my standard Shortbread Crust, topped with pecans and caramel and a layer of chocolate melted with heavy cream, all staple ingredients in my kitchen and easy to whip up. *evil laugh*

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

Historically I have not been a huge fan of cheesecake.  Even now it’s not my first choice in desserts, so I really don’t understand what has gotten into me in the last couple of years: Chocolate Chip Cheesecake with Raspberries, Marbled Cheesecake, and, ever since the fabulousness of the Chocolate Ganache covered Turtle Cheesecake, I’ve been fixated with on covering them with chocolate, such as The Husband’s Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake, and now this one. Adding chocolate is always good, but maybe it’s just self-preservation — make a dessert you are not totally in love with and then you won’t be tempted to nibble and taste until it’s disappeared!

I actually made this about a month ago and just haven’t gotten around to posting it until now. I made this for our church Thanksgiving Dinner, where there is always a wonderful array of desserts, and why I sliced it in such small pieces — it makes it easier to justify tasting several desserts if none are terribly large! I didn’t actually get to try this one as it was gone by the time I reached the dessert table, but I have been assured by a couple of tasters that it was quite good. It’s a lovely twist on the mint flavors of the holiday season.

Mint Chocolate Cheesecake

Crust:
1 1/2 c. graham cracker crumbs
1/4 c. sugar
2 Tbsp. cocoa
1/4 c. melted butter

Mix together all ingredients and press into the bottom of a 10-inch springform pan. Bake at 350 F for 15 minutes or until browned.

Cheesecake:
4 – 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
5 eggs
3 Tbsp. cocoa
1 c. Andes Candies baking bits

Beat cream cheese until absolutely smooth, scraping sides and bottom of the bowl frequently to get out all lumps. Add sugar and stir until mixed. Add eggs one at a time, beating after each addition until well incorporated; scrape bowl frequently. Add cocoa and beat well. Fold in candy pieces.

Pour into prepared springform pan. Bake with a water bath at 325 F for 1 hr or until center is set. Remove from oven and cool. Slip a knife around the edge before releasing the pan.

Chocolate Coating:
1/4 c. heavy cream
3/4 c. semi-sweet chocolate
1/2 c. Andes Candies bits
more Andes Candies for sprinkling on top & decorating

In a heavy saucepan, heat cream until simmering. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate and mint candies. Stir until melted and smooth. Spread over the top of the cheesecake. Sprinkle with remaining candy bits.