Chocolate Velvet Pie and Oreo Pie Crust

I now interrupt our regularly scheduled program (cookie week!) for a report from the emergency broadcast system:  If you are experiencing holiday overload, drop everything and make this pie.  Lick the pan.  And when the pie is set, grab a fork and the whole thing and sit down to watch It's a Wonderful Life.  Because it is.  And so is this pie.

This is a Mr. Pots invention.  Before I go on, there are a few more things you need to know about Mr. Pots. 1. he's an engineer.  he likes to invent things.  or fix them.  or figure out how they work, and make them better.  this applies to food and everything else in life.  2.  he never follows a recipe, but his experiments almost never fail.  more often, they're out-of-this-world amazing and delicious, albeit a little out of the ordinary.  3.  he has a sarcastic, dry, blunt sense of humor.  this is only important to recipes when dealing with spicy food.  4.  he is so-named Mr. Pots because if our lives were fiction and we were a famous duo, the personalities we most fit are the combination of Iron Man & Pepper Pots.  Since we are, in fact, married, and his name is Adam, not Tony Stark, it's just fun to call him Mr. Pots when I'm feeling equally feisty and sarcastic.  there you have it. :)

This is not a chocolate pie for those of you who love a light, fluffy chocolate pie.  If you fall into that category, try a chocolate pudding pie, or (a little more complicated, but delightful) French silk pie.  This is a pie with a rich, velvety taste and texture.  Don't say I didn't warn you.

You can do any kind of crust you like, so long as it's prepared in advance.  A regular pie crust, baked, provides a nice salty but simple contrast.  Graham cracker is quick, easy and adds a nice crunchy texture.  Chocolate graham cracker is one step better.  And for that fun, crunchy contrast and a little extra flavor, oreos are the way to go.

First, start out by crushing the oreos.  You can do it in a gallon size ziploc bag by hitting it with a rolling pin, stomping on it, throwing it, whatever. :) Or you can be a little more civilized and put them in a food processor.  (But why would you want to do that?)  Once the oreos are crushed, mix in the melted butter.  The mixture will be very dry and crumbly.  Transfer to a 9" pie plate.

Press the mixture into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate.

You can leave it unbaked, but to sort of "set" the crust, (it makes it slightly less crumbly) bake it at 350 for 8-10 minutes.

Now for the pie!  Start by combining evaporated milk with egg yolks in a saucepan over low heat.  Use a whisk to keep it stirring.  And don't walk away.  Ever.

If you feel squeamish about the egg yolks, pasteurized egg product definitely works!

Remember how I said don't walk away?  This is why.  If you let the mixture get to hot, it will curdle.  You want to heat it until just before boiling.  So you'll see a few bubbles start to pop up but once that happens turn it off!  Curdled pie is no good.  I threw this batch out and had to start over.

I can't emphasize it enough--constant whisking and DON'T WALK AWAY.  Also, don't waste precious stirring time trying to photograph what you're doing.

It'll coat the back of the spoon when it gets to the right consistency.  Turn it off and don't look back.

Next mix in the chocolate chips and cream cheese.  It helps if the cream cheese is cut into chunks and/or softened so it melts faster and incorporates better.  I used half milk/half semisweet chocolate in this particular pie, but Mr. Pots was a little disappointed--we usually go all semi-sweet or even bittersweet.  If you like the milky sweet chocolate flavor better, milk chocolate chips is the way to go.  If you prefer the rich intensity of dark chocolate, definitely go with semi-sweet, or give bittersweet a try!

Getting the cream cheese to blend in well can be a little tricky, 

so I used a stick blender.  You can just stir really well or pour into a stand-up blender if you want.

Once it's mixed, pour it into the pie crust.

Let it cool for awhile at room temperature.

Then refrigerate to set completely!  Patience is a virtue here.  Trust me.

Chocolate Velvet Pie

one 9" pie crust (regular baked, graham cracker, or oreo pie crust recipe below)
1 can evaporated milk
2 egg yolks (or 1/2 cup pasteurized egg product)
2 cups chocolate chips
8 oz. cream cheese

Prepare pie crust.  Heat milk and egg in medium saucepan until just before boiling, or until mixture coats back of spoon.  Do not boil!  Remove from heat and stir in chocolate chips and cream cheese.  Allow to melt and blend well.  Pour into prepared pie crust.  Cool at room temperature before transferring to refrigerator to set completely.

Oreo Pie Crust

24 oreos
1/4 cup butter, melted

Crush oreos.  Mix in butter.  Press into 9" pie plate.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes, or until crust is set.

Mama's Oatmeal Cookies

These are for all those old-fashioned cookie lovers out there.  Simple and delicious.  Easy enough to whip up  on a weeknight and pack in kids' lunches.  And they have oatmeal--so they're healthy, right?

You can pick your poison as far as the fat goes here:  butter, margarine or shortening.  I usually go with shortening and save the butter for "fancier" cookies.  Cream it together with the sugar.

You need it to be nice and pale and creamy...

Mix in your eggs and vanilla.

Scrape down the bowl if you have to, to make sure all the butter and sugar gets worked in with the dry ingredients.

Stir in flour, baking soda and salt before the oats and other mix-ins.  I forgot a picture--sorry!

Mix in the "chunky" stuff.  Oatmeal cookies are fun because they're versatile as far as mix-ins go.  Oatmeal is necessary, of course, but you can add chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, peanut butter--whatever you want!  Raisins, cranberries, white chocolate...

Drop 'em by tablespoonfuls on a greased cookie sheet.

Take them out when they're good and golden.

Mama's Oatmeal Cookies

1 cup butter, margarine or shortening

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

3 cups old fashioned rolled oatmeal

2 cups mix-ins:  chocolate chips (milk, white or semi-sweet), raisins, dried cranberries, butterscotch or peanut butter chips

Cream fat and sugars.  Add eggs and vanilla and mix well.  Combine dry ingredients, except oatmeal,  and mix into wet ingredients.  Stir in oatmeal and mix-ins.  Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes, or until very golden brown.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since my Mama and I are in Christmas cookie baking mode in our two homes on either end of the country, I hereby proclaim it cookie week on the blog.  It's one thing that brings us together, even from far away!  

I'm starting with this variety because of my Dad.  I'm sure many men appreciate a good cookie, but Dad seemed to have (still has!) a fondness for them, probably because he knew they were made especially because somebody loved him!  

When it was Dad's turn to bake and show a little cookie love, it seemed like he usually chose to make chocolate cookies.  It was just a little different from our usual chocolate chip, but still with the ever-so important element:  chocolate. :)

You'll notice as we churn out some yummy recipes on here, the method is pretty much the same for every cookie.  That's how it's supposed to be!  It's how you get that crispy edge and chewy middle most people love about cookies.  So let's get baking.

Start by combining the butter, shortening and sugars in a mixing bowl,

and beating (preferably with an electric mixer) until creamy.  

Cookie notes:  softened butter (which most cookie recipes call for) is really just out of the fridge an hour or so before.  It gives a little when you squeeze it, but it won't squish and goo all over your hand.  Also, "creaming" the butter and sugar cuts pockets into the fat for the sugar to perfectly incorporate, and the batter will lighten in color quite a bit when properly done.

Once your mixture is creamed, add in the eggs and vanilla.

Mix those in, then add the dry ingredients.  You can (and maybe should) sift them together first, but I always just cheat a little and sprinkle them all over each other and sort of "mix" them together before letting them blend with the wet ingredients.  You can do that, too.  I won't tell if you don't.

You can stop there if you must, but if you're feeling like chocolate chocolate is the order of the day, stir in some chocolate chips.  Or M&M's.  Or Andes' Mints.  You get the idea.

Drop them by spoonfuls on a baking sheet.  I usually go for the smaller size (teaspoonfuls/small cookie scoop) so you don't go into chocolate overload.

You want them to look a little soft in the middle.  Fudgy is the name of the game here.  Eat some right now, off the pan.  

If you transfer them to a cooling rack a little too warm, you'll "accidentally" break a couple, which is a good excuse to eat them hot.  They're still good cooled of course, but warm and gooey they're to die for.

Double Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup shortening
3/4 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 cups chocolate chips

Cream fats and sugars.  Mix in eggs and vanilla.  Combine dry ingredients and mix well.  Stir in chocolate chips.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased baking sheet and bake at 350 for 6 to 8 minutes, or until edges are crispy and centers still look a little chewy!  Cool on wire racks and store in an airtight container.

Holiday Food: On A Budget

Christmas time is a wonderful time....of busy-ness, that is. Every year I debate how I'm going to work plate of goodies, a big Christmas Eve dinner, stocking treats and everything else into our food budget. I'm not one to increase my food budget easily and tend to experiment with "how little money do you need" before I'll increase it.

That being said, here are some ways to get through the Christmas eating season without blowing your food budget out of the water.

1. Plan ahead. Well, obviously, but in this case I'm talking about buying ahead of time. If you like turkey at your Christmas festivities, buy TWO at Thanksgiving. That's when they're cheapest! Or if you prefer a roast or brisket, look at the "reduced" meat section at your local grocery store. This is meat that is a day or two away from its expiration date. Obviously you won't leave it in your fridge for the next 3 1/2 weeks. No, you'll freeze it and thaw it the day that you need to cook it. You can get meat for really cheap and it's still good!

2. Stick with good, traditional treats. Before you go buying fancy ingrediens to make your own Christmas candies, think about what you have. Do you have the ingredients to make peanut butter cookies? For a few dollars of Hershey's Kisses you can make the "kiss cookies"(pb cookies with a kiss in the middle). Instead of making eggnog fudge (delicious, but expensive), how about making gingerbread men? Or rich peanut butter fudge? You don't need to buy fancy paper plates--just buy some colored cellophane paper instead. Or have your kids decorate white paper bags! There are lots of ways to make a fun treat without spending lots of moolah.

3. Learn how to make things. I used to think pies were so hard...until I realized they weren't! It is a lot cheaper to make your own pie crust and filling than it is to buy a $4 pre-made pumpkin pie. Liz posted a great crust and pie recipe a few posts back. Easy, delicious and cheap! Don't buy rolls-- make them yourself. You can get more bang for your buck if you're willing to take the time to peel the potatos instead of buying a box of potato flakes.

4. Shop the clearance section. My grocery store has a clearance section with over-stocked or "damaged" items. During the holiday season you find a lot of things on clearance. Just today I found 200 cans of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce-- $.50 apiece. Last year I bought four turkey roasting pans for $.50 apiece (normally $3.99).  Brining bags, aluminum foil, "old" candy (for stockings) and other things have been great finds. I also always buy the damaged cans. Dented isn't a problem-- rusty and bulging is! I have bought artichokes for under a dollar (for a pasta salad or delicious dip), tahini for only a few dollars (for making hummus), and various other cans for cheap. If you're bringing a dish to a Christmas potluck, see what the clearance section has to offer and base your dish off that!

5. Be deliberate in your menu planning. I'm not talking about your regular menu planning here. I'm talking about a big holiday dinner menu. For example, I'm planning a holiday dinner this year. There is one dish that really means "Christmas" to me. But....I'm the only one in my family who likes the dish. The first few years I was married I made a big bowl of it. Lots of money. And I threw half of it away because I couldn't eat it before it went bad. Now I only make enough for myself for a few days.  If you think you have to make something or buy something just because it's Christmas, reconsider. Do enough people like it? Is it worth the time or money for the dish? How long will it stay good in the fridge or freezer if you have leftovers?

I hope you have a great Christmas with tons of food...and tons of money left in your food budget on the 31st!

Good luck!

Kettle Corn

If you have not sampled homemade kettle corn, you are seriously missing one of life's simple joys.  My favorite time to make it is for a special treat for our kids when they have friends over, or for a family movie night.  Last time we had it, our oldest son requested it as a fun football snack.  Only problem with that?  Losing control of the popcorn bowl when celebrating a touchdown.

We're doing this on the stove top, so you'll need a big pot.  Put a little oil and just a few kernels in the bottom while it heats up.  Your heat should be about medium-high.

The thing with stove top popcorn is it can burn easily, so having everything ready from the beginning is a good idea.  If you can avoid distractions during the five minutes it takes to make, that would be good, too.  And your hand should ideally be constantly on the pot--it's all in the shake!

So while your pot is heating up, you only need a courtesy shake every few seconds.

But once those kernels start popping...

it's time to dump in the rest (by the way, these kernels are already mixed with salt and sugar) and get shakin'!

I learned a good rule:  3 seconds on, 3 seconds off.  Over and over and over.  Shake 3 seconds, rest 3 seconds.  Repeat.  Until there are 3-5 seconds between pops, and then it's time to dump before you burn it!

The bowl needs to be ready right next to the stove--get a big one so you can be hasty about your pouring.  And because who doesn't love diving into a huge bowl of popcorn??

See that?  That's burned sugar.  You don't want that.  But if you accidentally get a little, don't use it as an excuse to never try again.  Failure is a good teacher sometimes.  And trust me, it's worth it.

Kettle Corn

3 T oil

1/2 cup popcorn kernels

2 T sugar

1/2 tsp salt

Combine dry ingredients in small bowl or measuring cup and set aside.  Pour oil in bottom of large pot, drop in 3-5 kernels, and cover with lid.  Place pot over medium-high heat.  Shake frequently while waiting for kernels to pop.  Once kernels have popped, pour in remaining kernels with sugar and salt.  Shake repetitively, stopping only for a couple seconds in between shakes.  Remove from heat when popping time lengthens to 3-5 seconds between pops.  Pour immediately into large bowl.

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

Sometimes you just need something easy.  And homemade.  Right?  Let's get popping.

In a small bowl, (I always just use a 1 cup measuring cup) measure 1/3 cup popcorn kernels, 1/2 tsp salt and 1 T vegetable oil.  Mix it up and dump it into the bottom of a paper lunch bag.

Fold the top of the bag over three times and make sure you seal as well as possible while just folding.  Put it in the microwave for 2-3 minutes, or until you hear about 5 seconds between pops.

Homemade Microwave Popcorn

1/3 cup popcorn kernels

1/2 tsp salt

1 T oil

1 paper lunch bag

Combine first three ingredients in small bowl, then pour into paper bag.  Fold over top of bag three times, pressing firmly.  Microwave 2-3 minutes on high, or until time between pops lengthens to 5 seconds.

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie.  A classic for this time of year.  If it's not your favorite, (some people say it's the texture) don't make it!  Otherwise, give this recipe a try.  It makes two, so you can eat one now and freeze one for later.  Just let it defrost in the fridge for a couple of days before you want to serve it.

Start out with your unbaked pie crust.

Combine the remaining ingredients in a large(r than mine) mixing bowl.  The only trick here is to beat the eggs separately so they mix in better.

Mix well, then divide between the pie crusts.

Bake until knife inserted comes out mostly clean.

Let cool at room temperature before refrigerating.

Pumpkin Pie

2 unbaked pie crusts (9"--or deep dish)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cloves

4 eggs, beaten

3 1/2 cups pumpkin puree (one 29 oz can)

3 cups evaporated milk (two 12 oz cans)

Combine filling ingredients and mix well.  Divide between pie crusts.  Bake at 425 for first 15 minutes, then decrease heat to 350 for 45 minutes.  Pies are done when knife inserted comes out mostly clean.

Grandma's Pie Crust

Grandma made another contribution to our feast this year:  pie crust.  Though I never witnessed it myself, I've heard many times that Grandma's slices of pie were more than generous, and if you weren't having seconds of such helpings, you weren't doing your duty to clean up the leftovers.  Also, it was quite possible you may offend the cook by refusing!  We don't want to do that.  

As members of Grandma's posterity, it's fallen to us to carry on the tradition of pie aplenty.  So this year our family of five made three pies, (we did share a little...) and they were gone Friday morning.  

Everyone knows the best pies start with a perfect crust.  My mama has an amazing recipe too, but I've only tried it once and it had to be in her presence--I was too worried I'd ruin it!  So until I master that one, we'll share Grandma's recipe.

Start by combining the flour and salt.

Cut in the shortening--you can use two knives, a pastry blender, or a fork.

The dough will be crumbly at this point...

Next, mix together your egg, vinegar and water in a small measuring cup.  Make sure everything is good and cold.  Drizzle in about half of it, then use your fork to gently combine.

Don't over mix this dough!!  Just keep splashing in a little liquid at a time until the dough holds together.  You'll probably use most of the liquid mixture.

Now, my hubby (who will heretofore be referred to as "Mr. Pots," explanation later) uses two sheets of wax paper or plastic wrap to gently roll out his dough without using extra flour and ruining the flaky and tender, melt in your mouth wonder that is a perfect pie crust.  However, I'm here to tell you you can still have (almost) perfect by using the flour method, if you're gentle and loving with your dough.

So sprinkle your work surface lightly with a little flour.

Roll it out carefully.  Be warned:  it will stick to the work surface and to your rolling pin.

To pick up the crust and move it, this is the easiest way I've found:  fold it in half first,

then in half again, so it's folded in quarters.

Carefully pick it up and transfer to your pie plate.

Then gently unfold it.  If it tears or has holes, just patch with a little extra dough.  This is a gorgeous, rustic, old fashioned piece of art, not a store-bought freezer pie crust.

Use a sharp knife to trim excess if you want.  My sister-in-law LOVES the crust, so she leaves it and pinches it into the fluted edges.  I'm not as talented as she is, so I go ahead and trim it.

To flute the edges, pinch with one hand and form a little barrier with the other, using thumbs and forefingers like so:

Sorry about the angles--self photography is not easy.

If your recipes calls for an unbaked pie crust, don't bake it, silly.  Otherwise, place the pie crust in a 400 degree oven for about 8 minutes.  It will still be very pale--you want it like that.

See?  Still that layered flaky crust.  You'll have to take my word for it on how tender and wonderful it was.  It literally melted in my mouth.

Grandma's Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp salt

1 cup shortening

1 egg

1/4 cup ice water

1 T vinegar

Combine flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.  Cut in shortening.  Combine egg, ice water and vinegar in small measuring cup and mix well.  Sprinkle liquid a little at a time into mixing bowl, using fork to gently pull dough together.  Do not over mix. You may not use all of the liquid.  Divide dough into three balls.  Gently roll out using two layers of wax paper or a lightly floured work surface.  Place in pie plate and flute edges. For prebaked crust, bake at 400 for about 8 minutes, or until tips and edges are very slightly toasted.