This is the Chocolate Bottom Crusted Chocolate Pie I made for Julia, a friend of my daughter, when her grandfather passed away. Hers had meringue on top, but I’m a big fan of real whipped cream over meringue, any day. For years, every time I saw Julia, we talked about this pie. It was the first and only chocolate pie, I’d ever made, and it took me several years to remember anything other than making meringue in cold, wet weather is a whip, and one I’d rather not experience again. I decided we should bring back this much discussed chocolate pie recipe, so I served it at Christmas. It was gobbled up so quickly, I failed to photograph a slice. As a result, I was forced to make another for our Bowl Game ; ). Good thing the pie was there to dry our tears. Let’s here it for a better year of Texas Football in 2015.
Chocolate Bottom Crusted Chocolate Pie Recipe
Crust:
40 Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers
5 tbsp butter, melted
1/4 c. sugar
Pie Filling:
2/3 c. sugar
1/4 c. cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
4 lg egg yolks
2 1/4 c. 1 % milk
3/4 c. heavy whipping cream
5 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 oz unsweetened chocolate
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla
Whipped Topping:
3/4 c. heavy cream
1 tbsp powder sugar
Preheat oven to 350. In a food processor, crush cookies to crumbs. Pour into a glass pie pan. Top with melted butter and sugar, then use a spatula to mix. When combined, use your fingers to evenly cover bottom and sides of pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes, then set aside.
In a large heavy bottom sauce pan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt and egg yolks with a wire whisk. Turn heat to medium high, and add milk and cream mixture slowly while whisking being sure to scrape all the bottom and sides. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, and cook for another 2 minutes. Mixture will be very thick. Remove from heat, pour through a thin mesh strainer into a clean bowl.
Melt chocolate in the microwave, one minute and 30 seconds at 50% power in a glass bowl. Stir then repeat process if chocolate needs additional melt time. Add melted chocolate and softened butter to pie filling, whisk to combine. Add vanilla, whisk again. Butter wax paper, then cover surface of filling. Set aside to cool 1-2 hours depending on how wide your bowl is for cooling.
When completely cool, spread into prepared pie crust and refrigerate – can be prepared a day ahead! Whip cream in a stand mixer to fluffy, then add powdered sugar. Top pie with whipped cream.
Enjoy!