Pie #9: Frozen White Chocolate Pie with Raspberry Sauce

Just the name of this pie has my mouth watering and the funny thing is that I’m not the biggest fan of raspberries.  So, once again, I did this pie in a rush. So much of a rush that I made it during my lunch break, which I would not suggest. I was kind of on edge with the time crunch, as my husband can testify; but, that was the only time I had to get the pie done before our life group.

The crust for this pie is a chocolate wafer crumb crust. It called for 20 chocolate wafers, some brown sugar and some butter all mixed up in my handy food processor.  The preparation of the crust was really a cinch, just mix, press in the pan and done!

The filling was another story. Let me just say that I look forward to pies where I get the filling ready without the stove.  This recipe called for a double boiler and I have not yet purchased a double boiler, so, I had to improvise again. So, I filled up the pasta pan we had and put in a little stainless silver bowl to float in the water. I put the milk and white chocolate chips in it and then played the waiting game. (Remember I have an hour to do all of this... so yeah, the waiting game is more like torture) Finally the white chocolate chips started melting and it was time to take the floating bowl out of the boiling water. Well neither I, nor my hubby, knew how to get the bowl out. My hubby tried getting it out with some tongs and he tipped it over into the water. Now the main part of the filling was ruined, diluted in the water. We were running out of time and we needed to make another batch super quick. WAIT! We do not have enough white chocolate chips left, oh no. So, hubby ran to the store to get some more chips. Needless to say, I was a little stressed.  When he got back from the store we got it going again and this time he successfully got the bowl out without getting any water in it or spilling any of it out.

After that little fiasco, we moved on to the next step of the filling which was whipping everything together. I only have a handheld beater and it takes a while to whip something. I dream that someday I will have a standalone mixer like the pros, hint hint.  I whipped, and whipped and whipped it good; finally after about 10 minutes it finally got to the consistency that I was looking for: peaking.  I added the vanilla at the end and wah-la the filling was done.

Now that the filling was done, I reached for the pie crust and then realized that I had skipped a step. I forgot to put the crust in the fridge to cool! So, I put the crust in the freezer for about 10 minutes to cool it down quickly.  While the crust was in the freezer I made the raspberry sauce which was really pretty easy with my food processor.  (You know, I know I should give my food processor a name, any suggestions?)  The recipe for the raspberry sauce was frozen raspberries with no syrup, sugar and some lemon. I blended all the ingredients together and there you go, raspberry sauce, and it was yummy.

Once the pie crust was cold, I put the filling in the pie and then sent the pie off to freezerland for about 5 hours.

We stopped at the store on the way to our life group to buy some fresh raspberries for garnish which added a lot of flavor. As we were getting ready to serve the pie we noticed it was not frozen all the way through. In retrospect, I should have done this the night before so the pie could have frozen overnight.  Here is the final product and it tasted just as good as it looks.

Hello Results: Due to the debacle with the rigged double boiler we wound of purchasing a real one so we don’t have that problem again. I will not try to make a pie hours before I need it.  I also started Weight Watchers so I am going to start putting points on my pies for those of you that might wonder. This pie with the sauce was 14 points a slice, and worth every point!  The number is getting lower!! 292 to go!

Pie #8: Classic Chocolate Cream Pie

I chose to make a pie for a life group that I attend each week since it was my week to bring sweets. I thought it would be a great opportunity to share a pie! My next pie to make was Classic Chocolate Cream Pie, doesn’t that just sound yummy? When I hear the words “chocolate” and “pie”, I think of my Mammaw because she used to make the BEST chocolate pie. So, I was nervous before I even started making this pie because I doubted this one could live up to the memories I had of her pies…

I was really tired when I started making this pie so I knew I would need some help. I asked my husband, Joshua, to be my sous-chef for this pie. Thankfully, he was happy to help, thanks babe!

The pie called for an Oreo pie crust, which is just smashed up Oreos and butter. Joshua did a great job in assembling this pie crust. He can smash things real well, like the Hulk… “Hulk Smash!” he says…

While my helper was working on the pie crust, I began to get the ingredients ready. As I was getting everything in order I came to the egg part. On a side note, we only had 5 eggs in the house and the recipe called for 4 egg YOLKS. When I read this I saw 4 egg WHITES since that’s what the recipes have been calling for lately. So, the first egg yolk I dumped right into the sink and Joshua was asking me what I was doing. Now, as the “head chef”, I thought to myself “I know you are not watching me make my pies, and don’t even think about telling me what I’m doing wrong!” So, I looked at him and said, “What? I am getting the egg whites!” Joshua gave a weird look and then said, “Umm, you might want to look at the recipe again…” Well, yeah, it called for 4 egg YOLKS not egg whites… So, I guess I’m lucky that Joshua caught that; it might have made a world of difference on how the pie turned out.

After the Oreo crust set in the freezer, we put it in the oven for a few minutes. When the time was up I was getting it out of the oven and I said, “No worries I got it!” Well, while taking the pie pan out of the oven IT SLIPPED from my hands, I did not drop it; but, it was a CLOSE call for sure.

I have noticed in my pie making journey that if it requires anything to be cooked on the stove for some reason I become a little nervous. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s all the stirring till you get the right consistency, and not knowing what I’m looking for that can be a tad bit nerve racking. So, while the pie crust was cooling we worked on the filling. I was so glad Joshua was there to help with the stirring part; it became quite difficult as the filling got thicker. The filling was supposed to take 5-7 minutes to melt on the stove. Well, five minutes past and then seven minutes passed and the filling took about fifteen minutes to get to the consistency that we needed. Once we got the cream consistency we were looking for, we had to work fast. We took the sauce pan off the burner and Joshua continued to stir as I added the rest of the ingredients. The filling got thick pretty fast, which is a good thing because that is what we were looking for.

After pouring the filling into the pie crust, the recipe said to cover the pie filling with a non-stick plastic cover to block out all the air. So, we used Glad Wrap Press and Seal and the first attempt to cover the pie did not work out very well; thankfully there was enough to try it one more time which seemed to work. After wrapping the pie we needed to let it cool again. So, I left it out for a while and then put in the refrigerator to let it set overnight.

After letting the pie set all night, during lunch the next day we checked the pie. Taking off the Press and Seal stuff the condensation that accumulated from the pie fell on the top of the pie. With Joshua’s quick thinking we got a paper towel and tipped the pie up on one end and used the paper towel to soak up the water. I started to wonder why it did that. Did the pie need to cool more before putting it in the fridge to cool over night? Should we have pushed down the cling film to the filling part so there would be no air (suggestion from my Mom)? But, if we did that, they when taking off the plastic wrap wouldn’t you lose some of the filling? I even called my Granny, she suggested using a non-stick foil next time and see if that helps. To this day, I still don’t know what I could have done differently. But, I will say this, next time the recipe calls for covering the filling I am going to recall what happened here and try something different. I am open to ideas, if you have any on this.

Per instructions from the Ken Haedrich book “Pie”, it is best not to do the topping till right before serving. So, just before leaving for our life group, where we were taking the pie, I made the topping. It consists of powder sugar and heavy whipping cream. It was easy to make and it turned out really good. I think next time I am going to decorate it in some way using the pastry piping thingy, I think that would be a nice touch.

Hello Results: Everyone loved the pie! It had just the right texture and was a hit! Even my kids loved it. I would love to figure out the plastic wrap vs. non-stick foil issue before I bake another pie like this. I need to make sure to not start a pie when I am already beat. It is great to know I have a wonderful sous-chef to help me! As for how it compared to my Mammaw’s pie, hers had a meringue topping and was baked (obviously a different pie) and this one was whipped and no-bake. I don’t completely remember what hers used to taste like but it made me feel closer to her and brought back wonderful memories. I miss you Mammaw! Only 292 to go! I love seeing that number go down.