Chocolate Cream Pie!

When I was newly married and highly inexperienced at cooking (this is no joke, I honestly didn’t know a thing! The cooking experience I brought along to my marriage consisted of the Lion House taffy I had learned to make at my college job. You feel bad for MyHandsomeHusband, don’t you? He did most of the cooking back then, bless him. He’s always been a keeper, that one. But that is a different story for another time…

Anyhow, I didn’t know a thing about cooking and it was Thanksgiving and my mother in law asked if I would bring a couple of pies to our family feast. So, I started to look through some cookbooks and I called my mom and I read the back of the Jell-O Pudding box and I paced a little and fretted some. I came across a recipe for Chocolate Cream Pie that looked so overwhelming hard I told MyHandsomeHusband I would NEVER make a pie like that from scratch! “Who has time to stand and stir at the stove for 100 years, just to make a pie!” I may have told him. In my mind I could see my hair turning gray and big dark circles forming under my eyes while I stirred pie filling and 100 years ticked by. I ended up making a couple of pudding pies, using the trusty Jello-O boxed pudding method…and they turned out ok. No one pushed me out of the family or anything. 🙂

Fast forward 20 years and wouldn’t you know it…I have gray hair and dark circles under my eyes. It happens, you know.

And I have finally, FINALLY gathered my courage together and made a “from scratch” Chocolate Pudding Pie. Now, the very exciting news I have to share with you today is…it was NOT hard. 100 years did not tick by! I should have tried it all those years ago, truly.

You can put this pie together in about 40 minutes, or less. (No lie) It does take some time to cool in the fridge (about 4 hours, paint your nails or something) and it is about 5 million times better than the Jello-O pudding mix.

5 million, people.

Make the pie. It’s going to be Thanksgiving, for goodness sake!

This pie deserves to be made by you. I hope you love it. I hope your family loves it! I hope you pat yourself on the back with your freshly painted fingernails! You deserve it.

1. Toss 26 Oreo cookies into your blender and crush them up into fine crumbs. You’ll need 2 cups of crumbs total.

2. Melt 6 tablespoons of butter. Remove the blade from your blender and pour the melted butter in. Stir it with a spoon to combine. I haven’t had a lot of luck using the blade of the blender to incorporate the butter. Best to just take it out and stir it with a spoon. 🙂

3. Pour the crumbs into a 9 inch-deep dish pie plate.

Use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crumbs to the bottom and up the sides of the pie dish.

Like this! Lovely. 🙂 Set the crust in the fridge while you make the filling so it can set up just a bit.

4. Into a medium-sized sauce pan (I like using a pan with a wide bottom so it cooks a bit faster), pour 3 cups of milk. Add 1 C semi sweet chocolate chips.

5. Heat the mixture, while stirring over high heat.

The chips will melt and become incorporated into the milk. It should only take 1 minute or so. If there are still a few random chocolate pieces floating around, it’s ok.

6. Place 5 egg yolks and 1 cup sugar into a medium-sized mixing bowl. Whisk them together with a fork.

You’ll want to keep whisking them together for a couple of minutes. You are looking for the eggs to turn a nice pale yellow.

7. Add 4 Tb cornstarch, 1/4 tsp salt and 2 tsp vanilla to the egg mixture.

Whisk it together to combine.

8. Pour the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture, about a 1/2 cup at a time, whisking as you go.

9. Pour the combined mixture back into your sauce pan and get it onto the stove top. Over medium high heat (I kept mine a little closer to “high” than “medium”) bring it to a boil, whisking continually.

Once it starts to bubble it should be nice and thick for you. It should only take about 3-4 minutes total.
10. Remove it from the heat and whisk it vigorously for 1-2 minutes. This will help it be nice and creamy.

11. Pour the pudding into the crust. You may have extra filling, depending on how “deep” your pan is. Mine is a little deeper than some pans. If you have extra, just pour it into some small cups and refrigerate.

12. While the pudding is still warm, cover the pie will plastic wrap. Allow it to come to room temperature and then pop it in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

13. To make the cream topping, place 1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream in your stand mixer, or large mixing bowl. Beat it vigorously until it’s thick. Add 2 Tb sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla. Mix to incorporate.

Carefully spoon the whipped cream on top of the pie.

Spread it out evenly with a knife.

14. To make the chocolate curls, simply open up a large Hershey bar and wrap it in plastic wrap. Press your hands over the covered chocolate for a minute or two. This will help to soften it up a bit.

Grab a handy vegetable peeler and peel the chocolate into little scrolls, over the top of the pie.

Like this. 🙂

You can serve it immediately, or let it hang out in the fridge until you are ready to use it. You can make it up to 24 hours in advance.

Enjoy!

Recipe from Williams and Sonoma
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