Chocolate Town Pie
My team had a potluck at work on Thursday. As the family bread winner, I don't do much cooking these days. In a normal week, I might "fix" food but I seldom cook.
People that have only known me for the last couple years would not have heard much about my adventures in the kitchen. Usually I find myself saying, "No, my husband made it."
When it comes to the kitchen, I can cook but would much rather bake. Think about it: when you cook, you have food. When you bake, you have dessert.
When I have a potluck coming up, I usually sign up for whatever category of food there is going to be least of. For this one, we had several main dishes including two pastas. So I got to bake.
Since I love to show off my family favorites, I made a receive that my mom has been making for get together since the early eighties. She got the recipe from a free pamphlet with Hershey coupons. It's always been a hit.
The best part is that it's so easy. Like my mom always says, it's one of those recipe like Rice Krispies' treats. Remember those old commercials where the mom tousled herself to look like she'd slaved for hours to make the marshmallow treats? We love things that turn out more impressive than the effort it takes to make them.
You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or buy the frozen kind. The pie itself turns out like a big cookie in a pie crust. It's so yummy with a little Cool Whip. The other great thing is you can serve it on a napkin and eat it by hand if need be. Since we forget to have someone bring plates for the potluck, it came in handy.
For anyone who might be interested trying it, here's the recipe:
Chocolate Town Pie
9 inch unbaked pie shell
1/2 cup butter or margarine softened
2 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla extract or 2 tablespoons bourbon
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup Hershey's semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped nuts
prepare pie shell, set aside. Heat Oven to 350 degrees. In small mixing bowl, cream butter; add eggs and vanilla or bourbon. Combine sugar and flour. Add to creamed mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour onto unbaked shell. Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until golden brown. Cool about 1 hour, serve warm.
The one challenge I had in making the pies is best explained with this image:
Yep. You guessed it. That's our mixer. It's at least 20 years older. We bought it for 50 cents at a yard sale. We've gotten our money out of it and then some.
We've been shopping around for a replacement. I want to invest in something that will serve us well for both baking and cooking tasks for years to come. We had a hand mixer before we moved, but I'd really rather spend the extra to get a stand mixer. I've been looking at Hamilton Beach® Stand Mixer.
With a hand mixer, it is nearly impossible to add ingredients without stopping the mixer, or having an assistant in the kitchen to pour while you mix. The Hamilton Beach® Mixer features a two way rotating head for hand's free mixing. Not only could I add the flour slowly without pausing the mixing process.
The question then becomes why chose the Eclectrics® Mixer over any other brand or model? I've looked at the KitchenAid mixer, even used my mother-in-law's one to make whipped cream, and looked at the cheap models Wal-Mart has. I've never been one to go cheap on a purchase that should last a lifetime, so my mixer will not be a discount model.
With the Eclectrics® Mixer, I know I'm getting real value for my dollar. It comes with the dough hook, whisk, and beater so we wouldn't have to buy extras to use it for other applications. With enough power to mix 9 dozen cookies, we could feed an army. Plus, I'd have the piece of mind with a three year warranty.
Now that I know which mixer I want, it's time to start saving. In that time, I'll have to decide which of the seven colors I want.
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