Hello again. I hope you had a chance to try the pie crust recipe from last week. If you did, today’s recipe is a perfect fit for the pie shell. If you didn’t, now you can make one, and it’s still a perfect fit.
When I was in high school, I dated a young lady who had recently moved from Florida to California. I was just getting into baking, and she shared this recipe with me. I’ve changed it a bit over the last (almost) 50 years, and it’s one of my favorites. It even won best of all pies and pastries at the Orange County Fair one year. This is how the recipe came to me:
Chocolate French Mint Pie
½ cup (1 stick) butter
Beat, beat, beat.
1½ cups powdered sugar
Beat, beat, beat.
2 eggs
Beat, beat, beat.
6 oz melted chocolate
Beat, beat, beat.
6 to 10 drops peppermint extract (to taste)
Beat, beat, beat.
Pour into baked pie shell and refrigerate at least four hours.
As you may have deduced, the secret of this pie is in the excessive beating, which makes it very smooth. It melts in your mouth. A little whipped cream on top doesn’t hurt either. Thanks, Donna Smart, wherever you are.
Questions? Comments? I would be pleased to hear from you.
I've never had a cheesecake crack yet and my only "trick" is the temperature of the ingredients. I've got an "experimental" Caramelized Banana Cheesecake in the fridge setting - can't wait to see how it comes out!!
Hoping you see this soon - want to make it tomorrow for Thanksgiving!
I used this recipe (it's fantastic as is!): http://allrecipes.com/recipe/rhubarb-cheesecake Instead of Rhubarb, I oven roasted sliced bananas. I didn't add much sugar because I figured roasted bananas are sweet. Unfortunately, the bananas were a little tangy and not sweet enough - I "think" at least! If I do it again, I would caramelize the bananas on the stovetop with brown sugar. I will still add the flour once it's in the cheesecake pan because in my experimental one the banana part held up really well. As an aside, I LOVE the Parrish Magic pans instead of a springform: http://www.amazon.com/Parrish-Magic-Line-Aluminum-Cheesecake/dp/B0000DE20E
Also, just realized that this has raw eggs but no baking? If you have the opportunity to clarify, I would so appreciate it as I just started beating, beating, beating the butter and melting the chocolate!