So back to the story! We had our friends Beth and Justin and their little cutie Henry over for a barbeque. We just made some steaks, a green bean potato salad, and some grilled veggies. It was so nice to spend time with our friends, and the weather here in DC has been just gorgeous! I wanted to have something cold for dessert, but didn't want to give up on a big "bang" of flavor, so I searched Smitten Kitchen's arsenal of pie recipes, and came across the recipe for Chocolate Pudding Pie.
The first obstacle I ran into was that I had a packet of pie recipes with an EXCELLENT pie crust recipe, but I lost it! I was so forlorn. How would I make pie?! Well, I decided that Deb could never do me wrong, so I used the all-butter pie crust recipe she had on the site. OH my gosh. I'll never go back. So buttery, flaky, delicious. The pudding? I'm not sure I'll ever make it out of the box again. And the very lightly sweetened whipped cream on top? The perfect compliment to the rich, thick pudding. I'm telling you. Make this. How good was it, you ask? I had a piece. I tried to pawn the rest off on Justin and Beth, but they wouldn't take it. They left. I had another piece. I put it in the fridge. I came back to it the next day. I had another piece. Midway through that last piece I shouted "NO MORE!! I need to throw this #@*% pie AWAY!" as I felt it's chocolatey buttery goodness settling in on my hips. It pained me, but I knew it was for my own good.
Worry not, friends. I have a feeling this pie will be making an appearance again soon! We're moving in the next couple weeks to a new, and much bigger apartment. I'm thinking there's a housewarming barbeque in our future...and I'm thinking this chocolate pudding pie will be our guest of honor!
Now on to the recipe (straight from Smitten Kitchen)!
Adapted from Gourmet
One of my favorite things about this — besides the whole CHOCOLATE and PUDDING and PIE thing — is the way that despite its all-id, kid-like nature, this pie is surprisingly unsweet and not heavy. There’s barely a half cup of sugar in the whole she-bang and the lack of excessive richness (it’s a milk and cornstarch pudding, not a weighty egg yolk and cream custard) makes for something you can easily crave on a hot summer day, although you’ve already been warned that that craving may strike without warning.
One half-recipe of All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough, wrapped and chilled for at least 30 minutes
Pudding filling:
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream
Bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (optional)
Prepare pie dough: Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp edge decoratively. Prick bottom and side of shell all over with a fork, then chill shell 30 minutes. While shell chills, preheat oven to 375°F with a baking sheet on middle rack. Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights*.
Bake on baking sheet until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove weights and foil, then bake shell on baking sheet until pale golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool shell.
Make pudding filling: Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk [tips alert!] in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, two minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.
Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, its surface covered with wax paper (if you want to prevent a skin from forming), until cold, at least two hours.
Just before serving, beat cream with remaining two tablespoons sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Spoon onto pie and garnish with bittersweet chocolate shavings, if you’re feeling fancy.
Do ahead: Pie dough can be made and chilled up to two days. Pie, without whipped cream, can be chilled up to one day before serving. Whipped cream is best added at the last minute, however, I did find that ours held up surprisingly well for a day (so far), if you feel like winging it.
* Detour! This is where I admit that I for reasons both lengthy and boring, I really loathe working with pie weights and use a different technique to blind bake pie and pastry shells. Instead, I freeze my rolled-out shells for 20 to 30 minutes until solid, press a piece of buttered foil, buttered side down, very tightly against the frozen shell and blind bake it according to regular directions. When it is time to remove the weights, I carefully pull back the foil, and press any part of the crust that has bubbled up gently back with the back of a spoon and continue baking the shell. Try it!
Natalie note: I used a bag of uncooked kidney beans as my pie weights. Works every time!!
Seriously guys. Make this pie. But don't blame me when you sit on your couch rubbing your belly and cursing it's chocolatey goodness. It can't help that it's got Mary Poppins Syndrome! You know...it's practically perfect in every way? Har har har! Okay, and there's your daily dose of cheesey jokes. Enjoy!!
