Double Chocolate Pudding Pie

This is my pick for this week's Craving Ellie in my Belly. I have a huge sweet tooth (can you tell?) and none of the other CEIMB members had picked a dessert recipe yet so I decided to pick one. Growing up, my aunt always made chocolate pudding pie for special occasions like Thanksgiving and Christmas and I would always help her in the kitchen. I adored this pie and would always ask my mom to make it (she never did!). I was SO excited when I saw this recipe in The Food You Crave and marked it immediately.

I'm happy to say it lived up to my expectations :) I'm very happy with my pick and I hope the other members liked the pie as much as I did! The pie itself was fairly easy to make. Having to constantly stir the milk mixture in a saucepan over the heat was tedious but so worth it. I stuck to the recipe except I used 2% milk instead of 1% because that was all I had. I don't know if that made my pie better or worse (I'm thinking better!) but I usually have 2% so I'll stick to that the next time I make it. Also, I had heavy cream but decided not to make the whipped cream for 3 reasons: I'm not a huge fan of whipped cream. I wanted to eat the pie already! And I figured the extra fat and calories weren't worth it, especially because I used 2% milk.

The only problem I had with this recipe was that the graham cracker crust didn't come up the edges high enough and wasn't as thick as I would have liked. I noticed some of the other members had the same problem. Next time I'll double the amount of graham crackers and hopefully that will supply enough crust. I made this 2 days ago and there are only 2 pieces of pie left! It is that good, pretty much irresistible.


Double Chocolate Pudding Pie
From The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger

• 14 graham cracker squares (7 full sheets)
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1 tablespoon water
  
• 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
• 1/3 cup boiling water
• 2/3 cup sugar, plus 1/2 teaspoon
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups 1 percent low-fat milk
  
• 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray.

In a food processor, process the graham crackers until finely ground. Add butter and water and process until the crumbs clump together. Press the crumb mixture into bottom of pie plate and about 1-inch up the sides. Bake for 10 minutes, then let cool.

In the meantime, make the pudding. Put the gelatin in a small bowl, add the boiling water and stir until dissolved. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan mix the 2/3 cup of sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Gradually add half of the milk, whisking until smooth. Whisk in the rest of the milk. Turn the heat on to medium and cook, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 10 minutes.

Remove from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until melted. Stir in the vanilla and reserved gelatin. Pour the mixture into the pie crust and let set for 3 hours in the refrigerator.

Whip the cream and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Before serving, garnish the pie with the whipped cream.