I've eaten lots of chocolate cream pie, but I'd never made one until a few weeks ago. Searching through cookbooks and the internet I found lots of recipes, each with different ratios of ingredients and cooking methods.
So, like the curious girl I am, I decided to chose two recipes and test them out on a few friends. The results yielded two similar pies, but just different enough to give you both of my tweaked recipes.
One Awesome Pie Crust
Makes two pie crusts.
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 cups flour
- 1 cup butter (cubed and chilled)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 6â8 tablespoons ice water
Method for Mixing Dough:
- Put flour, sugar, salt, and butter in food processor, pulse until the mixture is a cornmeal texture.
- Add water (2 tablespoons at a time) and pulse a few times between adding water.
- Once mixture has begun to bind, remove from food processor and place on a floured surface.
- Turn a few times on floured surface to form a ball of dough.
- Cut the dough in half, wrap each half in plastic (or place in a freezer bag) and chill (in freezer) for at least 30 minutes before rolling.
Method for Forming Crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 F.
- Roll out dough and place in pie pan.
- Place back in freezer until completely chilled (the sides will be hard).
- Pull out of freezer and line crust with wax paper or foil, and pour in pie weights, dry rice, or dry beans to hold the crust down while baking.
- Bake for 20 minutes, remove and let cool down slightly.
- Take out weights and poke small holes in the bottom of crust with a fork, return to oven (without weights).
- Bake 10 more minutes.
- Remove and cool completely.
Chocolate Cream Pie, Exhibit A
Ingredients:
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 3 cups milk
- 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Freshly whipped cream
Method:
- Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and eggs yolks in a small saucepan.
- Turn heat on medium and add milk in a stream, while whisking constantly.
- Bring to a boil, simmer for one minute.
- Pour mixture through a sieve, or fine mesh strainer, and into a bowl.
- Whisk in both chocolates, butter, and vanilla.
- Cover with buttered wax paper, chill two hours, and put in fully cooked pie shell.
- Chill for two more hours, then cover with freshly whipped cream and serve. Makes one nine inch pie.
Chocolate Cream Pie, Exhibit B
Ingredients:
- 2 cups milk
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounce semisweet chocolate
- 1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
- Freshly whipped cream
Method:
- Heat milk with half of the sugar.
- In a separate bowl, mix egg yolks, the other half of the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
- Whisk hot milk mixture into egg yolk mixture, place back in saucepan.
- Cook until thick - about three minutes.
- Remove from the heat and add the chocolates.
- Chill for six hours, top with freshly whipped cream, and serve. Makes one nine inch pie.