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2000s Recipes + Menus

Chocolate Cream Pie

Serves8 to 10
  • Active time:45 min
  • Start to finish:8 hr (includes cooling and chilling)
February 2004
This beautiful pie is great for entertaining, since the rich, creamy filling will be a surefire hit with anyone who likes chocolate pudding.

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

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.

Recipe By Kemp M. Minifie

Photograph by Anna Williams

Keywords
nostalgia,
pie,
dessert,
chocolate,
dairy