Chocolate Pudding Pie

Chocolate cream pie is one of those things where if you asked me what I wanted for dessert at a restaurant, I'd probably never order it. It's also one of those things where the thought of it is appealing, but not enough to get me to want to make it too often. Alas, it is also of of those things that when I do make it, it's enough to send me over the edge and I can hardly wait until the dang thing sets and I can eat a huge slice. Somewhere during the pie making process, chocolate cream has the amazing ability to go from a so-so dessert in my mind to the grand master, mac daddy, ultimate rich, most luxurious dessert in history. Maybe this is because every time I've ordered it at a restaurant it's not that good. It's usually too chocolaty with a bland crust and much too sweetened whipped cream. At home though, this dessert rocks out. I have a really good recipe. The grand master, mac daddy, ultimate, most luxurious recipe in history if I do say so myself.

This time I started out with a pre-made frozen pie shell (Marie Calendars). I usually make my own crust, but I had this one on hand and needed a pie on the fly. If this is your case, or if you are the type of person who absolutely would not make homemade pie without a pre-made crust, go this route. I recommend Marie Calendars brand as it has much more flavor and thickness than those sad rolled out refrigerated pie crusts that taste like cork-board. After you bake your pie shell, you let it cool while you make the chocolate pudding. This step requires some whisking over the stove on your part, but it doesn't take long, and besides, it's so satisfying to see the cocoa and milk thicken up all of a sudden so it's worth it. After it's thickened you dump a bunch of chopped chocolate into the pudding mixture to melt and what you are left with is pure chocolate cream loveliness. The thickener I use is cornstarch (instead of a weighty egg yolk and cream custard) and it works like a charm and also makes it very slice-able come serving time. It aggravates me when I slice a cream pie and the filling sags and oozes out. This pie yields nice clean slices while still managing to be soft in texture. I keep calling it "chocolate cream pie" for the association but it is better called "chocolate pudding pie", as it originally is, but the name initially threw me off, and it is essentially chocolate cream, just not as heavy. Don't let what looks like a long recipe deter you. Remember, I'm including two recipes, for the filing and the pie dough. It's simple to make and this pie comes together rather quickly...Think 7 minutes and one sauce pan (after the pie shell is baked)

Chocolate Pudding Pie

adapted from Gourmet, via Smitten Kitchen

One recipe "Perfect Pie Crust" (recipe to follow) baked and cooled, or a Marie Calendars frozen pre-made pie shell baked per the instructions and cooled.

Perfect Pie Crust:

makes 1 pie crust. For double crust pies, double the recipe

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) very cold unsalted butter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1/6 cup very cold vegetable shortening

4-5 tablespoons ice water

Dice the butter and return it to the refrigerator while you prepare the flour mixture. Place the flour, salt, and sugar in the bowl of a food processor fitted with a steel blade and pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter and shortening. Pulse 8-12 times, until the butter is the size of peas. With the machine running, pour the ice water down the feed tube and pulse the machine until the dough begins to form a ball. If you need to add another tablespoon of water to achieve this, do it. Dump out onto a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp edge decoratively. Prick bottom and side of shell all over with a fork, then chill shell 30 minutes. While shell chills, preheat oven to 375 degrees with a baking sheet on middle rack. Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake on a baking sheet until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove weights and foil, then bake shell on a baking sheet until pale golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool shell.

Pudding Filling:

1/4 cup cornstarch

1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 cups whole milk

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao) finely chopped

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup chilled heavy cream

bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)

Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk (make sure you add the milk slowly to the dry ingredients whisking the whole time to avoid lumps). Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking two minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.

Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, it's surface covered with wax paper (if you want to prevent a skin from forming...I skipped this), until cold, at least two hours.

Just before serving, beat cream with remaining two tablespoons sugar ( you can use powdered sugar if you prefer) until it just holds soft peaks. Spoon onto pie plate and garnish with bittersweet chocolate shavings, if you are feeling fancy. You can store it with the whipped cream on top in the refrigerator for up to an hour or two before serving.

This pie is equally good in the Summer months as well as into Fall and Winter. It's cocoa-y and chocolaty and rich but not too sweet. It's cold, but hearty and homey making it the perfect choice any season.

Frozen Key Lime Pie

OK, I'm sorry that all I have posted lately are sweet recipes but I can't help it, dessert is on my mind! You see, I have decided to start a cake and pie making business from home and I couldn't be more thrilled! I have thought about doing something like this for a long time but never got really comfortable the idea because I couldn't really find my niche. I thought that if you did cakes from home no one would want to buy them unless they were wedding cakes. I am not an incredible cake artist and I have never worked with fondant so that was out. However, I had a revelation the other day that was just the contrary. In our town there is no where to buy cakes for a birthday party, bridal shower, baby shower, anniversary, etc. unless you get it from A) the grocery store B) Winona's, which no one does anyway, probably because they don't market themselves and they charge $27.00 per layer, and their cakes are usually 3 layers so that totals up to a cool 90 bucks a cake C) A caterer or Chocolate Soup which is an adorable little bakery but their cakes are lacking in taste and they don't have a variety.

I have variety. In fact I like to dream up cakes on a whim with different combinations/frosting's/fillings/curds/creams/icings, you get the idea, all at a moments notice. You know the saying "easy as pie"? I get that. Just today I completely made up a Bananas Foster Cake. It was a yellow cake base and it had rum, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon and bananas all oozing into it and since bananas foster is usually served with vanilla ice cream, I tried to think up a frosting that would compliment that. I ended up with a cream cheese like frosting with whipped cream folded in to tone it down. I think it's killer, although I can't taste it--dang no sugar cleanse!!! Actually I googled "bananas foster cake" and there is such a thing, but I have never heard of it and I made it my own way so I'm saying I made it up, he he.

I've been baking like crazy the past week and so far I have made a Hummingbird Cake, Lemon Lady Cake, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Butter cream Frosting, Bananas Foster Cake and a Frozen Key Lime Pie, which is the recipe I'm going to share with you. This pie is awesome. It's sweet but not too sweet, it's tart but not too tart, it is frozen so you can make it ahead, it's a custard base so it doesn't freeze solid, I could go on. This is a favorite of everyone I've made it for and a great summertime dessert. I don't use key limes, because they are not in season for long, but trust me, no one will miss them. If I could describe this pie in 2 words it would be fresh and cold. You top the lime custard off with a light cloud of whipped cream and freeze and when you cut a slice out you have the perfect ratio of cream to lime, it's scrum-didely-yone (In Jeremy language).

Frozen Key Lime Pie

adapted from Ina Garten

for the crust

1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (10 crackers)

1/4 cup sugar

6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) melted unsalted butter

for the filling

6 large egg yolks, at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

1 14oz can sweetened condensed milk

2 tablespoons grated lime zest

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lime juice (about 4-5 limes)

for the decoration

1 cup (1/2 pint) cold heavy cream

1/4 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

thin lime wedges

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the crust, combine the graham cracker crumbs ( I make crumbs in the food processor) sugar, and butter in a bowl. Press into a 9 inch pie pan, making sure the sides and the bottom are an even thickness. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow to cool completely.

For the filling, beat the yolks and sugar on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment for 5 minutes, until thick. With the mixer on medium speed, add the condensed milk, lime zest, and lime juice. pour into the baked pie shell and freeze.

For the decoration (and this in NOT optional) beat the heavy cream on high speed in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until soft peaks form. Add the sugar and vanilla and beat until firm about 30 seconds more. Spoon or pipe decoratively onto the pie (I like to just spread the whipped cream over the pie so it looks like a cloud, leaving about a 1 inch border around the edges so you can see the pie along the sides) and decorate with the lime wedges. I just nestle a couple into the cream. Freeze for several hours or overnight.

Alright, I know, I know, there are raw eggs called for in this recipe but if you have concerns, just combine the yolks with 1/2 cup of the lime juice used in the recipe in a double boiler. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture reaches 140 degrees. Use in place of the raw egg yolks, remembering to add the remaining 1/4 cup of lime juice to the filling mixture along with the condensed milk and zest. I don't do this because I buy high quality eggs (Egglands Best) and I am just not that worried about it. Don't worry, the filling doesn't taste eggy.

Sometimes I find I like a little thicker crust for my pie. If you do too, just add a couple crackers to make crumbs with and add enough extra butter so that it binds together easily, it isn't rocket science and a little extra butter wont wreck it.

And hooray! I finally realized how to put pictures up on this dang website! the downside is my camera genuinely sucks and I can't take glamorous food pictures with it, so just pretend they are bright and beautiful and the lighting is perfect! I should mention however, that I usually cut my lime decorations in wedges. It looks prettier than the round ones pictured here.