Chocolate Cream Pie

Just made the filling for this pie for tomorrow's Mother's Day dinner.  It's very good, and sets up nicely.  Not to mention it has a ton of short cuts- no tempering eggs because of the corn starch and you don't really need to melt the chocolate.

A few notes:

• Made mine with a normal pie crust, so I can't speak to the deliciousness of the cookie crust, but it looks good!
• The filling takes on the flavors of whatever chocolate you put in because there is so much milk, so pick chocolate you would eat on its own.  Chips work fine as do baking bars.  I didn't love the unsweetened chocolate I used, and it totally came through.  Boo.
• I was drinking some coffee while I made it, so I added in a splash and it improved the taste.
• I didn't melt the chocolate- too much trouble over a double boiler and more dishes.  So, I chopped it with a serrated knife and whisked it into the creme pat with the butter and vanilla and coffee off the heat.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Yield: Makes 8 to 10 servings

Active Time: 45 min

Total Time: 8 hr (includes cooling and chilling)

GOURMET | FEBRUARY 2004

Ingredients

For crust

• 1 1/3 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (from about 26 cookies such as Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers)
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar

For filling

• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 cups whole milk
• 5 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), melted
• 2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For topping

• 3/4 cup chilled heavy cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar

Preparation

Make crust:

Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

Stir together crumbs, butter, and sugar and press on bottom and up side of a 9-inch pie plate (1-quart capacity). Bake until crisp, about 15 minutes, and cool on a rack.

Make filling:

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and yolks in a 3-quart heavy saucepan until combined well, then add milk in a stream, whisking. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking, 1 minute (filling will be thick).

Force filling through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl, then whisk in chocolates, butter, and vanilla. Cover surface of filling with a buttered round of wax paper and cool completely, about 2 hours.

Spoon filling into crust and chill pie, loosely covered, at least 6 hours.

Make topping:

Just before serving, beat cream with sugar in a bowl using an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks, then spoon on top of pie.

Cooks' note: Pie (without topping) can be chilled up to 1 day.