Chocolate Pie and Fudge Pie

Chocolate Pie and Fudge Pie
(Two from 1953 vintage Joy of Cooking)

Chocolate Pie
Prepare a baked 7" pie shell.

Scald in a double boiler or over very low heat with constant stirring:
2 cups Milk

Cut up and add:
1-1/2 squares (1-1/2 oz.) Chocolate or 1/4 cup Cocoa
(Note: If you use cocoa, use 3 tbsp. of butter in all. See below for when to add butter.) Stir until it is dissolved.

In a separate bowl dissolve:
2 tbsp. Cornstarch in 1/4 cup Milk.

Add:
1/4 tsp. Salt
1 cup Sugar

Add these ingredients to the mixture in the double boiler. Cook and stir them for 15 minutes. Pour a small quantity over:
2 to 4 beaten Egg yolks

Beat it and add it to the mixture in the double boiler. Stir and cook the custard for 3 minutes. Add:
1 tbsp Butter (see note above if using cocoa and change this amount to 3 tbsp.)

Remove the custard from the fire. Beat it until it is very smooth. Add:
1 tsp. Vanilla

(Optional addition: 1/2 cup chopped Nut Meats)

Cool this. Pour into the pie shell. Cover it with a Meringue made with:
2 Egg Whites
4 tbsp. Sugar

Bake it in a slow oven 300°F for 15 to 20 minutes.

---

Fudge Pie

This is a crustless pie or cake unexcelled in quality. It is deliciously and devastatingly rich. Do not let that deter you. (This was the header for this recipe. Really. *ggg*)

Sift:
1 cup Sugar

Beat until soft:
1/2 cup Butter

Add the sugar gradually. Blend these ingredients until they are creamy. Beat in:
2 Egg Yolks

Melt over hot water, cool slightly and beat in:
2 oz. Chocolate

Sift before measuring:
1/2 cup all-purpose Flour

Beat the flour into the butter mixture. Add:
1 tsp. Vanilla

Whip until stiff:
2 Egg whites
1/8 tsp. Salt

Fold them into the batter. Bake the batter in a greased (buttered in other words) 8-1/2" pie plate in a slow oven, 325°F, for about 1/2 hour. Serve the pie topped with ice cream if desired.

posted by Debbi
(11/29/00)

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Sylvia's Graham Crackers

Sylvia's Graham Crackers

I have made these and they take a light hand but are very yummy. From Katzen's Enchanted Broccoli Forest Cookbook (modified a bit):

Homemade Graham Crackers
3 cups whole wheat flour
     (I prefer 1/2 cup unbleached white + 2-1/2 cups coarse whole wheat,
      or 2-1/2 cups graham flour if you can get it)
1/2 tsp. each of: salt, baking powder, cinnamon
6 tbsp. butter, melted
1/2 cup honey, warmed

Mix dry ingredients. Pour in liquids and mix with a fork, then push together with hands. Do not knead or over-mix. Using lots of flour, roll out 1/8" thick, cut into 1.25" x 3" rectangles, prick with fork, and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet. Bake at 375 for up to 10 minutes and cool on a rack.

I've made the dough with the steel knife in my Cuisinart, adding ginger and cloves, adding a bit of pumpkin, etc. They are definitely not the shortening wonders from the grocery store, but they are nice crackers.

Katzen has a cornmeal cracker in another book that I really like, and her gingerbread in the EBF is excellent.

from beadlizard
(11/29/00)

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Banana Dessert

A member mentions "...those thin flat chocolate wafers."

Ah, this brings to mind a wonderful recipe taught to me by the Rochette household in Wisconsin.

Banana Dessert

A couple of boxes of chocolate wafer cookies (the ones we used were about 2.5" in diameter)
A bunch of bananas, sliced in thin rounds
Lots of whipped cream

On a round platter, arrange a layer of cookies.

Add a layer of banana slices.

Spread a layer of whipped cream.

Repeat until it's a few inches thick. Eat immediately.

Sylvia
(11/29/00)

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Girl Scout Sit-Upon's

Girl Scout Sit-Upon's

Now, they use plastic tablecloths cut into rectangles, holes punched on sides, newspaper inside, fold material over then stitch up with yarn.

My daughter's is a particularly ugley orange and yellow. Mine was green plastic, some 30 years ago, resembled raincoat fabric but slicker.

Viki
(11/29/00)

We used shower curtain liners.

Tan
(11/29/00)

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Waldorf Salad a la Helen

Waldorf Salad a la Helen

• Equal parts granny smith and red delicious apples, cut into small pieces (about 1")
• Celery, chopped into similar sized pieces
• Raisins
• Bananas, sliced, about as much in volume as 2/3 of the volume of one
• Kind of apple
• Mayonnaise (NOT miracle whip -- I use Hellman's light) - enough to lightly coat the fruit and celery

Optional:
Pear, chopped in similar sizes
Chopped pecans

Put in big bowl, mix/toss. Serve either in a small bowl, on a plate on a big lettuce leaf, or in the big bowl to pass around, depending on how formal you're feeling.

My mom doesn't use bananas, but has been known to use mandarin oranges instead. She also uses walnuts instead of pecans...

This dish is necessary for Tday or Xmas dinner to be real (for me). We're not having it this year b/c a) it's DH's birthday, and he's feeling a bit left out on that front ... so I'm making a BIRTHDAY feast not a TDAY feast; and b) it's only going to be the four of us at dinner -- which makes it feel less Tday-ish to me anyway ... I like a big feast w/ family or friends ... a gathering ...)

Helen, in Illinois
(11/28/00)

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European Apple Pie (Appelgebak)

European Apple Pie (Appelgebak)

A couple of days ago someone asked about a European version of apple pie that they had tasted at Ikea. It sounded a lot like appelgebak, which is a ubiquitous apple pie served throughout the Netherlands at coffee shops, bars, cafes, etc. I learned to make it from a Dutch friend of mine when I was living in Amsterdam and never wrote a recipe down. But it goes something like this:

The crust is a cross between vanilla cookie dough and pie crust. Basically, find a recipe you like for sweet pastry crust. Mix up the dry ingredients specified in the recipe (usually flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt) and add an appropriate amount of baking powder to provide leavening. (I think I used something like 1 to 1.5 teaspoons.) Cut the specified amount of butter/shortening into the dry ingredients. Then beat up an egg and add it little by little until there's enough moisture to hold the dough together.

Roll it out about 1/4" thick and press it into a greased round spring-form pan.

The apples are done much as we do them, sliced with cinnamon and sugar, although you always need to add raisins and perhaps currants to the mix!

Pile them into the pie crust. Then you have to make a decision about the top. Everyone treated the top a little differently. Some folks made a lattice with leftover pie crust. Some folks made a streusel topping. In bakery-made gebaks the top was often left plain during baking and then glazed with a thin layer of sweet gelatinish stuff after it had cooled. But I don't think anyone ever added a second layer of crust the way we do with American apple pies.

Then bake until the apples are tender and the crust golden and voila! Appel gebak! Traditionally served with whipped cream (appelgebak met slagroom) in most cafes.

Enjoy,
Elaine
(11/28/00)

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Sylvia's Sourdough Starter and Bread

Sylvia's Sourdough Starter and Bread

Current starter was easy to make and has a lovely flavor.  I simply mixed a couple of tablespoons of active yogurt with a cup of water and a cup of flour, covered loosely with a tea towel, let set for a week or so, and I had a nice culture.  I did make a point of baking yeast bread a couple of times that week, to sweeten the air.

I do my usual bread recipe of:

3 cups water
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp salt
1 tbsp honey/sugar
lots of flour

Leave out the yeast, add a cup of starter, decrease the water half a cup because of the liquid in the starter, and let the sponge go overnight if I want an extra sour batch.

Anybody else notice that barometric pressure has a correlation with how excited the sourdough gets???

Sylvia beadlizard
(11/23/00)

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Dough Starter or Making More Yeast

Dough Starter or Making More Yeast

My grandma taught me to keep starter from dough. She called it "making more yeast".

She taught me to save about a golf-ball sized bit of bread dough, flatten it out into a thin disk, cover it with a towel and let it dry out, turning over frequently.

To make more bread, you soften this in water and add a little flour and a pinch of sugar, then take it from there. I admit that I've never tried it, but I will someday.

Denise the sleepy
(11/23/00)

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Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pecans

Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries and Pecans

1 cup shelled pecans
1-1/2 cups couscous
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 tsp turmeric
2 cups boiling water
1 cup thawed frozen peas
2 scallions, very thinly sliced
2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
1/4 cup shredded fresh basil

Lemon Dressing
Zest of 1 lemon
1/3 cup lemon juice
3 garlic cloves minced
1/2 tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup olive oil
Toast the pecans in a shallow pan in a preheated 350°F oven until very fragrant, about 7 minutes. Set aside to cool.

Place the couscous, cranberries, and turmeric in a large bowl. Pour in the boiling water, stir, then cover the bowl with a large plate or foil. Let sit for 10 minutes. Remove the cover, then fluff the couscous with a fork. Cover again and let sit 5 more minutes.

Stir in the pecans, peas, scallions, cucumbers and basil.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake vigorously. Pour onto the couscous mixture and stir to blend.

Let the salad sit at least 1 hour before serving to allow the flavors to blend. If longer than 1 hour, cover and chill, but then bring the salad to room temperature before serving. (Don't forget -- if you make the salad more than an hour before you intend to serve it, hold back on adding the cucumbers until serving time or thereabouts.)

Helen
(11/22/00)

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Cranberry Relish (from Helen)

Cranberry Relish (from Helen)

I thought I'd post a recipe that I tried out today, and I've found it's delicious! It's cranberry relish, and supposed to be good for eating  along with your turkey and stuffing.

1 cup of apple jelly
12 oz. of fresh cranberries
the juice of 1/2 lime
the zest of 1 whole lime
1/4 tsp of nutmeg.

Put the apple jelly in a saucepan, and cook on low until it is a liquid. Add  the cranberries, and simmer until they have all popped. This should take about 10 minutes.

While the cranberries are cooking, cut up the lime zest into small pieces. After the cranberries have
cooked and popped, add the lime zest, lime juice and nutmeg. Stir, then allow to cool.

It can be made a week in advance, and stored in the refrigerator.

This is supposed to be a nice relish to serve with the turkey, instead of gravy. I tasted it after it had cooled a bit, and it's very good.

Helen
(11/22/00)

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