Chocolate Pie

Growing up my sister and I would stay with our Grandmother in the afternoons after school and during the summer. We did all kinds of fun things together, but one of my favorites was to watch her cook. Everything she cooked was amazing, but one of the family’s most requested was her chocolate pie. As a kid I was never a big fan of sweets, but I would jump for her chocolate pies. They definitely satisfy a sweet tooth!

Like most things you make or build, you have to start with the foundation. The foundation of a good pie would be the crust. When my grandmother would make her pie, she would use a frozen pie crust. Those are all well and good, especially if you don’t have the time or the gumption to make fresh pie dough, but I think a freshly made crust makes all the difference in the world. The recipe I use for pie dough is Ina Garten’s Perfect Pie Crust. It’s called perfect for a reason! All you need is a few ingredients and a food processor.  Here’s the recipe:

• 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) cold unsalted butter
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening
• ½ cup iced 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 to 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. Dump out on a floured board and roll into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Cut the dough in half. Roll each piece on a well-floured board into a circle, rolling from the center to the edge, turning and flouring the dough to make sure it doesn’t stick to the board. Fold the dough in half, place in a pie pan, and unfold to fit the pan.

After I place the dough into a pie pan, I do what is called blind baking. Blind baking is basically pre-cooking the crust. To do this I first prick the bottom of the dough with a fork. Then I take some butter and rub it all over a piece of tin foil and lay the foil over top of the crust. Add pie weights or some dry rice or beans over the foil. This keeps the crust from bubbling up. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes then remove and set aside to cool. If you didn’t pre-cook the crust, the bottom would come out doughy while the top of the crust would be crisp.

Next is the chocolate filling. For the chocolate, I use good old fashioned Hershey’s cocoa. You can’t go wrong with cocoa! The most important step to making the filling is mixing the hot milk with the egg yolks and not curdling them. You definitely don’t want chunks of egg in your chocolate pie. To avoid this, I do what is called tempering the eggs which is to slowly bring up the temperature of the eggs without scrambling them. Slowly whisk in the milk to the eggs a little at a time.

I like to top the pie off with a meringue. You can also bake the pie without a topping and use cool whip after the pie is cooled down or you can use nothing at all.

This chocolate pie is always a massive hit whenever I make them. I think they are the best when they are slightly warm, but they really are delicious anytime. Enjoy!

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Chocolate Pie

Ingredients

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 egg whites
• 2 cups whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ¼ stick butter
• ½ teaspoon cream of tartar

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, add sugar and sift together the cocoa and cornstarch.
2. Whisk together egg yolks in a small bowl. Heat milk to scalding, just before it begins to boil. Remove milk from heat and slowly add milk to egg yolks while whisking together.
3. Add egg mixture and dry ingredients together in a medium pot over medium-high heat. Whisk constantly until mixture begins to thicken, about 5 minutes. Once it starts to thicken, stir with spoon until it becomes the consistency of pudding. Remove from heat and stir in butter and vanilla. Let mixture cool slightly before adding to a prepared pie crust.
4. To make the meringue, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar on high speed until stiff peaks form. Spread meringue over pie filling and bake at 375 for about 15-20 minutes until meringue is browned.