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Dessert: Chocolate Cherry Pie

For the recipe card giveaway, you can email your "snail mail" address to me at (disguised to keep the robots from collecting, lol!):
andreaharper79 AT yahoo DOT com

The recipe for today is my son’s favorite pie. I’ve been making this pie for over 15 years, and it turns out wonderful every time. You can substitute a 21 oz. can of cherry pie filling, if you like-I think it’s too sweet like that, but it is a little easier.
Don't be intimidated by the length of the recipe-it really is easy, just several steps, and the result is definitely worth it!
Serve warm, chilled, plain, or with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Chocolate Cherry Pie
4 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup baking cocoa
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
24-26 oz. jar Morello or regular cherries, in light syrup (Trader Joe’s sells them)
1 prepared pie crust (I buy mine) or unbaked pastry shell (9 inches)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
If using a rolled pie crust: several hours prior to making the pie, set the pie crust out to bring to room temperature. When ready to make the pie, unroll it, and use your hands or a rolling pin to smooth it into a circle; then carefully fold it in half, set in 9” pie plate, and unfold. Being careful not to stretch the dough, shape into a crust.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Optional: you can blind-bake* the empty pie shell 10 minutes, if desired.
In a small saucepan, melt the butter. Stir in the sugar, stir until combined, then whisk in the cocoa powder and flour. Whisk in milk until smooth. Cook, stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; (do not walk away from stove, or you risk burning it!) to medium-low heat; cook, stirring, for 2 more minutes.
Remove from the heat. Stir a small amount of hot filling into eggs; return all to pan, stirring constantly.
Reserving the liquid, drain the cherries. Stir half of the cherries into the chocolate mixture. Set aside the rest of the cherries and the juice.
Pour chocolate filling into the prepared pastry shell. Bake for 30-35 minutes or until filling is almost set. Cool on a wire rack.
While the pie is baking, make your topping with the reserved cherry juice and cherries. Set aside about ¼ cup of the liquid in a small bowl; whisk it together with the cornstarch. In a medium-sized saucepan, over medium-high heat, bring remaining liquid and cherries just to a boil. Whisk in the cornstarch/juice mix and cook, stirring constantly, for about 2 minutes or until sauce is thickened a little and shiny. Set aside to cool.
Just before serving, top the pie with the cherry sauce.

Serves 6-8

*To blind-bake a pie crust, means baking the empty shell-this reduces some of the "doughiness" of the bottom crust; also helps keep the sides from sliding downwards, and the bottom crust from buckling up pockets where the filling is supposed to be. It is not completely necessary; I have made this pie with the crust blind-baked, and probably more often, without blind-baking it.
SO:
Make sure your oven is preheated. Line the unbaked pie crust with aluminum foil and then weigh it down-you can use about 2 lbs. of dried beans, rice, or the specialty pie weights that are available.
Bake for 10-15 minutes or just until the edges of the crust start to darken to golden.

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