A Pie Per Week: Hershey's Chocolate Pie

Chocolate Pie

Brian:  How can you not like Chocolate pie?  This is another pie that invokes a sea of recipes with a Google search.  And like always, we try to evaluate what we like from different recipes, and whittle it down to a favorite. Things got off to a bit of a rough start as you can see below...

Poor Burnt Crust

Angie:  Brian's parents have been awesome in helping us lay tile in our house this week, and we have been spending lots of our time towards that project.  The grocery store I went to didn't have any foil pie pans so we were going to use some pre-made crusts, but we, (and when I saw "we" I mean I, darnit!) just didn't hear the timer go off.  So, I ended up making them from scratch.

Dry ingredient mixture 

Brian:  I rode in an 18 mile bike ride Saturday night in Indianapolis called the N.I.T.E. ride with my son.  It is a cool event that starts at 11 pm, and you make your way through downtown with well lit streets and lights on your bike.  Since I didn't get in until 2 a.m., it was a late morning for me, and Angie was the primary cook again on this pie.  

Adding in the Egg mixture

Angie:  This pie requires adding ingredients in proper intervals, as you will see from our photos.  And like all pies, it requires some patience.  Right when this pie comes to a boil, you cook for one minute, and then you are ready to pour in.

Melting in the Chips

Angie: One key tip from the recipe is to immediately apply plastic wrap to the pie.  Have you ever seen a film left on the top of pudding?  This helps eliminate that.  If you wait for the pie to cool completely the filling will not stick to the plastic wrap at all!

Apply Plastic wrap immediately to avoid a skin on top

Brian:  Do you want to know the worst grade of my life?  8th Grade.  Why?  Well, they made us take Home Economics, Industrial Arts, Drafting, and Art.  I don't have an artistic bone in my body and can barely write my name.  Angie definitely adds some artistic qualities to the pies in the decorations.

Pie Before Garnish

Angie:  Our youngest daughter, Emilee, helped me garnish the pies with chocolate. I just used a vegetable peeler and created the shaved chocolate as decoration.  One of the things I love about watching cooking shows is how much effort is put into presentation.

Adding the chocolate garnish

Brian:  I absolutely loved this pie.  I love dark and rich chocolate and I tend to prefer it over sweet chocolate.  With this pie you can almost feel the cocoa entering your veins, and since it is an anti-oxidant, I felt like I was contributing to good health.

Care for a slice?

Angie:  The pie was really rich but not overly sweet.  I was thankful I decided to use straight whipped topping instead of a marshmallow topping I thought about using to help cut the richness.  I tried an all butter shortening crust this time and it turned out like leather.  I won't be trying that again!

Pie Recipient of the Week

Bo Knows Chocolate Pie

Brian:  Our pie recipient of the week is my good friend Bo, and I know that he shared his pie with his fellow colleagues.  Why did he share the pie?  Well, he is a top notch guy, and that is the sort of thing a person of his caliber would do.  He was part of one of our college interns who landed a permanent role with our company.  He and many of his friends attended one of my Improv Showcases.  My daughter likes his name and made him a special note, which he hung above his desk.

Bo and I also share a love of music and recommend different artists to each other.  Recently we both attended the Japandroids concert here locally, and we have blogged about music together here.  His only major shortcoming is going to Purdue, but I have chosen to look past that.

Angie:  Bo went to Purdue, no one told me that?

Recipe

  1 9-inch pie crust

 3/4 C Sugar

 1/3 cup HERSHEY'S Cocoa

 1/3 cup cornstarch

 1/4 teaspoon salt

    3 eggs, beaten

    3 C milk

 3/4 C HERSHEY's SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY's Semi-Sweet

       Chocolate Chips

    3 Tablespoons butter

    2 teaspoons vanilla extract

       Whipped topping

       Additional HERSHEY'S SPECIAL DARK Chocolate Chips or HERSHEY's Semi-Sweet 

       Chocolate Chips

Directions

1 Prepare Pie crust, cool

2 Stir together sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan.  Combine eggs and milk; gradually stir into mixture, blending well.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with wire whisk, until mixture begins to thicken and just comes to a boil.  Remove from heat.

3 Add chocolate chips, butter, and vanilla.  Stir until chips and butter are melted and the mixture is smooth.

Pour into prepared crust.  Immediately press plastic wrap onto pie surface.  Refrigerate three or four hours or until firm.  Garnish with whipped topping and chocolate ships.