Mississippi Mud Pie

Walker spent four days out at Camp St. Christopher on Seabrook Island with his grade- 75 10 year olds. I don’t think you could have paid me to be a chaperone for that field trip. They had a ball playing in the mud pit and learning more about the lowcountry natural life. They had to keep a journal and when they got back, they had to right a paragraph on all of the senses- what they heard, saw, tasted, smelled, felt. I think if Walker could have written about the Mississippi Mud Pie they had for dessert one night for all of the senses he would have- instead he just used it for taste. Here is my favorite Mississippi Mud Pie recipe- enjoy!

(from www.foodnetwork.com)

Ingredients
For the crust: 9 chocolate graham crackers (1 sleeve)
1/3 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the filling: 1 stick unsalted butter, cut into pieces
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
2 tablespoons coffee-flavored liqueur
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 large eggs

For the topping:
1 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons finely chopped pecans
Chocolate sauce, for drizzling (optional)

Directions:

Make the crust: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Pulse the graham crackers and pecans in a food processor until finely ground. Add the melted butter and process until moistened. Reserve 2 tablespoons of the chocolate crumb mixture for topping, then press the rest into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake until set, about 10 minutes; transfer to a rack and let cool.Meanwhile, make the filling: Melt the butter and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring. Remove from the heat, then stir in the flour and salt until smooth. Stir in the sugar, corn syrup, coffee liqueur and vanilla. Add the eggs, one at a time, stirring until smooth. Pour the filling into the prepared crust and bake until set and cracked on top (like a brownie), about 30 minutes. Transfer to a rack and let cool slightly, about 2 hours (the pie should still be slightly warm).

Make the whipped cream: Beat the heavy cream, confectioners’ sugar and vanilla with a mixer until soft peaks form. Top the pie with the whipped cream, pecans and reserved chocolate crumb mixture. Drizzle with chocolate sauce.

On top of working with the Lee Brothers last week, which was the best experience ever, I also moved. As all of you know, moving is not fun- at all! However, I now have a much bigger kitchen, and I also got some old Pyrex mixing bowls from ebay.com which are fantastic. My son asked me whether I was more excited about the new house or my new mixing bowls. The house wins by a slim margin. As a treat for all of my hard work this weekend during the move, I decided on chocolate. Nothing quite beats it- except for maybe cheese- but those are two totally different categories. I found this old recipe for Mississippi Mud Pie, and it is delicious!

Mississippi Mud Pie

Use a chocolate or vanilla cookie crust, or a graham cracker crust, to make this Mississippi mud pie (I used chocolate- so good).

Ingredients:

1/4 lb. butter, 1 stick

2 (1 oz. each) squares unsweetened chocolate

3 eggs

3 tablespoons white corn syrup

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 tsp. vanilla

9 inch graham cracker, chocolate or vanilla wafer pie shell

Preparation:

In a saucepan, heat butter and chocolate, stirring often, until melted and well blended. Beat eggs; stir in the corn syrup, sugar and vanilla. Add the chocolate mixture to egg and sugar mixture, stirring well. Preheat oven to 350°. Pour filling into prepared pie shell. Bake 35 to 40 minutes, or until top is slightly crunchy and filling is set.
Serve warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or dollop of whipped cream.

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