Hershey's Chocolate Cheesecake

This recipie is not for the light of heart-it is rich and creamy, and you must be a chocoholic to really appreciate and enjoy it! (You've been warned.)

INGREDIENTS:

2 Oreo Cookie Crusts (this can also make one springform pie. Just make your fav. crust)

1 and 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips

1 pkg (8 oz) plus 3 oz cream cheese softened (11 oz total)

1/3 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter softened

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla

1 cup heavy or whipping cream

(plus 1 cup whipping cream for topping-optional)

DIRECTIONS:

Melt chocolate chips and set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine cream cheese and sugar. Add butter and beat until smooth. Blend in vanilla. Beat in melted chocolate all at once. In another bowl, whip cream until stiff. Gently fold into the chocolate mixture. Spoon into crusts. Refrigerate for 1/2 hour or so. Whip the cream for topping, and spread on top of the cheesecakes. Keep in refrigerator until all set up. I like to add cocoa powder or chocolate shavings to the top. Like I said above, you can use two regular pie crust sizes, or you can use crumbs to make your own crust in a 9" springform pan. It is way yummy and way rich! I hope you like it.

Lemon Meringue Pie

* Well, I think you should make a pie since November always reminds me of Thanksgiving aka turkey, mashed potatoes, and PIES. So I haven't actually made this one, but citrus pies are always nice to cleanse the palate! Let us know how it tastes!

Ingredients
Pastry for one-crust pie
3 large egg yolks (reserve egg whites for meringue)
1 1/2 C sugar
1/3 C plus 1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 C water
3 Tbsp butter or stick margarine
2 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 C lemon juice
2 drops of yellow food color (if desired)

Directions
1. Bake pastry for baked One-Crust Pie.
2. Heat oven to 350. Complete step 2 of Meringue for 9-inch pie (see below).
3. While sugar mixture for meringue is cooling, beat egg yolks with fork in small bowl; set aside. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Cook over med. heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute.
4. Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture into egg yolks, then stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon peel, lemon juice and food color. Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top.
5. Complete step 3 of meringue recipe. Pour hot lemon filling into pie crust. Spoon meringue onto hot lemon filling. Spread over filling, carefulling sealing meringue to edge of crust to prevent shrinking or weeping.
6. Bake 15 min or until meringue is light brown. Cool away from draft 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate cooled pie until serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

NOTE: Use the egg whites left over from separating eggs for the lemon filling to make the meringue. Letting the egg whites stand at room temperature is okay for up to 30 min. They'll beat up well after being out of the refrigerator for a short time.

This meringue has a special method: making a syrup with sugar, cornstarch and water. It makes the mergingue that clings to a filling, does not shrink and cuts beautifully. It's well worth teh small bit of extra effort.

Meringue for 9-inch Pie
Ingredients
1/2 C sugar
4 tsp cornstarch
1/2 C cold water
4 large egg whites
1/8 tsp salt

Directions
1. Heat oven to 350.
2. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 1-qt saucepan. Stir in water. Cook over med. heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Cool completely while making filling for pie. (To cool more quickly, place in freezer about 10 minutes)
3. Beat egg whites and salt in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks just begin to form. Very gradually beat in sugar mixture until stiff peaks form.
4. Spoon meringue onto hot pie filling. Spread over filling, carefully sealing meringue to edge of crust to prevent shrinking.

Fresh Pumpkin Pie

INGREDIENTS
1 medium sugar pumpkin
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch single crust pie
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup honey, warmed slightly
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

DIRECTIONS
Cut pumpkin in half, and remove seeds. Lightly oil the cut surface. Place cut side down on a jelly roll pan lined with foil and lightly oiled. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until the flesh is tender when poked with a fork. Cool until just warm. Scrape the pumpkin flesh from the peel. Either mash, or puree in small batches in a blender.
In large bowl, blend together 2 cups pumpkin puree, spices, and salt. Beat in eggs, honey, milk, and cream. Pour filling into pie shell.
Bake at 400 degrees F for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a knife inserted 1 inch from edge of pie comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack.

I wanted to see how it would be to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. It was pretty easy. Sorry I dont have any pictures. The pie is rich, but very good. I added a little nutmeg with the other spices.

Pumpkin Pie

'Tis the season for pumpkin pie!

Ingredients:
1 uncooked pie crust (I just buy the frozen pie crusts)
1 15 oz. can of pumpkin
1/2 Cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
2 slightly beaten eggs
3/4 Cup half and half, light cream or milk


In medium bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Add eggs, beat lightly.
Gradually add cream and stir until combined.

Pour filling in the pastry shell
Cook at 375 for 45 minutes or more until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Cover and refigerate within 2 hours.

Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

I made this for our neighborhood chili/pie cookoff and it was a hit! It was my 3rd attempt to make a good apple pie (my favorite). This is by far the best recipe I have come across.

Crust:
1 1/2 C. flour
1/2 C. Butter flavored shortening
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 C. water

Directions: Add shortening to flour in a bowl and cut with a fork until there are a lot of small little crumbs of flour/shortening in your bowl. This is the secret to a nice flaky crust. Add salt and mix a little bit more. Your mixture should look like this:

Add 1/4 Cup of water and smath with hands. Roll out with flour (not too much) then spread into pie crust. (The crust was super crumbly when I tried to put it in, so I just smashed it in with my hands. There was a little bit of dough left over.)

Filling:
5 Cups of apples peeled ans sliced to desired thickness (I did mine about 1/8 of an inch thick and I used Cameo apples - perfect for pies!)
1/2 C. Sugar
2 Tbsp. Flour
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 squeezes of fresh lime or lemon juice (just enough to coat)

Mix in a bowl until apples are coated.

Topping:
3/4 C. Flour
1/2 C. Sugar
5-6 Tbsp. Butter

Smash with fork until crumbly (like the pie crust was.) Sprinkle on top. There will be PLENTY of topping.

Bake 10 minutes at 425, then leave the pie in and change the temperature to 350 and bake for another 40 minutes. It should be nice and golden around the edges and the filling should be gooey and bubbly.

I forgot to take a picture before it was gobbled up, but I took one while it was baking.

Enjoy!