Fried Chocolate Pies

When I reminisce about my childhood, many things come to mind. Family vacations in the Greek Isles, autumns in Kennebunkport, and weekend getaways to Martha's Vineyard. Oh, wait...that's not my childhood. Thinking of *my* childhood makes me think of the fried chocolate pies my mama used to make. (and fried lots of other things too, but that's another story) I have made a few half-hearted attempts to recreate them over the years, without a lot of success. What was really intimidating me was the stinkin' pie crust. I just couldn't bring myself to want to make a bunch of pie crust for a bunch of little pies. But, if I was gonna make fried pies, it was something I was gonna have to do. So this weekend I decided to take the bull by the horns and really try to give it my best shot. And overall, I think I did okay. So here in my first ever step-by-step pictorial direction-ified recipe, is my mom's fried chocolate pies. First the crust. I searched around and found this recipe on cooks.com that was specifically for fried pies. My only complaint was that it said it made 40, and I only got 14. (not that I thought I needed 40 pies, I'm just sayin...) Otherwise, it was great! Very soft and stretchy, super easy to work with, especially for a pie crust novice like myself. I threw all the listed ingredients into the food processor and combined it till it looked like this:

  Then I took about half out and dumped it onto a floured surface, rolled it into a circle type shape like so: Then I took a saucer that's about 6 inches diameter and cut a couple of circles. Which brings us to the fillings. I mixed together unsweetened cocoa and sugar (in no specific measurements) till I liked the way it looked. Of course the taste test was involved as well. Along side this I had my butter and vanilla ready to go. I filled half of one of the pie crust circles with the cocoa mixture, then a few drips of vanilla, and some thin slices of butter. I folded that over and crimped the edges with a fork. At his point he was ready to fry. I had my iron skillet sitting over med-low heat and had added enough shortening to have about 1/2 inch in the pan. I gently place my first pie in the skillet, and let it get brown on the first side, about 2-3 minutes: Then the flip side.

Then it was all finished and ready to drain on a paper towel. Overall, I thought they were pretty darn good. It really did take me back. So if you'd like to relive my childhood, make up a batch of these. Even the hula girl likes it, see how happy it makes her!