Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe

One of the simplest of pies to make is pudding pie, particularly when you skip the baked crust in favor of an easy crumb one. Sure, you can make such a pie with boxed instant pudding mix, but it really doesn't take that much more effort to make the pudding from scratch, and you'll have a far more flavorful pie. As recipe developer Jennine Rye of The Marshside Pantry describes the homemade pudding that's used as a pie filling here, "this set dark chocolate custard filling is wonderfully rich and not too sweet."

Rye points out that this chocolate pie contains an added special ingredient: espresso. While the overall flavor is chocolate, she explains that "a little bit of coffee enhances the flavor of chocolate wonderfully, giving it more depth and richness." While she uses brewed espresso here (not the instant kind), she allows that "strong coffee could be used in its place for those who don't have an espresso machine."

To make the pie crust, you'll need chocolate sandwich cookies (you know the ones we're talking about) and butter. The pudding is made with sugar, milk, cornstarch, egg yolks, salt, espresso (or coffee), and chopped chocolate (Rye likes to start with a candy bar and break it up herself). The finished pie is topped off with whipped cream sweetened with powdered sugar and flavored with vanilla.

If you're wondering what to do with all of the egg whites you'll have left over, Bryant tells us "I ... put them in the freezer until I want to use them for something like a meringue." Meringues, of course, aren't the only thing you can do with surplus egg whites. You can also use them in a healthy omelet, an angel food cake, or a foamy cocktail. They'll stay safe in the freezer until you make up your mind.

Crush all of the cookies (creamy fillings included) into crumbs. You can do this in a food processor or via the good old plastic bag and rolling pin method. Melt half of your butter, then mix it into the crumbs. Press the wet crumbs up the side of a 9-inch pie pan, then put the crust in the refrigerator while you get on with making the pie filling.

Mix the milk with the granulated sugar, then cook them together over medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the milk is steaming (but not boiling). In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks with the cornstarch, then stir in a few spoonfuls of the hot milk. Mix this eggy mixture into the rest of the hot milk and cook the pudding for 4 to 5 minutes, stirring all the while. At this point, it should have thickened up a bit. Add the hot pudding to a heat-safe bowl containing the chocolate, espresso, and remaining butter, then stir the mixture until the chocolate and butter melt and the pudding is homogeneous. Pour the pudding into the pie crust and refrigerate the pie for 3 to 4 hours or until it sets up.

Whip the cream for a few minutes until it is slightly thickened, then add the vanilla and powdered sugar. Continue beating until the whipped cream reaches the soft peak stage, then dollop it over the pie. If you want a fancier pie, you can whip it to the stiff peak stage and then pipe it in swirls. Either way, you can then garnish the pie with some shaved chocolate, or perhaps a scattering of slivered almonds or a few fresh berries.

Any uneaten pie should be stored in the fridge and consumed within a few days, but you can also put it (whipped cream and all) into the freezer (so long as you wrap it well).