Mississippi Mudder Pie

This recipe has a luscious chocolate crust, creamy two chocolate filling, with a whipped cream top garnished with chocolate curls. If you are a chocolate lover this is your dish.

Pie crust:
1 5/8 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out
2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa (dark preferably)
5 1/2 ounces butter (11 Tablespoons)
2 Tablespoons superfine bakers sugar
1-2 Tablespoons cold water

Sift the flour and cocoa into a mixing bowl. Cut the butter into little chunks, then put in bowl with the flour mixture. Rub in the butter with the fingertips until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. (The warmth of your fingers will aid in this). Stir in the sugar, then add enough cold water to make a soft dough. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 30 minutes. While this is chilling, relax and have a glass of mint iced tea.

Filling:
6 ounces butter (1 1/2 sticks)
1 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
4 organic eggs, lightly beaten
4 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa, preferably dark
5 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate (preferably Callebaut)
1 1/4 cups light cream
1 tsp vanilla

When the dough is chilled, roll out on a lightly floured counter and use it to line a 9 inch pie pan. Line with parchment paper and fill with dried beans. Bake in preheated 375 degree oven for 15 minutes, remove from the oven and take out the paper and beans. Put crust back in the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.

To prepare the filling, beat the butter and sugar together in a deep mixing bowl then gradually beat in the eggs with the cocoa. Melt the chocolate (I like to do this in a double boiler) and beat it into the mixture with the cream and vanilla.

Reduce the oven temperature to 325. Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for 45 minutes, until the filling has set but don’t overbake.

Let the pie cool completely. Top with whipped cream and milk chocolate curls. Chill until ready to serve. Serves eight. May garnish with sprigs of mint. I believe a glass of red wine would go great with this dessert but you may just want more mint tea.

This pie is rich, so you may want to slice into more than 8 pieces.

Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding

Paula Deen says this is “Not Yo Mama’s Banana Pudding”.  But if you’re Mitchell (who requested that I post this recipe) or Tommy,  it IS yo mama’s banana pudding.  And so it’s thusly named by me.  It’s an amazing low calorie recipe!  NOT.  Still it’s delicious and worth trying, it is Mitchell and Tommy’s favorite banana pudding, and Mitchell’s sweet friend Amelia enjoyed it immensely!  Amelia, I’ll make it for you every time you come see us, and that’s a promise.

Ingredients:

2 bags Pepperidge Farm Chessmen cookies OR 1 box vanilla wafers (or substitute any cookies that you think would be fabulous, here is an opportunity to get creative with this recipe)
6 to 8 bananas, sliced
2 cups milk
1 (5-ounce) box instant French vanilla pudding
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened (leave on counter for a couple of hours to soften)
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk (e.g. Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk)
1 (12-ounce) container frozen whipped topping, thawed (Cool Whip), or equal amount sweetened whipped cream

Directions:

Line the bottom of a 13 by 9 by 2-inch dish with about 1/2 of the cookies and layer the sliced bananas on top.

In a bowl, combine the milk and pudding mix and blend well using a handheld electric mixer. Using another bowl, combine the softened cream cheese and condensed milk together and mix until smooth. Fold the whipped topping into the cream cheese mixture. Add the cream cheese mixture to the pudding mixture and stir until well blended. Pour the mixture over the cookies and bananas and cover with the remaining cookies (I usually crush the cookies for the top layer but this is optional). Refrigerate until ready to serve unless you just can’t stand not having some IMMEDIATELY.  I do think this pudding is better after sitting in the fridge at least a couple of hours.