Chocolate Pudding Pie

This is one of my favorite chocolate pudding pies. The filling is smooth and creamy, no store bought pudding can compare. The flavor is extremely chocolaty with just a hint of vanilla. Serves 8-10. Also next week's post won't be a recipe, but instead a post about baking tips.
 For the original recipe:
https://www.hersheys.com/pure-recipes/details.aspx?id=8007&name=Velvety+Chocolate+Cream+Pie
Ingredients:
1 9-inch pie crust, bake and cooled, or 1 9-inch graham cracker crust, baked and cooled
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
1/3 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 Cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon table salt
3 large eggs, beaten
3 Cups milk. You can use skim milk, but it won't be as creamy.
3/4 Cup dark or semisweet chocolate chips
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1. Make sure your pie crust is baked and cooled. 
2. Stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy-duty medium saucepan. Whisk the eggs and milk in a medium bowl, or 4-cup measuring cup, until combined. Gradually add the liquid mixture into the sugar mixture on medium heat. Whisk constantly, and cook the mixture until thickened and the mixture comes to a boil, 10-25 minutes. Remove from heat.
3. Stir in the chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla extract until the pudding is smooth. Poor the pudding into the pie crust and immediately press plastic wrap onto the pie surface. Refrigerate 3-6 hours or until firm. Garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings if desired.

Homemade Lemonade

With all of the hot weather (or at least where I am), I thought lemonade would be a great recipe to share. If you haven't tasted lemonade before it is a sweet, tart, and lemony drink. Lemonade is one of the best  refreshing drinks to sip throughout the hot weather. Serves five 8-ounce servings.
Ingredients:
4 to 5 medium or large lemons (about 1 cup), juiced
2/3 Cups granulated sugar
4 Cups water, preferably filtered

1. In a large pitcher combine water, lemon juice, and sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves. Serve immediately over ice or chill until serving time. 

Variations:

•  Strawberry lemonade: 6-8 Large strawberries sliced and put into 1 layer of cheese cloth; tie up. Add the strawberries to the pitcher of lemonade and let it sit for 4 hours in the refrigerator. Remove the strawberries, then serve garnishing with new freshly sliced strawberries, if desired.
• Raspberry lemonade: Use 8-12 raspberries sliced in half, then follow the same instructions as the strawberry lemonade.
• Arnold Palmer's: Mix 1 part unsweetened tea with 1 part lemonade.
• Minty Lemonade: Chop up 10 or more large mint leaves and add to the lemonade. Let the lemonade and mint sit for 4 hours in the refrigerator. If you don't want the mint leaves in your tea, put the leaves in cheesecloth, tie it up and add it to the lemonade.

 Refreshing don't you think?

From: Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook (1989)

Peppermint Chocolate Cake

Marbled cakes look very attractive and adds a more elegant touch to either a bundt cake or tube cake. This cake is fun to make, but requires some time to prepare and bake. I would not recommend making this cake if you are in a rush. It is a very minty cake, with faint traces of the rum and chocolate flavors. The texture is slightly crunchy on the exterior, but moist and soft inside. Serves 16-32 depending on how you slice it.
Ingredients:
2 Cups granulated sugar
1/4 Cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 Cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
4 Large eggs, at room temperature
3 1/2 Cups sifted cake flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1 Cup milk, at room temperature
2 teaspoons peppermint flavoring or extract
1/8 teaspoon green gel food coloring, or 1/2 teaspoon liquid food coloring
2 teaspoons rum, or rum extract

1. Center an oven rack and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease either a 12-cup Bundt cake or 10-inch tube pan with nonstick vegetable spray. In a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup of the sugar and all of the cocoa; set aside. In a medium bowl, dry whisk the flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter on medium speed, gradually adding the remaining amount 1 1/2 cups of sugar for about 3 minutes. Continue on medium speed adding each egg one at a time, beating well after each addition.
3. On low speed, add 1 cup of the flour mixture, beat, then add 1/3 cup of milk and beat again. Repeat until all of the flour mixture and milk are blended into the batter. 
4. Pour half of the batter into the flour mixture's bowl, and add the peppermint extract and food coloring. Stir until the green food coloring is completely incorporated.
5. With the remaining batter, beat in the rum and cocoa&sugar mixture until combined, 1-2 minutes on medium speed.
6. Pour 2/3 of the green batter into the bottom of the cake pan, then pour in all of the chocolate batter over the green batter. Layer the remaining green batter over the chocolate batter. Take a small spatula or plastic and cut through the middle of the batter ring to the bottom of the pan. Bring the spatula toward you and then up toward the side of the pan. Rotate the cake pan with your other pan and repeat. You'll do 2 rotations total, and no more.
7. Bake 45-60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool on a wire cake rack for 15-30 minutes in the pan, then unmold onto the cake rack and cool completely for 2 hours. Transfer to a serving plate.

From: All Cakes Considered by Melissa Gray

Carrot Cake

Carrot Cake is such a classic, so I thought I would share my favorite recipe. Don't worry you won't taste the carrots, so give this cake a try. The texture is soft, and slightly spongy. The flavor is very pleasing, but is a little difficult to describe (or at least for me). This cake has a sweet taste and a wonderful aroma from the sweet/spicy cinnamon and cloves. Serves about 12-15.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 Cups (12 1/2 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, regular ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon table salt

1 pound ( about 6-7 medium) carrots, grated

1 1/2 Cups ( 10 1/2 ounces) granulated sugar

1/2 Cup packed (3 1/2 ounces) light brown sugar

4 Large eggs

1 1/2 Cups vegetable, safflower, or canola oil

For frosting:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened but still cool. Don't use fat-free cream cheese.

5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened but still cool

1 Tablespoon sour cream.

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 Cups (5 ounces) confectioner's sugar

1. For The Cake: Adjust an oven rack to the middle position; heat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 13 by 9-inch baking pan with nonstick cooking spray. Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper and spray the parchment.
2. Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. In a food processor fitted with the large shredding disk, shred the carrots. Add the carrots to the dry ingredients. Wipe out the food processor and fit with the metal blade. Process both the sugars and eggs until frothy and thoroughly combined, about 20 seconds. With the machine running, add the oil through the feed tube in a steady stream. Process until the mixture is light in color and well emulsified, about 20 seconds longer. Scrape the mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the carrots and dry ingredients until incorporated, and no streaks of flour remain.
4. Pour into the prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cool the cake in the pan  on a wire rack for about 2 hours.
5. For Frosting: When the cake is cool beat the cream cheese, butter, sour cream, and vanilla on medium-high speed until combined. On low speed, beat in the confectioner's sugar until combined. You can either keep the cake in the pan and frost it, or invert the cake onto a serving plate, remove the parchment, and then frost it.

From: Baking Illustrated