Choco Pie

Emeril Lagassi inspires a lot of our cooking. This recipe was inspired from his Hawaiian Vintage Chocolate pie (see it here). Hawaiian Vintage chocolate is a brand of chocolate that has been aged before processing, similar to fine wine. For those who do not have access to this type of chocolate, you can use any type of chocolate, but I would suggest something moderately priced. I used Lindt's chocolate, YUM! No worries, this pie did not require heavy baking techniques. I used a simple pie crust made from my Oreos (minus the icing) and honey graham crackers. For the chocolate filling, I mixed in toffee bits to give it extra texture and flavor, but you can substitute it with nuts (pecans sound good here) or peanut butter bits. After a bit of cooking on the stove top, the pie is chilled for a few hours in the fridge before serving to your hungry guests. The pie filling was absolutely divine and the pie crust surprisingly cut down the sweetness a lot, allowing one to have more than one slice. Here's the recipe:



Ingredients:

For the cookie pie crust:

• 2 cups graham cracker cookie crumbs
• 1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (white centers removed)
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor or blender, process the graham crackers and Oreos to make crumbs.

In a bowl mix together the cookie crumbs, sugar and butter with your hands. Press the mixture evenly into a 9-inch pie pan. This looks like a lot of crumbs, but you end up using it all from pressing the crumbs into the 9-in pan. Cover the crust with plastic wrap and top with another 9-inch pan, pressing quite firmly to make a smooth surface. Bake the crust for 15 minutes. Set aside to cool for the pudding filling.

For the pudding filling:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 cups heavy cream
• 3/4 cups buttermilk (or milk plus 1tsp yogurt set for 15 minutes)
• 3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• Pinch salt
• 4 egg yolks
• 3 oz of semi-sweet or milk chocolate (Lindts makes it better, I swear!)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla

In a small saucepan combine the sugar, heavy cream, buttermilk, cornstarch and pinch of salt, and whisk until smooth. Place over medium-high heat, and bring to a boil, whisking from time to time, for the sugar and cornstarch to dissolve and the mixture to thicken, about 5 minutes. Continue cooking at a low boil for an additional 5 minutes, whisking constantly.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg yolks lightly. Pour 1/2 cup of the hot mixture into the egg yolks and whisk thoroughly so you don't cook the eggs from the heat. Pour the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan and whisk over the heat into thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. 

Pour the mixture into a mixing bowl, and whisk in the chocolate, butter and vanilla. Continue whisking until thoroughly combined (mixture will be very thick). Add in your extra toppings as well (here I added toffee bits)

Pour the chocolate batter into the prepared pie crust and refrigerate until firm and cool, at least 4 hours. Serve with whipped cream if you'd like!