Aunt Julias Chocolate Pie Recipes

Steps:

• Bake pie crust ahead. Melt chocolate bits, add 4T. milk, 4T. sugar, slightly beaten egg yolks. Cook 10 minutes or so. Beat 4 egg whites until stiff and fold in after first mixture cools slightly. Top with whipped cream. (May keep all day) Julia's addition: That's the way my great-aunt wrote it out for me (she's 80). It's sort of a spare recipe - she didn't particularly want to give it to me. I think it's funny that she wrote chocolate "bits". One thing to remember is to make sure the melted chocolate, milk, and sugar mixture is cooled down a little before you add in the egg yolks or they'll cook and make it lumpy. Also, once the chocolate filling is made, pour it into the pre-baked pie shell and refrigerate it for 3 or 4 hours and it'll set up nicely so that you can spread whipped cream on the top.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 500°F.
• To prepare the pie filling, in a saucepan, combine the 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup of the milk. Set aside.
• In a bowl, combine the remaining 1 cup of milk, the flour, and cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine. (Mama uses a shaker and shakes the mixture until it is well combined and frothy.) Set aside.
• Heat the saucepan with the milk-sugar mixture over medium-high heat until simmering. Slowly add the milk-flour mixture and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Add the egg yolks, whisking constantly, until it returns to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, immediately add the vanilla and remove it from the heat.
• Pour the mixture into the baked pie crust. Set aside.
• To make the meringue topping, place the egg whites in a nonreactive bowl with a pinch of salt. Add the cream of tartar and, using a hand-held mixer, whisk on high speed until foamy. Sift over the confectioners' sugar a little at a time and whisk until the whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted.
• To finish the pie, spoon the meringue over the pie, making sure it touches the edges of the pie crust. Bake until golden brown, 3 to 5 minutes. Move to a rack to cool completely and set, then serve.

Steps:

• Heat oven to 450 degrees and place rack in center of oven. Separate eggs and set aside.
• Using a mixer, blender or large bowl, blend pumpkin, the 2 cups of the sugars, 1 teaspoon salt, molasses, bourbon or rum (if using), cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, egg yolks, cream and milk until smooth. Add more milk, a tablespoon at a time, if the mixture is stiff: it should be a soft purée.
• In a clean bowl, whip egg whites until foaming. Whip in a pinch of salt, then gradually whip in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar until shiny white peaks form. Beat 1/4 of the whites thoroughly into pumpkin mixture; gently fold in the rest.
• Immediately ladle filling into the shells, filling to just below the rim of the pan. Place in oven and bake just until rim of crust begins to turn gold, 10 to 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake another 25 to 30 minutes, until a tester inserted into the filling 2 inches from the rim comes out clean. (The center should still be a bit wet; it will cook more as it cools.) If the rim of the crust starts to get too brown, cover it with aluminum foil.
• Immediately turn oven off, leave door ajar (stick in a wooden spoon to hold it open if necessary) and let sit 20 to 30 minutes more as the oven cools; this will prevent the filling from turning watery. Serve warm, or let cool, wrap tightly and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Let pie come to room temperature before serving.