Fudge Pie

This is a pie that has been passed down from our grandmother to our mom and now to us. We used to never be able to get it cooked all the way through–it was always too gooey in the middle–until I considered the amount of butter in the ingrediants. The original called for 1/2 cup melted margarine, so we reduced it to a 1/4 cup because the amount of water has increased in margarine these days. However, I use butter because I like it better. The other secret is to mix the ingrediants by hand. Yes, you shouldn’t use a mixer for this! The pie is still a little gooey in the middle, but it sets up well. Be careful if you want the middle done more since you don’t want the rest of the pie to get over done. Since it’s a traditional family recipe, I haven’t tried to make it “healthy.” If you have the time, making your own pie crust is probably one way to cut back on calories.

At a glance…

1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/4 c. melted butter, or margarine, cooled
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 pie crust

Melt the butter. Preheat oven to 350°F. Poke your pie crust and use a crust guard or put aluminum foil over the crust so it won’t burn. Combine sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla in a bowl. Stir with a spoon until well mixed. Add flour and cocoa until the mixture is brown and there aren’t any cocoa lumps. Pour into the pie shell and bake for 30 minutes. Serves 8.
Total time: 35-40 minutes
Prep time: 5-10 minutes
Cooke time: 30 minutes

Nutrition Information (for 1 serving)

Calories	Fat	Sat. Fat	Carbs	Sugars	Protein	Fiber	Sodium
298	14g	7g	41.5g	26g	4g	<1g	171mg

Pictures & Walkthrough

Melt the butter. Preheat the oven to 350°. Here’s all the ingrediants that you’ll need.
Poke your pie crust with a fork so it won’t crack. Use a pie crust guard or put aluminum foil around the crust so it won’t burn.
Combine sugar, eggs, butter, and vanilla in a bowl. Stir with a spoon until well mixed.
Add flour and cocoa until the mixture is brown and there aren’t any cocoa lumps.
Pour into the pie shell and bake for 30 minutes.
I was making this pie for a girl at work because it was her last day, so I didn’t get a picture of a cut piece.

I prefer this pie cooled the next day or several hours later. Some of my family members like it warmed up with icecream on top, but I believe it’s fine without! Either way, enjoy!

~Suzuka

Lisa’s Triple Chocolate Cake

This chocolate cake is, quite frankly, the best cake I’ve ever had. The recipe was given to me by a friend of my mother after she made this cake for me on my birthday, some fifteen-odd years ago. I have never decided on a good name for this cake–every time I give it to someone it gets a new name…so I’ll just go with what was told to me.

Edit: July 25 – Realized I had the wrong number for the ounces of pudding in the recipe.
Edit: August 6th – Found out the nutritional value! (You don’t have to look though, really, you don’t)

At a glance…

Cake:
1 Duncan Hines Deluxe Devil Food Cake Mix (be careful with substitutes–they will cook differently)
6 ounce chocolate pudding mix (just the dry mix–the box I use is a 5.7 oz box)
1 1/4 cups of water
1/2 cup of veggie oil
4 eggs
2 cups of chocolate chips

Glaze:
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 cup of whipping cream
1 handful of powdered sugar (optional)

Blend those first five ingredients. Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Pour half of the batter into a greased and floured 10 inch tube pan. Pour on 1 cup of chocolate chips, pour on the rest of the mix, and pour on another cup of chocolate chips. Lightly swirl with a spoon or spatula. Cook at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Cool 35 minutes. Remove from pan and cool an additional 35 minutes; start on glaze. Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips with whipping cream in medium saucepan on low-medium heat, stirring slowly. Cool glaze for 5-10 minutes to thicken. Drizzle or spoon onto cake after cake has cooled for about an hour. Sprinkle powdered sugar on top if you want. Serves 16.

Total time: 2 1/2 hours
Prep & Mixing: ~10 minutes
Cooking Time: ~1 hour
Cooling: 35 minutes
Glaze & Additional Cooling: 35 minutes

Nutrition Information (for 1 serving)

Calories	Fat	Sat. Fat	Carbs	Sugars	Protein	Fiber	Sodium
420	21.4g	9.3g	57.5g	39g	<5g	<3g	454mg

I do not recommend substituting a different brand for the Duncan Hines box. I have tried it before and it just doesn’t turn out the same way.
Grease and flower the cake pan. I use a paper towel to grease the pan with and then toss in some flour and spin the pan around to make it stick to the sides. Lightly shake excess flour out of the pan when you’ve covered most of the inside surface.
Mix up the cake mix and other goodies.
Pour half of the batter into the pan. Spread one cup of chocolate chips around on top of the mixture. Spread the remaining cake mix.
Sprinkle one more cup of chocolate chips onto the cake mix. Pictured here is the highly nontechnical spatula technique where the goal is just to put a thin layer of batter over the chocolate chips. This is to make removal from the pan less messy and to make the glaze go on a bit more evenly.
After baking and cooling for 35 minutes, remove the cake from the pan. The easiest way to do this that I know of is to use a plate to dump the cake into and then (since it will be upside down) put it onto the dish you want to store it in or serve it on.
The glaze can be made either with direct heat or by heating water. Either way, heat and stir slowly until the glaze has a consistent look to it.
You can add some powdered sugar as decoration on top if you want. I rarely add any as I prefer the pure chocolate look.
Makes about sixteen good sized servings. Best served at 75 degrees or higher; any cooler and its consistency changes for the worse (due to the cooked chocolate chips). Goes great with a glass of cold milk. Also goes good with vanilla ice cream.

Enjoy!

~Veers