Pecan Pound Cake

1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
1 butter pecan cake mix
4 eggs
1 cup water
3/4 cup oil
1 can coconut pecan frosting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray Bundt pan with non-stick spray. Evenly sprinkle pecans in the bottom of the pan. Mix cake mix, eggs, water and oil until smooth. Scoop in frosting and mix until blended. Pour into pan over pecans. Bake 60 minutes. Cook completely before slicing.

Pecan Fudge Pie

1/2 cup butter
3 squares unsweetened chocolate
4 eggs
3 Tbsp. white corn syrup
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped pecans
9" pie crust

Melt butter and chocolate in top of double boiler or over low heat. Meanwhile, beat eggs until light. Beat syrup, sugar, salt and vanilla into eggs. Add the nuts. Now add slightly cooled chocolate mixture. Mix thoroughly and pour into an unbaked 9" pie crust. Bake at 350º for 25-35 minutes or until top is crusty and filling is set but soft inside. Do not over bake. Pie should shake like custard so it will not be too stiff when cool.
Serve plain or with ice cream or whipped cream.

This is another wonderful dish from my Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts Co-Author, Lillian.

Lillian - The center of this may sink in a little and that is ok. It is also, very rich and so you can serve smaller pieces. You can substitute the home pastry with the pie crust found in the frozen foods section or those in the dairy section of your store. You can do so much with this, as you did. I usually serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. The whipped cream can contain a bit of shaved chocolate or flavorings that will work well with the chocolate. You can just use pecans or almonds to top the whipped cream.

Martha - I made 2 of these pies but made a change in both. By thinking with my taste buds I decided to use up a couple of ingredients that needed to be used. One was some large flake coconut, the other was a partial jar of dried peanuts. I also had some chocolate chips that needed to be used but not enough for 2 pies. This is what I did. The recipe calls for 3 squares of chocolate, I used 1 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and a cup of peanuts one pie. I had about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips left so I made up the difference using white chocolate chips and added a cup of coconut instead of the nuts. I'm not a chocolate lover but I have to say that both of these pies came out making even me want more. I did find that this makes just a bit more than 1 pie filling so I poured the leftover in a small baking dish that I lined with vanilla wafers and baked it along with the full size pie, checking it after about 20 minutes.

The pie on the top is peanut, the one on the bottom is coconut.

Apple Walnut Squares

4 cups coarsely chopped and peeled apples
2 cups sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup black walnut pieces

Combine apples and sugar and let stand until sugar is absorbed and moist, about 45 minutes. Beat eggs and vegetable oil together by hand. Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together; stir in alternately with apple-sugar mixture. Stir in black walnut pieces. Grease and flour a 13x9x2 inch pan. Bake in a 350º oven for one hour.

This recipe was sent to me by Lillian, who will be co-authoring my next book Think With Your Taste Buds - Desserts. She has some great suggestions for this dish.

Lillian - This was given to me by a friend from a 1976 cookbook that she had. This looks as though it would be very moist and is so simple to put together. Changes may be to use English walnuts or pecans instead of black walnuts, add a bit of coconut, use apple pie spices instead of just the cinnamon.

Martha - I made this dish and it is wonderfully moist! I did make a couple of changes. I found myself running short of flour so I used Cake Flour instead of all-purpose. I also used pecans instead of the black walnuts. For the apples, it takes about 5 small or 4 medium size and I used Granny Smith. This is one great dish to make.

Chocolate Chunky Pecan Pie

1 deep dish pie 9" pie crust, unbaked
3 large eggs
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup pecan halves, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine eggs, corn syrup, sugar, butter and vanilla with a wire whisk. Stir in pecans. Sprinkle chocolate chunks over bottom of crust. Pour pecan mix slowly over chocolate. Bake 50 minutes.

If your crust starts to brown too quickly, cover it with foil. If you are using a frozen pie shell, do not thaw. Always bake pies with a baking sheet under them just in case they boil over. If you have trouble finding chocolate chunks, buy squares and chop them or use a good quality of chocolate chip.

Ambrosia Bars

This recipe was sent to me by my dear friend Lillian. It came from one of her cookbooks "Favorite Recipes of Eastern Star, 1967." Enjoy!

1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 cup plus 2 Tbl. all purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) soft butter
2 cups coconut
1 cup chopped pecans
1 tsp. vanilla
2 well-beaten eggs

Combine 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 cup flour, baking powder, salt and butter. Mixture will be crumbly. Press into a 9 x 13" pan. Bake at 325 for 12 - 15 minutes. Combine all remaining ingredients. Spread over baked layer. Bake for 20-25 minutes longer. Cool

Frosting

2 Tbl. butter
6 large marshmallows
2 Tbl. cream (evaporated milk)
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. grated orange rind
Orange juice if needed

Gently heat butter, marshmallows and cream until marshmallows are melted. Add powdered sugar, lemon juice and orange rind. Add enough orange juice to spread easily if needed. Spread on cooled cookie and cut into bars when icing is set.

When I made this I grated a little more orange rind for garnishing. This would also be pretty garnished with cherries. It is a very rich dish so when cutting, you might want to cut into small squares.