About once a year I indulge myself with chocolate cream pie, using someone’s potluck as an excuse to make one. This is a very rich dessert, especially when mounded with loads of whipped cream, the only way to eat it as far as I am concerned.
Over the years I discovered instead of using unsweetened Baker’s chocolate it was much yummier to use double the amount of my favorite semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate. Because of this the filling became truly lush and decadent.
When you select the chocolate to use in this recipe, I suggest you bypass the baking section of your local grocer and go directly to the candy section. Select pure dark chocolate bars which can vary from 85% dark to a semisweet of 62%. You will need about four to five ounces of chocolate for this recipe. You can even add more if you want a very dark chocolate filling. Just select chocolate that you enjoy eating. Each brand varies in taste depending upon how it is processed.
Ingredients for rich chocolate cream pie. (Photo by Patty Schied)
Ingredients:
One baked pie crust
4 large egg yolks
1 cup sugar
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup cornstarch
3 cups of whole milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 to 6 oz of bittersweet or semisweet chocolate cut up
Directions:
Mix egg yolks to blend in a medium bowl.
In a 2- or 3-quart saucepan or saucier, blend flour, cornstarch, salt and sugar. With a sturdy wire whisk, slowly stir in milk.
Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils. Boil and stir for one full minute.
Add chocolate and stir until blended.
Pour about a cup of the hot custard mixture into the egg yolks, stirring constantly so that it does not curdle. Pour blended mixture back into pan.
Bring chocolate custard mixture back to a boil then stir constantly for one minute.
Add vanilla and stir to blend.
Pour chocolate custard into the baked pie shell.
Cover the pie filling with plastic wrap. Cool for several hours or overnight.
When ready to serve:
Whip 1¼ cup of heavy cream with ½ cup powdered sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla until soft peaks form.
Spoon whipped cream onto chocolate pie.
This serves about eight people. Keep leftovers chilled in the refrigerator.
Note: If the chocolate custard filling sounds great but you don’t want to make a pie, spoon the custard into dessert bowls, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator.
• Patty Schied is a longtime Juneau resident who studied at the Cordon Bleu in London, has cooked meals for both AWARE and the Glory Hall, and has written a cookbook. Cooking For Pleasure appears every other week in Capital City Weekly.
