Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers* – Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Pie from Molly MacRae

 

* A monthly feature formerly titled “Recipes for Readers.” Thanks for the delectable rechristening, Debra Goldstein!

 

This month’s edition of Diet Killers: Recipes for Readers introduces the third book in Susan Van Kirk’s Art Center Mysteries. The book is Death in a Ghostly Hue and I think you’ll find it a perfect read for this spooky and treat-laden time of year. It’s a story of hauntings—emotional, literary, and . . . real? Could the new art center possibly be haunted? Jill Madison, who runs the art center, and her best friend Angie think so. The book is also a story of redemption sought, forgiveness withheld, and murder. Jill and Angie are right there in the middle of it all.

Besides running the art center, Jill is a painter. I love the way Van Kirk reminds us of this through Jill’s descriptions of the colors around her. Jill names the paint colors she would use to capture her surroundings on a canvas. For instance, she might describe a slice of Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Pie as having a lake of luscious, Burnt Umber chocolate over a filling of creamy cheese reminiscent of Old Holland Yellow Light, and the whole studded with Anthraquinone Red raspberries. 

“Anthraquinone” and “Burnt” sound vaguely threatening, don’t they? So appropriate for a murder mystery. Death in a Ghostly Hue is artful and satisfying—just like this pie. 

Chocolate Raspberry Cheese Pie

(adapted from Fast, Fabulous, Foolproof Holiday Desserts – a free recipe booklet from the Borden Foods Corporation, 1997)

Ingredients for the pie:

6 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 (14 oz. can) sweetened condensed milk

1 egg

3 tablespoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries

1 ready-made chocolate pie crust

Ingredients for the glaze:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate

¼ cup whipping cream 

Directions:

Heat oven to 350℉. With mixer, beat softened cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until smooth. Add egg, lemon juice, and vanilla; mix well.

Arrange raspberries on bottom of crust. Slowly pour cheese mixture over fruit.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool.

When pie is cooled, melt chocolate in cream over low heat. Cook and stir until thickened and smooth. Remove from heat and pour over pie, spreading glaze to meet rim of crust. Garnish however you like (or just eat it up).