Chocolate Pie

I'm not sure when my love of chocolate began. Perhaps it was when I began stealthily sneaking chocolate chips from the cupboard. Or maybe when my mom made chocolate pudding and we'd eat it hot out of the pot, burning our tongues, both unable to wait for it to cool. Or maybe it began when she made chocolate fudge and we'd scrape the leftovers from the pot with a tablespoon. But most certainly chocolate pie had something to do with my love of chocolate. 

It's a pie that my mom has made my whole life, a recipe her mother-in-law gave her. A homemade crust lining a glass pie plate, is poked with a fork and baked until just beginning to turn golden. The filling, a rich chocolate pudding is whipped up on the stove, turning thick as the cornstarch does its work. Later, some cream is whipped before the whole thing is assembled. Pudding into crust. Whipped cream atop the pudding. It's a beautiful medley of crunch, richness and sweetness. And the perfect dessert for the chocolate lover.

Chocolate Pie

Makes one 10-inch pie

Total Time: 30 minutes cook time plus 4 hours cooling time

2 ounces unsweetened chocolate

2 1/2 cups milk

1 1/4 cups sugar

3 T. cornstarch

1/2 tsp. salt

3 egg yolks

1 T. butter

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 recipe for a single pie crust (you can halve this one)

1 recipe for whipped cream 

Start by gently melting the chocolate. You can do this in a double boiler or in the microwave. 

If you do it in the microwave though, be sure to stop every few seconds and stir it. 

If you heat too quickly, the chocolate will separate.

Bring the milk to a boil in a large pot. Add melted chocolate to the milk and boil for 1 minute.

Add the sugar, cornstarch and salt. 

I like to mix them together before adding to milk to help break up the cornstarch.

Stir until thick and pudding-like, 2 - 3 minutes.

Then take the chocolate mixture off the heat while you separate the eggs into a small bowl. 

Discard the whites, we want the yolks. 

Temper the eggs by adding a little bit of the hot chocolate mixture to the egg yolks, while whisking. 

Forgive the gritty look to my chocolate filling. I forgot to melt the chocolate before adding when I took these pictures and I was left with little bits of unmelted chocolate in my filling.

Then pour the chocolatey egg mixture back into the large pot of chocolate 

and heat over medium for 1 minute to cook the eggs. 

Then strain the filling through a fine-mesh strainer. 

Tempering the eggs is supposed to keep the eggs from scrambling, but it's hard to keep that from happening some and I like to strain it just to make sure it's smooth. 

Nothing is as unappetizing as finding scrambled eggs in your chocolate pie. 

Stir in the butter and vanilla and set in the fridge until completely cool. 

While you are waiting you can make the crust. You only need a bottom crust, so make sure your recipe is for a single crust (or you can halve a double crust recipe like this one). 

You will need to prebake the crust for this pie. After lining the pie plate with the dough, crimp the edges and poke all over the bottom of the crust with a fork to keep it from puffing. Then bake at 400 degrees for 10 - 15 minutes, until crust just begins to turn golden. Let cool to room temperature before filling.

Just before serving, whip up some cream.

Then fill your cooled, baked crust with the chocolate filling and top with whipped cream. Serve immediately. Will only keep for a day or two in the fridge before pie crust begins to turn soggy. 

So that's your excuse to have more than one piece!

Recipe from my Grammy.

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