Chocolate Cream Pie

Last week, while cleaning out my cupboard, I found a box of graham cracker crumbs and some unsweetened chocolate. An idea formed in my head and I checked the rest of my baking stash to see if I could find what I needed to make a chocolate cream pie. Milk, chocolate chips, butter...I had it all (yeah!) so I got busy.

Making a cream pie is a very rewarding experience. Stirring a custard can seem tedious but once it starts to thicken up, it makes you happy because your filling was successful. You really have to watch the custard carefully...no one likes burnt chocolate in their pie! What I really liked about the recipe is that anyone could make it and the filling used real chocolate as opposed to cocoa powder. This gave the pie a deep, rich-tasting chocolate flavour, much better than any boxed pudding mix you could buy commercially. Don't worry if your custard doesn't taste too chocolately when it is hot - a couple hours in the refrigerator does wonders.

After baking the crust and making a quick call to my sister to pick up some whipping cream, the pie was assembled. It was smooth, cool, velvety and oh-so-easy to eat. The only change I made to the original recipe was to put all the whipping cream on top, not mixing in half to the filling. I also added a couple dashes of cinnamon to the crust and whipping cream to give it a little extra flavour. The brown speckles in the cream do make the pie look pretty...try it and see for yourself!

Recipe: Chocolate Cream Pie