Thanksgiving Activity: Gratitude Letters and Pie (Serving Others #2)

• Serving Others #2
• Write a letter to a teacher, your parents, or your grandparents telling them what you appreciate and respect about them.

Write thankyou letters to parents and then for treats, in honor of Thanksgiving, make pies.  By the way, why is learning to make pie related to the gospel?  Eating a meal or dessert together helps create unity in families and among friends in a way nothing else can, it is always a good idea for a girl to know how to make some really yummy recipes!  Cooking for others is always "serving others" and learning new recipes is "developing talents".  Dessert is always a fun way to finish off a great "learning and Living the Gospel" lesson.  I am all for pies!

This recipe won first place in our ward pie cook-off

Chocolate Rasberry Cream Pie 
12 mini pie crusts or one 9" unbaked pastry shell
1 can raspberry pie filling refrigerated (in unopened can)
or
2 c frozen unsweetened raspberries (or strawberries or mixed berries) + 3TBS sugar +1 TBS cornstarch combined, bring to a boil over medium heat, boil  and stir 2 minutes.  Cool for at least 15 minutes, refrigerate until ready to make pie.

Make filling by beating together until fluffy:
1 8oz pkg. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

fold in
1/2 cup whipping cream whipped
(or 4-8 oz cool whip, the more you use the easier the filling is to work with for the girls and it tastes great no matter how much or how little you use)

Melt together the following, when they are just starting to melt remove them from heat and stir until completely melted and combined.
2 1-oz squares of semi-sweet baking square or 2 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
3Tbs butter.

To make a mini pie:
spread a layer of raspberry on the bottom, about two spoonfuls.
spread a layer of cream filling over that, cover the raspberry and fill the pie up.
spread a very thin layer of chocolate on top of the pie.  Use a small spoonful, it is about the size of a quarter and then you spread it thin with a knife and it should cover the whole mini-pie.
Optional: let the girls add colored red sugar or sprinkles to the top of the chocolate, doesn't improve flavor, but improves funness (is that a word?) or you could use a knife to make designs in the chocolate topping.

In theory, the pie should chill two hours, but the girls might not be able to wait and it shoud taste pretty good right away too.  I let my girls choose.

If you  make this in a  pastry shell, line the shell with double thick heavy duty foil.  Bake at 450 for 8 minutes.  Remove foil.  Bake an additional 5 minutes watching carefully to avoid burning.  Cool on a wire rack, then assemble pie.  The original recipe calls for the raspberry layer to refrigerate before adding the cream layer and the cream layer to chill before adding chocolate, but it seemed to work fine to do it all at once.