Minny's Chocolate Pie

"After seeing the movie "The Help" I was excited at the concept that there could be a recipe out there for a chocolate pie you could bake. I found the recipe they used for the movie on Food and Wine.com it tasted like homemade pudding in a pie crust...YUM!"

INGREDIENTS:

1 packaged pie dough crust, such as Pillsbury
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 large eggs, beaten
3/4 cup evaporated milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Whipped cream, for serving

    Preheat the oven to 350°. Ease the pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate and crimp the edges decoratively. Prick the crust lightly with a fork. Line the crust with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes or until set. Remove the foil and weights and bake for about 5 minutes longer, just until the crust is dry but not browned.
    Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk the sugar with the cocoa powder, butter, eggs, evaporated milk, vanilla and salt until smooth.
    Pour the filling into the pie shell and bake for about 45 minutes, until the filling is set around the edges but a little jiggly in the center. Cover the crust with strips of foil halfway through baking. Transfer the pie to a rack and let cool completely before cutting into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

Make Ahead The chocolate pie can be refrigerated overnight.


My Notes:

-When you pre-bake the pie crust you can put a piece of parchment over the crust and place another empty pie plate on top to hold it in place.... I did not have pie weights or dried beans

-I think the pie is much yummier slightly warmed.  I placed a cooled piece in the microwave for 20 seconds and it was perfect.

Jen's Reese's Pie

"I was craving a chocolate cream pie, and had never made one before.  I wanted to make one with peanut butter as well, and since I couldn't find a recipe I liked I just made it up."

INGREDIENTS:

1 pre-made chocolate graham cracker crust

6 oz (large) box jello instant chocolate pudding

3 cups milk (I used 2% to make it creamier)

4 oz light cream cheese

8 oz. container Cool Whip

1/2 cup peanut butter

1  T. powdered sugar

25 miniature Reese's peanut butter cups

DIRECTIONS:

Use blender to mix jello powder with milk and cream cheese.  Melt 15 Reese's cups in small bowl in the microwave.  I heated for 30 seconds at a time until I was able to stir together.  Spread  melted Reese's unto the graham crust.  Pour mixed pudding over melted chocolate.  In medium bowl use mixer to blend Cool Whip, peanut butter and powdered sugar.  Spread that gently over top of pudding layer.  In small zipper bag place 10 Reese's cups and crush with hammer or meat tenderizer (flat side).  Sprinkle crushed cups over top of pie.  Cover and refrigerate until ready to eat.

Serves 6-8

Perfect Pumpkin Pie

"This was submitted to allrecipes.com by Eagle Brand Milk®. I made it last year as well, and it was fabulous"


INGREDIENTS:

1 (15 ounce) can pumpkin
1 (14 ounce) can EAGLE BRAND® Sweetened Condensed Milk
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 (9 inch) unbaked pie crust

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Whisk pumpkin, sweetened condensed milk, eggs, spices and salt in medium bowl until smooth. Pour into crust. Bake 15 minutes.
Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F and continue baking 35 to 40 minutes or until knife inserted 1 inch from crust comes out clean. Cool. Garnish as desired. Store leftovers covered in refrigerator.

Notes:
-Cover the edge of the crust with foil for the first 40 minutes of baking
-I used Marie Callender's® frozen pie crust last year, but this year I used Pilsbury® refrigerated pie crust. I would definitely go with frozen one next time, because it has a pretty edge and the refrigerated one doesn't give you enough slack to form one.

When I used the frozen crust it took an extra 14 minutes to bake.

Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

"I found this recipe on allrecipes.com. This is someone else's grandma's recipe, not mine, but I'm sure my grandma also made a mean apple pie. This is the original, but please read my notes at the bottom."

INGREDIENTS:
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work of crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

NOTES:

-As suggested by a review you can add 1 teaspoon cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg to the syrup. You can also omit a tablespoon of water from the 1/4 cup and add one tablespoon vanilla.

-Eight apples were way to many to fit into my pie, so I think Seven would be better

-the butter and flour didn't turn into a paste for me even though I added an extra two tablespoons

-my pie overflowed and dripped at the bottom of the oven. It also took an extra ten minutes of baking time to get the apples soft enough.

Fresh Rhubarb Pie

"I love Rhubarb pie. We even have a small garden with nothing but rhubarb (well, it's only because I stink at growing stuff). My father-in-law has giant rhubarb plants in his garden and so we have an over-abundance of it. Previously I have made the pie with tapioca, but this time I tried it with flour as a thickening agent. I found this recipe here and it's by Carol."

INGREDIENTS
4 cups chopped rhubarb
1 1/3 cups white sugar
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon butter
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Combine sugar and flour. Sprinkle 1/4 of it over pastry in pie plate. Heap rhubarb over this mixture. Sprinkle with remaining sugar and flour. Dot with small pieces of butter. Cover with top crust. Sprinkle top crust with 1 teaspoon sugar. Cover edge of crust with foil to prevent burning.
Place pie on lowest rack in oven. Bake for 15 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C), and continue baking for 40 to 45 minutes. Serve warm or cold.