THE CHEF FROM HELL

There's pie and then there's pie.  And then there's even more pie!  More than once I have paused mid-forkful to give thanks for my marriage to a dandy pie-maker named Loretta.  As a matter of fact, before we recently retired from the restaurant business, Sweet Loretta (as I call her) had won the Best Pie in Long Island award from Channel 12, a popular local tv channel, three years in a row!  "Wow!  Is this the recipe that won?"  No, it is not the recipe that won.  That recipe goes by the name of Sleepy Hollow Pie, a heavenly concoction of pumpkin---the detailed recipe must remain a closely guarded secret as per the piemaker's request.  "Awwww!"  Do not fret, I have one of her pie recipes for you!  This one's called Ragtime Pie.

Ragtime Pie is a delicous melange of chocolate and spiced rum and, strange as it sounds, was adapted from a recipe created by a Cub Scout's Mom who made it to sell at a bake sale for the cub scout troop.  Among the changes made to the original recipe, adding rum was not one of them--that was part of the original recipe.  One imagines old Mrs. McAuffey selling slices of her pie at the Bake Sale, "Oh yes, the boys love this pie.  They eat this pie and then quick as a whip they're snug asleep in their pup tents!" 

Ingredients:

4 oz unsweetened Chocolate

2 sticks unsalted Butter, cut into 2 inch cubes

1/4 cup Capt. Morgan's spiced Rum

2 tsp Vanilla Extract

2 cups White Sugar

4 large Eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup White Flour that's been sifted with 1/4 tsp Salt

Cooking Procedure:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease bottom & sides of a 9 inch pie pan with non-stick cooking spray

Lightly flour the bottom of the pie pan

Place a medium-sized stainless steel mixing bowl over a pot of water (to act as a double boiler)

Melt the chocolate & butter over medium heat while stirring with a whisk

When this is melted & smooth, remove from heat

Whisk a few more times

Add the rum & vanilla extract

Keep on whisking

When the rum & vanilla are fully incorporated, add the sugar

Whisk whisk whisk!

When the sugar is fully incorporated, add the eggs

Finally, after the eggs are blended in, add the flour & salt

Whisk whisk whisk!

Pour this mixture into the pie pan & place the pie in the oven

Bake for 25 -- 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

When the pie is done, place it on a wire rack & allow it to cool before slicing