This year’s challenge was to make Dr. Bobb’s mother’s “Hot Fudge Pie”. Now, I love me some Dr. Bobb. Which is why I’m loathe to tell him that I suspect his childhood was filled with lies. I’m sure his mamma meant well, but hoodwinking a young boy into thinking a brownie was a pie seems unnaturally cruel. Perhaps it is this bed of lies that has spawned his obsession with vintage recipes and his torment of his poor husband who he has taste test his creations. Alas, I’m sorry to rip off the rose-coloured glasses of your youth, Bobb, but this ain’t no pie.

To be fair, Bobb’s isn’t the only lie-filled childhood. My mother, who couldn’t cook to save a life, tried repeatedly in the 1970s to trick my sister and me into eating carob treats claiming they were chocolate. My grandmother destroyed everything else by substituting tofu for something in every recipe.

Yeah, I’ve got major trust issues. But that’s a story for another post. Back to the great Pie Lie – Hot Fudge Pie.

Instructions were simple enough and the “pie” baked up nicely. It was tasty – and my husband enjoyed it with some vanilla ice cream as Bobb’s mom recommended. But the texture and consistency of the finished product was that of a brownie and the use of the pie pan was really the only thing that made this a “pie”.

One fun tidbit from Bobb’s notes is that it seems the fine folks at Baker’s (whose chocolate is one of the ingredients) have been trying to bamboozle the public with changes to their packaging, which is causing recipe confusion around the world.

Everything is a lie in the end. Everything. Even pie.

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Links to other Pieathletes:
Grannie Pantries
Dr. Bobb’s Kitschen
A Book of Cookrye
Dinner is Served 1972
Silver Screen Suppers
Retro Food for Modern Times
The Nostalgic Cook
Culinary Cam