Recipes for Echelle

For my niece Echelle, who doesn’t like to cook but likes to eat…

 

Chocolate Ice Box Pie

• 1 prepared graham cracker crust from the grocery store
• 2  family size (5 oz.) boxes or 3 regular (3.4 oz)  boxes of cook-and-serve chocolate pudding mix
• 1 quart half-and-half
• 1 cup whole milk (if you use the 3 small boxes)
• whipped cream and chocolate curls to garnish

     

 

Instructions

1. Pour the boxes of pudding mix into a large saucepan. Using a spoon, break up any lumps you see. 
2. Add the half-and-half (and milk if you are using it) to the dry pudding mix.  Stir until it looks like chocolate milk. It should be smooth without any lumps.
3. Cook over medium-low to medium heat until it comes to a boil. 
4. Stir it constantly, not too hard, but gently, the whole time you are cooking. If you leave it before it is finished, turn off the heat, or it will thicken and lump up. 
5. Do not leave it while it is cooking; stay right there.
6. After it boils, remove from the heat and pour into the prepared graham cracker crust.
7. Refrigerate until firm and chilled, perhaps 3 hours. Top with whipped cream when serving.
8. To make chocolate curls, take a small knife and draw it along the side of a chocolate bar.

 

 

 

Easy Berry Icebox Cake

• Author: Sally McKenney  
• Prep Time: 15 minutes      
• Cook Time: 0 minutes      
• Total Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes    
• Yield: serves 12

 

 

 

 

 

Quick Enchiladas Suizas

Ingredients

• 3 cups of Salsa Verde
• ¾ cup Mexican cream or sour cream
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 2 cups shredded rotisserie chicken meat
• 1 ½ cups shredded Oaxaca or Mozzarella Cheese
• 12 corn tortillas
• ½ medium onion, thinly sliced
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil for frying
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Instructions

1. Place 1 cup of Salsa Verde, the Mexican Cream, cilantro, and garlic clove in a blender. Process until you have a smooth sauce. Mix with the rest of the salsa verde and set aside. 
2. Heat a skillet over medium heat; warm one tablespoon of oil and warm the tortillas one at a time to soften, giving them just a few seconds per side. Add the rest of the oil as needed. Besides softening them for easy rolling, another reason we do this is to keep the tortillas from breaking. Transfer onto a plate covered with paper towels to drain any excess oil.
3. Preheat your oven to 350°F.   Season the chicken with salt and pepper. You can also add garlic powder if you like.
4. Spread half of the sauce in a greased 9x 12″ baking dish, or individual oven-proof plates, if you prefer.

5.   Fill the center of each tortilla with the chicken and roll it up.

6.   Arrange the enchiladas in 1 layer, seam side down.

7.   Cover with the rest of sauce; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 25-30 minutes or until cheese starts to brown. Serve immediately and garnish with onion slices.

Quick Apple Pie

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Use 1 package of refrigerated Pillsbury pie crusts. You can find them in the refrigerated dough section of your grocery store.
• Open 1 crust, carefully unroll it, and place it in the pie pan. Leave the edge hanging over for now.
• In a bowl, put 2 cans of apple pie filling, a good sprinkle of cinnamon, about half as much nutmeg, and a teaspoon of vanilla or vanilla paste. I use Lucky Leaf Premium fruit filling because it isn’t overly sweet and has more apples than gunk.
• Pour the pie filling into the crust.
• Take 1/2 stick of really cold butter and cube it. Sprinkle the cubes over the pie filling. 1 stick of butter is 1/4 of a pound.
• Open the 2nd crust , unroll it, and place it on top of the pie. Center it so it mostly matches the bottom crust. If you’ve never made a pie, just think about what pie looks like.
• Press the edges together, then crimp them using your fingers or a fork.
• Cut a small slit in the top crust to let the steam out.
• Bake at 350 until the crust is brown and you can see the filling bubbling in the slit.
• Cool before cutting or it won’t cut evenly. You’ll have a mess, a good-tasting mess, but not very pretty.

 

 

 

 

Crazy Chocolate Cake

• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• ½ tsp salt 
• 1 tsp baking soda 
• â…“ cup unsweetened cocoa powder 
• â…“ cup cooking oil
• 1 Tbsp vinegar 
• 1 tsp vanilla extract 
• 1 cup water or half strong coffee and half water

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
• In a large bowl or the pan you plan to bake the cake in, stir together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and cocoa powder until well combined.
• Add 1 cup of water to a liquid measuring cup, then add the vanilla extract and vinegar to the water.
• Add the oil to the bowl of dry ingredients, followed by the water mixture. Stir until the chocolate cake batter is mostly smooth. Make sure no dry flour remains on the bottom of the bowl.
• Pour the cake batter into an 8×8″ or 9×9″ baking dish. Transfer the baking dish to the oven and bake the cake for about 35 minutes.
• Top with a good sprinkle of powdered sugar or eat plain.