Chocolate Cream Pie

I'm drooling right now just looking back over these pictures.  I made my daddy a chocolate cream pie for Father's Day, and it was declared by him "the best pie he's ever had."  I couldn't believe how perfect it turned out.  It was so, so, so easy to make - yet tasted sinfully rich.  The crust is just a basic, flaky pie crust; I wouldn't use any other crust on this if you mainly want to taste the chocolate layer.  This layer is rich, fudgey, silky, and oh-so chocolatey.  It's also kind of thin, but you definitely won't mind because it's so rich anyways.  And even though it is very rich, it doesn't fill you up like a cheesecake would (since it's a thin layer) - so you will definitely want to go back for seconds(:  This pie was over half way eaten the first night I made it!  And that's just between my mom, dad and I, and it was right after we'd gone out for Father's Day dinner. This is definitely the only chocolate cream pie I will ever use from now on!

Yield: 1 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

• 1 (9 inch) pie crust, baked
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 4 egg yolks
• 2 (1 ounce) squares unsweetened chocolate
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Thawed Cool Whip or home made whipped cream

Chocolate shavings, toasted coconut, or chopped candy bar pieces

Directions:

1. In medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. In a medium bowl, beat milk and egg yolks until smooth. Gradually stir into sugar mixture. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to a full boil. Boil and stir for one minute.
2. Remove from heat and stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla. Stir until melted.
3. Pour into pie shell. Place plastic wrap over filling to prevent skin from forming and chill for several hours. Top with Cool Whip or whipped cream and toppings if desired.

Chocolate Cinnamon Pudding Pops

      When I was a kid, I would run home from the bus stop and give my mom a big bear hug.  She always surprised me with an after school snack: soft pretzals, ice cream, brownies, cookies, popsicles, etc.  When it was a popsicle day, we would sit on my back porch together and lick our popsicles under in the warm sun.  Our favorites were either the 100% natural strawberry fruit bars, or the chocolate skinny cows.  We would lick them as fast as we could if it was melting - my mom would always bite hers and cheat, but I never did because I hate biting popsicles...licking them makes it last longer and I can enjoy it more - and when we licked the stick clean, we'd always read those cheezy jokes to each other.  Ahh the good-ole-days.  I decided to bring some of those memories back by creating a pop that tastes very similar to those skinny cows, but with cinnamon.  You can leave the cinnamon out if you want, but I like the extra pizazz.  The smooth texture of these pudding pops are very comforting and take me back to those days when I licked popsicles with my mom.


Ingredients:
3 tablespoons flour or cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 cups milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon


Directions:
1. In a small bowl, combine flour and water to form a paste
2. In a large saucepan over medium heat, stir together milk, vanilla, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and flour (or cornstarch).  Cook, stirring constantly, until mixture boils.  Continue to cook and stir until mixture thickens.  Remove from heat.  Pudding will continue to thicken as it cools.  Allow to cool 5 minutes, then pour into Popsicle molds.  Place in the freezer until frozen (preferably overnight).


Do you know any cheezy jokes from your past lollipop sticks? I'd love to hear some(: