Pi Day: Chocolate cream pie

Celebrate Pi Day (3.14) with a generous slice of classic chocolate cream pie.

|
Eat. Run. Read.
Decadent dark chocolate cream pie over a graham cracker crust with a layer of freshly whipped cream is the only proper way to celebrate Pi Day.

I saw a great Israeli film, called "A Matter of Size." It's a comedy about four friends who decide to ditch their weight-loss club and form a sumo wrestling team instead.

An Israeli sumo wrestling team is kind of a big deal because apparently there are no fat people in Israel! Who knew? In a land of hummus and shwarma and Jewish mothers – no fat people? Really? (All I'm saying is that in those conditions there's a pretty good chance I'd be sumo-sized!)

So I thought it'd be fitting for me to post about something, ahem, kinda sorta fattening ... Chocolate Cream Pie. This pie is totally worth it!

I had some cream left over from the Double Chocolate Tart. So there I was at work, daydreaming about what I could make ... and then it struck. DUH! I have cream ... I want to make something with it ...*Lightbulb!*... Cream pie! And surprisingly not as bad for you as it could be ... I mean, I used non-fat milk, so that counts for something ... right? 

Chocolate Cream Pie
Adapted from Lost Past Remembered

For the crust:
1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs or chocolate wafer crumbs
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Stir together crumbs, butter, and sugar and press on bottom and up side of a 9-inch pie plate. Bake about 15 minutes, and cool on a rack.

For the filling:
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1-1/3 cups semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (I used almond extract)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg yolks
1 cup heavy cream, divided
2 cups milk

1. Place the chopped chocolate, butter, and vanilla extract in a 2-quart mixing bowl; set aside.

2. In a medium saucepan away from heat, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa and salt. Whisk in 1/4 cup of cold heavy cream until the mixture is smooth, with no lumps. Repeat with another 1/4 cup of the cream. Whisk in the egg yolks

3. Place the saucepan over medium heat, and gradually whisk in the remaining cream and milk.

4. Bring to a boil, whisking constantly as the mixture thickens; boil for 1 minute

5. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture over the reserved chocolate and butter.

6. Whisk until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

7. Pass the filling through a strainer into a bowl to remove any lumps.

8. Place plastic wrap or buttered parchment paper on the surface to prevent a skin from forming, and chill thoroughly.

For the topping:
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Place the heavy cream in a chilled mixing bowl.

2. Whip until the whisk begins to leave tracks in the bowl.

3. Add the sugar and vanilla and whip until the cream holds a medium peak.

To assemble:

1. Transfer the cooled filling to the cooled crust. Level the top with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula. Let it chill thoroughly.

2. Serve with the whipped cream on the top of the pie or top individual slices with the cream. I also garnished with finely chopped dark chocolate. Just to make it prettier!

Related post on Eat. Run. Read.: Black and White Whoopie Pies

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Pi Day: Chocolate cream pie
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Food/Stir-It-Up/2016/0314/Pi-Day-Chocolate-cream-pie
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe