Chocolate Strawberries and Cream Pie

After Easter candy sales depress me. Chocolate bunnies and marshmallow chicks look down from their discount shelves, never to fulfill their Easter dreams. I always end up buying a few (of the bunnies, sorry chicks but I'm not a fan) and then they sit on my shelf waiting for some higher purpose. And I imagine that being used in this pie would be a chocolate bunny's dream. Well, actually maybe not since they get melted down and spread over a pie crust then topped with fluffy cream and fresh juicy strawberries. But hey, at least they made it out of the store, right?!

*Disclaimer, yes I realize that the bunnies are made of chocolate and probably don't have "feelings"

Chocolate Strawberry and Cream Pie

From Taste of Home

3 ounces chocolate, divided or one big Easter bunny broken into pieces

1/2 tablespoon butter (can be omitted if using a high quality Easter Bunny) `

1 pastry shell (9 inches), baked (use your favorite recipe)

2 packages (3 ounces each) cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup Sour Cream

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 to 4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled

1/3 cup strawberry jam, melted

In a large saucepan, melt 2 oz. chocolate and butter over low heat, stirring constantly. Note -try to use a good quality bunny or the chocolate will be harder to spread when melted. Spread or brush over the bottom and up the sides of pastry shell.

Chill.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, beat the cream cheese, sour cream, sugar and vanilla until smooth.

Spread over chocolate layer; cover and chill for 2 hours.

Arrange strawberries over the filling.

Brush with jam. Melt the remaining chocolate and drizzle over the top. Yield: 6-8 servings.

So good!

Pie Crust Cinnamon Roll

I love pie crust as evidenced here and here. I also love cinnamon rolls. So, naturally, I wanted to try and combine the two into a giant pie crust cinnamon roll. Flaky, buttery, cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins, no kneading, easy peasy. I love when experiments work out so well! You could cut this up and split it with a few lucky friends, or you could do what I did and tear off a piece, slowly unrolling it over a period of a few days and enjoy all that cinnamony buttery goodness yourself! I guess when it comes to pie crust cinnamon rolls I'm a bit stingy... sorry friends!

Pie Crust Cinnamon Roll

Inspired by this recipe

Ingredients

1 recipe your favorite pie crust (enough for a single crust, nine-inch pie)

Filling:

1/2 cup raisins

3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Topping

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup butter, melted

More brown sugar for sprinkling (if desired)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a pie pan, mix three tablespoons melted butter and four tablespoons brown sugar. Set aside.

Roll out pie crust. Spread with 3/4 cup butter, sprinkle on sugar, cinnamon, and raisins. Cut into even strips.

Now, take one strip and start rolling it up, set roll on the next strip, pinch dough together at seam, and keep rolling, continue with the other strips of dough until the roll gets too big to roll.

Transfer roll to pie pan, continue adding on strips of dough by rolling them around the already formed roll. Finally, you will have one big cinnamon roll.

Sprinkle with more brown sugar (optional, depends how sugary you want it!) Bake at 400 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until light brown (very light brown).

Remove from oven, let sit for about five minutes.

Flip over onto a plate or serving tray. Yum.

Afreakingmazing

I will be linking up at these parties.. Tasty Tuesdays, Rook #17, Trendy Treehouse and Sugar and Dots, this week, check them out!

Valentines Cookie Pie

• Need a yummy valentines dessert? How about a Pookie? Yup, a cookie pie! And fully customizable! If your hunny is a peanut butter person, throw in some peanut butter chips. Health nut? Add some granola, nuts, and coconut (ok so that doesn't make it healthy but still, at least you get more protein). As you can see, you've got options. I baked mine in a heart shaped pie pan to make it extra festive. The crust I used was super easy too, you basically just press it into your pie pan, pour the delicious cookie filling into/over it and bake it up. Plenty of time left over to cook up a spectacular V-Day dinner. Here are some delicious looking options for your valentines dinner: some Pad Thai from Wives With Knives (a really fantastic Oregon based blog, AND I met the author at a farmers market and she is lovely). Maybe a Vegetable Cobbler from Indigo's Sugar Spectrum (one of my favorite blogs, hilarious writing AND awesome recipes), or my big sis's go to recipe for Chicken Parmesan (check out her blog for updates on my precious nephew and her adventures dog sledding in Canada with her Canadian hockey playing hubby). Maybe you should just try all three, it IS a holiday after all!

Cookie Pie

Adapted from cooks.com

Ingredients

1 pastry for a single-crust 9-inch pie, at room temperature (see the recipe I used below)

3/4 cup melted butter or margarine, cooled *Note if you use the crust recipe I used use just 3/4 cup melted butter. If you use your own recipe or a store bought crust, use 1 cup.

2 large eggs

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup (6 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup white chocolate chips

Line a 9-inch pie pan with pie dough, set aside. In a bowl, beat butter, eggs, granulated sugar, and brown sugar until well blended.

Add flour and mix well.

Stir in chocolate and white chocolate chips (at this point you could add nuts, butterscotch chips, whatever strikes your fancy).

Pour filling into pastry. Bake on the lowest rack in a 325° oven until top is a rich golden brown, 40 to 45 minutes (about 30 minutes in a convection oven).

Cool on rack at least 20 minutes.

Flip pan over on a baking tray or plate to remove pie. Drizzle with melted white chocolate if desired.

Serve warm or cool, cut into wedges, with ice cream.

Now for the crust, thanks to allrecipes

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup vegetable oil

2 tablespoons milk

Place all ingredients in 9 inch pie pan. Stir together with fork. Pat mixture into bottom and up the sides of the pan. Poke holes in bottom and side of crust.

I doubled this recipe and stored the extra in the fridge to use in another pie.

Happy weekend!

Linking up to Tasty Tuesdays and Rook #17 and Its a Blog Party

Cheddar Veggie Pot Pie in a Jar

My little sister was the first one to introduce me to the pie in a jar concept. She made me a batch of pot pies. She didn't cook them but gave them to me frozen in their little jars (so cute!). The instructions were just pop in the oven at 325 and a little over a half hour later, steaming hot, single serving pot pie. It is so comforting to come home after a long day at work and know that I can have a delicious home cooked pot pie in a flash. No work involved (well I do have to move it from the freezer to the oven, but that I can handle!) This weekend I made a batch of these yummy little treats to freeze (and a few to eat right away). I am anticipating a busy week at work, and having these on hand will be a life saver! I didn't have my sisters original recipe, so I used a cheddar chicken pot pie recipe from taste of home's website (I changed it a bit and made it vegetarian). For the pie in a jar part, I used tips from Our Best Bites. The cheese in the filling makes it extra creamy, and you could really use any variety of veggies you like. I did forget to season with salt and pepper so my filling was a bit more bland than I would have liked, but if you follow the directions, something I apparently can't do, your filling will be more flavorful. I was very happy with the crust, it turned out flakey and crisp. Just the way a good pot pie crust should be. Great comfort food!

Cheddar Veggie Pot Pie in a Jar

Adapted from Taste of Home's Cheddar Chicken Pot Pie

Ingredients

Pie Crust (I used this recipe) for double crust pie.

FILLING:

1-1/2 cups chicken or vegetable broth

1.5 cups peeled cubed potatoes

1/2 cup sliced carrots

1/2 cup sliced celery

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup peas

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1-1/2 cups milk (I used rice milk)

3/4 shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

For filling, Place broth in a pot; bring to a boil.

Add vegetables. Reduce heat; simmer 10-15 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stirring occasionaly. While this is simmering, start prepping the jars.

Cut circles out of dough using the jar ring. Set aside.

Using the rest of the dough, line jars. You can just take pieces and press them into the jar until it reaches the top. Set jars aside.

In a small bowl, combine flour and milk; stir into broth mixture. Cook and stir over medium heat until slightly thickened and bubbly.

Stir in cheese, salt and pepper. Heat until cheese melts.

Spoon filling into jars, filling 3/4 full. Top with crust circles.

Make several slits in center of crust for steam to escape, I used my nifty pie crust cutters. At this point you need to decide if you want to bake and eat right away or freeze for later. To freeze, just let cool, put the lid on, and stick in the freezer. When ready to bake (or if you choose not to freeze), bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool and dig in!

It is cute, no?

Pie in a jar tips click here

Side note! If you are worried about the glass baking if you are baking them after freezing, put them in a cold oven and let them sit in there while it preheats, that way there is no chance of the glass breaking due to temperature change.

Another good tip from the Baking Bites web site: Line your baking tray with a slip pat so the jars don't slide around as you are trying to remove them from the oven.

Sky High Caramel Apple Pie

Whoever first came up with the idea of smearing something so unabashedly healthy as an apple with a sticky coat of caramel is a hero in my book. Don't get me wrong, apples on their own are fine and dandy, I had one today, in fact, but there are times that call for something a little more..... indulgent. Enter Caramel Apple Streusel PIE. I must admit, this is my first from scratch pie.. and it required a bit of time. But SO ABSOLUTELY WORTH IT. Let's start with the crust. A good pie is only as good as it's crust, no? There are countless recipes for pie crust out there, each one promising a flakier, lighter, butterier, perfecter crust than the last. I was, actually, a bit overwhelmed by the possibilities.. should I go with all butter, butter and shortening, oil, all shortening, lard... add in water, rum, milk, or even vodka? The opinions vary WIDELY so in the end I decided to turn to my favorite cooking phenomenon, the Pioneer Woman. Her crust calls for the addition of vinegar and promises to be the perfect pie crust. I figured, she's the Pioneer Woman, she would know a good crust, and boy does she! I highly HIGHLY recommend it...

Her recipe actually produces three pie crusts which is great cause you can freeze the two you don't use (or make pie crust treats with em). Once you have the crust all ready, it's filling time!

It took a while to slice and peel all the apples (not in that order), but it was no problemo cause I just plopped myself in front of the TV and peeled away. After you have all the apples ready you toss them with cinnamon, sugar and vanilla and layer them on top of rich, creamy caramel. Top the mountain of apples off with a crumbly, buttery, sugar streusel, add a bit more butter, and voila, The BEST pie you will ever eat.

Pull it from the oven, drizzle with more caramel sauce and allow the smell, taste, fantasticness to overwhelm you and a few loved ones...

Caramel Apple Pie

Adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients

8 cups sliced peeled tart apples

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 teaspoon Pure Vanilla Extract

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

3 tablespoons sugar

4-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping, room temperature

1 unbaked pastry shell (9 inches) (I used this recipe)

3 tablespoons butter, melted

For Streusel

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

5 tablespoons cold butter, cubed

To Top

1/4 cup caramel ice cream topping, room temperature

Directions

In a large bowl, toss apples with lemon juice and vanilla.

Combine the sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch; add to apple mixture and toss to coat.

Pour caramel topping over bottom of pastry shell; top with apple mixture.

Shell will be REAL full. Drizzle with butter.

Streusel Time!

In a small bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, and sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle and pat over filling.

This part was a little messy so just plop the pie pan on top of a cookie sheet so all the little crumbs are contained.

Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes or until filling is bubbly and topping is browned.

Immediately drizzle with caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack.

Yield: 8 servings.

*Bonus Recipe: Pie Crust Treats*

Using extra pie crust, roll out crust. Drizzle with butter, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Cut into strips or shapes or whatever. Put on a cookie sheet and cook at 350 for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Have a fabulous weekend!