Dear Chocolate Cream Pie,
I love you.
xoxo,
Everybody
Right? Who doesn’t love a good chocolate cream pie? Crumbly, buttery, chocolaty crust. Creamy, silky chocolate pudding, topped with lightly sweetened, homemade whipped cream. And chocolate shavings.
It’s the best thing, ever. And really, its very easy – a bit time consuming, but very easy. You guys, if I can make this stuff, seriously anyone can. Do it!
Probably the most difficult thing about this pie is that you need to track down a package of chocolate wafers – they can be a bit elusive, but I almost always find them by the ice cream toppings and ice cream cones at the grocery store. They come in a cardboard sleeve, and one package makes the perfect amount of crust. And they’re fantastic.
If you’ve tried really hard and can’t find them anywhere, you can use the chocolate part of an Oreo – don’t use the filling for this recipe. Just use a kitchen scale to measure out 9 ounces.
The filling is basically a homemade chocolate pudding. It uses a lot of egg yolks, and it seems a bit intimidating, but really – if you follow the recipe exactly, it’s a piece of cake. Or pie. Chocolate pie, actually.
Sorry.
The past five years (wow- can you believe I’ve been blogging for nearly five years?!?) have taught me a lot about baking and cooking in general, but probably my most important nugget of experience is that you should always pre-prep your ingredients. Pre-measure, lay everything out, get organized. It will save you SO much time, and prevent the freak-outs when you are in the middle of something and can’t walk away.
And, there’s something fun about having little bowls of pre-measured ingredients spread in front of you. You can pretend you’re on a cooking show.
What? I don’t do that. Psssht.
If you’re going to make this recipe, just make sure you have plenty of time for the filling to set up. I like t make it the night before, then make the whipped cream right before I serve it. Whipped cream is definitely best when it’s fresh.
Hope you love this one! Enjoy!
- 16 Tablespoons (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2" cubes and chilled, plus more for pie plate
- 1⁄4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 (9-oz.) package chocolate wafers, such as Nabisco, finely ground (about 2 1⁄4 cups)
- 3 and 1⁄2 cups half-and-half
- 2⁄3 cup plus 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1⁄4 cup cornstarch
- 9 egg yolks
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
- 2 1⁄2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups heavy cream
- Dark chocolate, for garnish
- Heat oven to 375°.
- Grease bottom and sides of a 9"-glass pie plate with butter; set aside.
- Heat 8 Tablespoons butter and brown sugar in a 1-qt. saucepan until sugar dissolves.
- Transfer butter mixture to a medium bowl; stir in ground wafers.
- Transfer mixture to pie plate; press into bottom and sides, using the bottom of a measuring cup to compress crust.
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes.
- Bake until set, about 15 minutes; let cool.
- Heat half-and-half in a 4-qt. saucepan over medium-high heat until it just begins to simmer; remove pan from heat.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 2⁄3 cup sugar and cornstarch.
- Add egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
- Drizzle half-and-half into egg yolk mixture, whisking constantly, until smooth.
- Return mixture to saucepan; heat over medium heat.
- Cook, stirring often, until bubbles rise to the surface and mixture is very thick, 3–4 minutes. Remove pan from heat and add remaining butter and chocolates in small batches, whisking until smooth.
- Stir in 1 1⁄2 tsp. vanilla.
- Set a sieve over a medium bowl and strain chocolate mixture.
- Cover with plastic wrap, pressing plastic onto surface; refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.
- Remove plastic wrap from chocolate filling and, using a rubber spatula, stir mixture until smooth.
- Spoon mixture into reserved crust, forming a dome, and smooth surface with the spatula.
- In a large bowl, whisk remaining sugar, remaining vanilla, and heavy cream until stiff peaks form; spread on top of filling, forming a dome.
- Using a peeler, shave some of the dark chocolate onto top of pie.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.
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