Incredibly Creamy Chocolate (or Carob!) Pie

After making a Creamy Carob Pie, and finding out that it was not the pie I remembered from my childhood, I went straight to the source.  I emailed Aunt Sue and asked her if she still had the recipe.  She quickly responded with not only the recipe, but also a scan of the card she uses.  Thank you, Aunt Sue!

My memories of this pie are of a graham cracker crust with a carob filling instead of chocolate, so that's what I made.  The pie couldn't be simpler.  With only three ingredients (not including the pie crust), it comes together in an instant.  The hardest part is waiting overnight to eat it.

This is a pie for carob lovers.  Mildly sweet, smooth and creamy, the carob is obviously the star of the show.  Even though carob can be used as a substitute for chocolate, it really has a flavor all it's own; with an almost coffee-like quality to it.  In my opinion, the authors of this recipe should have embraced the carob and called it 'Incredibly Creamy Carob Pie!'

Incredibly Creamy Chocolate (or Carob!) Pie

Printable Recipe 

Filling

12 oz chocolate or carob chips

21 oz silken tofu (firm)

3 tablespoons light honey

9 inch graham cracker or cookie crust pie shell

Heat chips in a double boiler or pan sitting in water until smooth.  Add honey.  In a blender or food processor, blend tofu until smooth.  Add the carob/honey mixture and whip until creamy.  Pour filling into pie crust.  Chill over night.  Slice and serve.

Creamy Carob Pie

 

When I was a child, I remember my Aunt Sue making a carob pie.  I was always excited to open the refrigerator door to see the silky smooth pie sitting on the shelf.  When I found this recipe for Creamy Carob Pie, I thought that I found her recipe, and I was excited to try it.  As it turns out, this isn't the recipe she used, I could tell after the first bite.  Still, it was a fun exploration into carob tofu goodness.

Unfortunately, this recipe is not complete.  The instructions for the crust never made it to the back of the card, unless the crust consists of just two cups of crushed graham crackers.  Upon making the pie, I opted not to use the shredded coconut, carob chips, or chopped nuts, because I don't remember Aunt Sue's having those toppings.  Two teaspoons of ground cinnamon seemed like a bit much to me, too, so I used a little less.

One thing I should have done differently, even though the recipe told me otherwise, was to bake the pie crust before filling.  This resulted is a soggy crust from the get go, which only got worse as the pie sat in the refrigerator.  I also used silken tofu as my tofu of choice, since the recipe did not specify.  Overall, though, the pie was simple to assemble, and was ready in no time.

The flavor of the pie was very good, and there wasn't too much cinnamon, as I had feared.  The cinnamon gave the pie a nice subtle spice and the carob flavor was in the forefront, as would be suspected.  There was a fine grittiness in the pie, though.  I don't know if it was a result of the carob powder or the amount of cinnamon; and it took away from the sumptuous smoothness that the tofu brought to the party.  I found myself wondering if the coconut, carob chips, and nuts that I omitted would have hidden the grit by adding other textures to the pie.

Even if this recipe wasn't a complete success, I did end up with Aunt Sue's recipe for her carob pie.  Until next time, my friends!

Creamy Carob Pie

Printable Recipe

1 1/2 pounds tofu

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup sifted carob powder

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Shredded coconut (optional)

Carob chips

Chopped nuts

Blend ingredients until very smooth.  Pour into unbaked pie shell and bake at 425 degrees about 15 minutes.  Remove, sprinkle top with carob chips, nuts and coconut. 

Drew's Onion Dill Bread

 

There were three different handwritten recipes for this bread, and only one of them had the directions. It made me wonder if this bread was made so much that only the ingredients needed to be listed. I'm not sure, but after tasting this bread, I wouldn't be surprised if it was made all the time.

The name of the recipe was also a curiosity. Who is Drew? Why does he have his name associated with an onion dill bread? A quick Internet search for 'Drew's onion dill bread' yielded results for 'Drew's Famous Onion Dill Bread'. Maybe this recipe was written before the bread became famous.

As for who Drew is, one of the recipes I found listed the author of the recipe as Drew Alan Kaplan. Drew Alan Kaplan was the owner of DAK Industries. DAK Industries was founded in 1966 and became a mail-order electronics firm in the 1980's. DAK Industries brought a number of electronic gadgets to the attentionof the US market, including an early ... (wait for it) ... bread machine!  My best guess is that this was one of the recipes that was recommended for use in the bread machine.

I don't have a bread machine, and the recipe instructions don't allude to using a bread machine for baking. Perhaps that is why there are two recipe cards without instructions. It was a fun little investigation, though, and I am glad I have some of my questions answered.

As for making the bread, the one ingredient that interested me the most was cottage cheese. I have not used cottage cheese in baking, let alone in bread, but it was not noticeable at all in the finished product. There were no little white curds sprinkled throughout the interior, which was a good thing.

The bread was a bit time consuming to make with the sauteed onions, but it was well worth it.  The bread was incredibly light and soft.  The onion and the dill seed added a nice spice to counter the delicate sweetness of the honey.  The bread was delicious warm from the oven, and I also liked it lightly toasted with a little butter.  It definitely earned the moniker of 'famous'.

Drew's Onion Dill Bread

Printable Recipe 

In large bowl

1/2 cup warm water

2 packages (2 1/2 tablespoons) yeast

4/12 cup flour

In medium bowl

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup cottage cheese

1 cup sour cream

4 tablespoons honey

4 tablespoons minced onion, sauteed and cooled

2 tablespoons melted butter

2 tablespoons dill seed

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Dash of onion salt (optional)

Start yeast action with a little honey.  Add contents of medium bowl to water and yeast before adding flour.  Knead 5 minutes.  Let rise 30 minutes in covered bowl.  Punch down.  Put on lightly floured board.  Divide in half.  Roll out on lightly floured board and shape into 2 loaves.  Put in pans, cover and let rise (about 30 minutes).  Brush tops with melted butter. 

Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees and 5 more minutes at 325 degrees.  Turn out on wire rack and cool.