Smitten Kitchen's Chocolate Pudding Pie

Mmm...good.

As I mentioned on Monday, I made three of Smitten Kitchen's chocolate pudding pies while I was in Indiana. I saw the recipe last week and knew I wanted to try it out. So, when I was over at my brother's house on Thursday I made one. It turned out so good that I made two more to take to the family reunion on Sunday. The pudding pie didn't fare so well in the heat of the reunion, but it tasted good even if it looked like soup...

When I set out to make the two pies for the reunion, I took some photos of the process. I mean, SK did a fabulous post all her own. You might even like hers better, I'd say. I mean, she shows you a slice of pie which I neglected to shoot. But the photos I took - they looked oh so tasty to me, so I thought you might like to see some more photos of chocolate. And chocolate pudding. And whipped cream. I mean, really, how can that be bad? So, here we go.



Here are SK's ingredients:

Pudding filling:

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream

Bittersweet chocolate shavings for garnish (optional) - I did it the second time, as you will see

And, no, Ghirardelli is not a sponsor of this blog. I have not received any dispensation from the Ghirardelli family or its agents. Of course, if they'd like to "dispensate" me, they should feel free. I just wanted to write this paragraph because I see the big time bloggers write such disclaimers all the time. Here on Ate Up Amateur, there is no cause to be alarmed that anyone...or ANYTHING is being secretly touted as part of a giant conspiracy by THE MAN. No worries. Just little ol' me and my crazy opinions here. And I'm sure there's really no doubt in your mind about that. Ahem.

For the pie shell - now, Smitten gives you not one but TWO pie shell solutions. I used an even different one and I've used these shells before and since and I think they are great. You may not agree. You may think a pie shell from the store is sacrilegious. If so, do your own thing. For me, I bought the Pillsbury (formerly Pet-Ritz) shells from the freezer case at the grocery and followed the directions on the bag. Nope, Pillsbury isn't supplying me with the hook-up either. It's just how I roll.



That meant I poked some holes in the bottom of the shell and baked it for about 11 minutes. On the first shell I did in Indiana, I had no bubbling whatsoever.

On the two here that I photographed, I had only slight bubbling.

Back to the filling - this really is just PUDDING people, the "old fashioned" way. You know, before Jell-O brainwashed all of us into thinking that was the only way to get pudding. (No, they aren't sponsoring this here blog either.) Or pudding pops - do you remember pudding pops? And all those commercials with Bill Cosby pushing said pops? Man I loved those things. Why don't they sell them anymore? I wonder if I could take this filling and MAKE pudding pops...oh I smell another blog post coming on...

Anyway, back to THIS blog post - measure out your dry ingredients (minus the 2 TBS sugar and the chocolate) and whisk them together in a pan.

Then turn on the heat and gradually add milk until incorporated.


This photo is pre-boil

As it cooks on medium heat, it will thicken and eventually boil. You've got to stir it CONSTANTLY - don't leave - it doesn't take long. It will seem as if it will never thicken and then, all at once - voila! At that point, take it off the heat.

Add in the vanilla and chocolate (minus a little for the shavings)

Stir that up until incorporated - I know, no photo of that either - I was cooking people - and pour it into the pie shell. (This recipe makes one pie - I doubled it to get my two pies shown in some of these photos. Do not be confused or alarmed. More chocolate is always good.)

Cover the top with wax paper to avoid a filmy layer.

And place in refrigerator for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Grate up that chocolate you set aside.
Get chocolate all over the counter tops.
Put little chocolate pieces in the fridge so they are nice and cold later.

Put the heavy cream and the 2 TBS sugar in a mixing bowl.

And WHIP IT.

WHIP IT GOOD!

And go ahead and refrigerate that too if you did it before the pies were chilled.

Once the pies are chilled, remove them from the refrigerator and remove the wax paper. Lick it clean if you have to or just throw it away. Really, that's the beauty of cooking alone, isn't it...

Just for the record, I did not lick the wax paper. But I might next time. You never know.

Cover that chocolate with that whipped cream,

Garnish with those hard fought chocolate shavings.

Tempting, no?

And serve it up, cold. With some milk. Or coffee. Or Kool-aid. Pick your poison. But, by all means, EAT IT!

So, there you go! A perfectly easy and fun recipe brought to you via Smitten Kitchen.

See you tomorrow with a recap of the family reunion, where these pies were eaten like no tomorrow. Gotta love those relatives! Amen.