Chocolate Cream Pie

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I love this Chocolate Cream Pie recipe I am about to share with you guys. It’s perfectly smooth and ever so chocolate and it really is quite a dream with some delicious whipped cream on top! The crust is phenomenal when done correctly and you can go two different routes:

You can go the traditional pie crustt route which is very delicious

OR

You can go the graham cracker route…

I am a sucker for graham crackers so I went with this option. But my graham cracker crust isn’t just your ol’ run of the mill graham cracker crust. It’s almost a custard consistency itself. Let me tell you a story to illustrate how this came about.

Two years ago, I was helping prepare for our Thanksgiving buffet at work and there were still lots to do during the week leading up to that big day. The day before, I had worked my regular morning shift and seeing that there still was help needed prep wise, I decided I needed to stay and help out my chef. Due to stress, lack of eating, and just working a ton that week, I was nursing a 4-hour old migraine that was showing no signs of stopping. I was now on hour 12 of what would be a 16-hour day for me when my chef asked me to make 13 graham cracker crusts for some pumpkin pies we would be making later. He handed me a recipe and asked me to make enough for the 13 pies.

Now this recipe was a doozy for a couple of reasons: 1) the measurements were mostly in teaspoons/tablespoons which was hard if you need to know how many 1 pound blocks of butter you were going to need. 2) Again I had a migraine so I couldn’t think straight. I had to figure out how many tablespoons were in a pound… Which is 32, by the way, in case anyone needed to know. I got my conversions (which I assumed were correct, seeing as how my head felt like it was going to implode at any time) and started to make my crusts. I blind baked them and let them cool; I finished off the rest of my night and went home only to be back 6 hours later to help set up the buffet.

Fast forward to buffet service

My chef had his family come in for lunch that day and sat down with them to enjoy the food. I was prepping items for the next days’ lunch service when my chef came up to me and said “Marlee, open your mouth.” He held out a piece of pumpkin pie with the graham cracker crust that I made the night before and fear shot through my body! Did I royally screw this crust up??? Thank you, jerky migraine! I didn’t even protest with the “I don’t like pumpkin pie” argument because I knew that would be invalid. I opened my mouth and prepared for the worst. He shoved that piece of pie in my face and…. IT WAS AMAZING! I finally relaxed and he said “this is the most amazing crust I’ve had in my life! What did you do?” Well chef, I had a migraine and was exhausted so this was a complete fluke, really! I told him what my conversions were and that I had added 3 POUNDS of butter to 12 cups of graham cracker crumbs… Man oh man was I relieved that my migraine was my saving grace instead of being my detriment! We had a couple of catering events later that he asked me to make that crust for as part of the desserts. Part of my legacy.

Now you can definitely ease up on the amount of butter in this crust recipe! But I will say, it is something that needs to be experienced at least once though!

The custard in this recipe ought to really be treated like when we made ice cream! Lower heat to cook our eggs but not scramble them. I didn’t set my custard in an ice bath because the coolness of the butter stirred in at the end will help cool the custard slightly before chilling in the fridge to set.

The recipe calls for vanilla extract but by all means, play around with different extract flavors to set yours apart. Mint, orange, strawberry even would be nice to spice it up a bit. Same with the whipped cream; you can do a plain vanilla whipped cream or you can choose to be adventurous and make it taste a bit different. I would just match the flavor of extract in the pie with the whipped cream, otherwise it gets to be a mess of flavors and will take away from the beautiful flavor of this chocolate cream pie!

Be sure to look at this previous post for ideas on how to fashion your own piping bag with a Ziploc baggie if you don’t have a piping bag on hand.

I love using a food processor to crumb up my graham crackers because they get broken down very easily. If you don’t happen to have one, read my note at the bottom of my recipe for an alternative to the food processor.

Give this pie recipe a try and let me know how you like it! Especially if you choose to make my custard-like graham cracker crust.

Happy eating everyone!

Print

Chocolate Cream Pie

Prep Time

20 mins

Cook Time

20 mins

Total Time

1 hrs 40 mins

 

A silky smooth chocolate pie with an irresistible graham cracker crust!

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Servings: 1 9 inch pie

Author: ijustmakesandwiches

Ingredients

• 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate aka Bakers chocolate
• 1 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
• 1 pint milk
• 2 ounces Sugar
• 2 each egg yolks
• 1 each whole egg
• 2 ounces Sugar
• 1 ounce cornstarch
• 1 ounce Butter chilled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For Crust

• 18 sheets graham cracker
• 1/2 cup Butter melted

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a food processor*, break up graham crackers into tiny crumbs. Add butter in a steady stream until crumbs get together.
   
2. Press evenly into a pie pan and bake 10 minutes. Let cool completely.
   
3. Melt the chocolates in a double boiler or in the microwave until melted and smooth. Set aside for later.
   
4. Bring milk and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat.
   
5. While milk and sugar are heating, beat eggs in a medium sized bowl. Add cornstarch and sugar to the eggs and whisk until a smooth mix is achieved.
   
6. Temper hot milk into eggs. Combine in saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat until mix becomes thick.
   
7. Combine in saucepan and stir constantly over medium heat until mix becomes thick.
   
8. Whisk in chilled butter and vanilla extract.
   
9. Mix in melted chocolate.
   
10. Pour into cooled crust and chill entire pie.
    
11. Garnish with whipped cream, crushed graham crackers and chocolate shavings.
    

Recipe Notes

*if you don't have access to a food processor, place graham cracker sheets into a large Ziploc bag and crush crackers with a rolling pin or the bottom of a saucepan until fine crumbs are achieved.