Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Baking is Just NOT my thing...


I really think I should just stick to cooking. I am much, much better with savory foods than with sweet foods, though I love cookies and cakes sooo much. Despite my cookie mishap last week, I had an unused graham cracker pie crust that would go bad this month if I didn't do something with it. So in sticking with my current love for all thing s'mores, I found a recipe for S'more Pie.

It should have been good! But it ended up turning into one gigantic mess and my kitchen was covered in chocolate, and the cake didn't do what it was supposed to do... here is my adventure...

I obviously cut out the part of the recipe where you make your own crust because I already had a store bought one. So I started in with the eggs, milk, cocoa powder, etc. It smelled good and seemed to be going well.


I seemed to have a lot more filling than I needed but I poured some of it into my crust and then tried to get it into the fridge to cool.


That was problem number one...the filling, which was very liquidy, spilled all over my floor and fridge... problem number two was that after an hour in the fridge, it was no thicker or congealed and only "froze" when transferred to the freezer.

My husband and I decided to keep it in the freezer, add the marshmallows the next night, broil it for 20 seconds and then eat a frozen slice with the toasted mallows.

We tasted it - the chocolate was fine. It did taste like chocolate pudding. It was just not as much fun to eat frozen and we only had a little bit and ended up tossing everything. I really wished I had somehow made a nice, smooth, creamy chocolate pie.

So I called my baking consultant down in DC once again and she informed me that I either had old cornstarch and it didn't thicken right or I needed to cut the recipe down a bit and I used too much milk.

I think I'll stick to just cooking for a while :-)

The full recipe is below...courtesy of Disney Family Fun website... (link above)

Ingredients

* 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
* 1 1/4 cups sugar
* 6 tablespoons butter, softened
* 4 egg yolks
* 1/4 cup cornstarch

* 6 tablespoons cocoa powder
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 3 cups milk
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* 2 cups miniature marshmallows

Instructions

Heat the oven to 375ยบ. In a mixing bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and 1/4 cup of the sugar. Add 4 tablespoons of the butter, rubbing it in with a pinching motion until evenly distributed. Press the crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie pan and bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown. Allow the crust to cool.

Beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl and set them aside. Combine the remaining cup of sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart saucepan. Set the pan over medium heat and gradually whisk in the milk, stirring until smooth. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often. Boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly, then remove the pan from the heat.

Whisk 1/2 cup of the hot chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. Repeat with 1 cup of the chocolate mixture, then return the chocolate and egg mixture to the saucepan. Boil over medium heat for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter and the vanilla extract. Pour the filling into the pie shell and allow it to cool at least 15 minutes, or chill it in the refrigerator overnight.

Just before serving, heat the oven to broil. Cover the pie with the mini marshmallows and broil it on the uppermost rack for about 30 seconds or until the marshmallows are lightly browned. (Watch carefully, or the marshmallows will burn.) Serve warm or chilled. Serves 8.

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