Easy Chocolate Pie {The Pie Project}

Last November I got this wild hair and wanted to bake a pie. Let me preface this. I’m a horrible baker. I’ve slowly been getting better, mostly in the muffin arena. BUT PIES. Pies terrify me! I’m not sure if it’s the crust horror stories or my reoccurring nightmare of slicing into a pie and everything running out everywhere…but pies just intimidate me. So flash back to November…I wanted pumpkin pie. I LOVE pumpkin pie. My mother in law makes a great one. And so does Fresh Market. I was feeling all Martha Stewart and wanted to make my own. So I went to the store, bought a refrigerated pie crust and a can of pumpkin pie filling. Not pumpkin puree that you would flavor yourself, but pumpkin pie filling. I followed all the directions. It was disgusting. It tasted horrible. And the color was a very unnatural orange. My husband and I both had a piece and tossed the rest. I’m not even sure I finished my piece…and that never happens!

This whole experience got me thinking. What if I overcame this pie fear? What if I kept trying until I was actually decent at making a pie? Maybe eventually completely from scratch. My first thought was that I would bake one pie a month for 2017. Good, bad, ugly. I would try. January rolled around and I didn’t make a pie. I already failed! Get it together! So the first weekend of February shows up and put my big girl panties on and baked a dang pie (and by baked a pie I mean baked a crust)! Yes…it took over a month for me to blog about it. Mind your own business.

So now my goal is…to just try. I’m going to push myself to try that new scary pie recipe. Will it happen every month? Doubtful (but my husband is hopeful). It will happen when it happens, but there is no end date. I want this to be a continuous journey of trying new things. I’m calling this “The Pie Project”. I’m trying to take care of myself by working out, eating well, and making smart choices. I believe in the 80/20 rule and want to have fun with the 20. So without further ado…my first pie!

I found this recipe on Pinterest from Num’s the Word. She named it Easy Chocolate Pie, which was adapted from the Dean Brothers. I liked it because it said “chocolate” and “easy”. I wanted to set myself up for success for my first legit pie attempt. I used a refrigerated pie crust this time. My goal is to learn to make my own but this is where I’m starting. And to my surprise I did pretty dang good! I didn’t burn my crust and the pie filling was just as it was supposed to be! The bottom layer is very rich but overall was light. If that even makes sense. Maybe next time I will bake a whole pie instead of just the crust :) 

Easy Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:

• Prepared pie crust or baked homemade (I bought a refrigerated raw crust and baked according to package directions. You can get fancy if you please.)
• 1 Quart Heavy Cream (divided 1/3 cup, ½ cup, 1 cup, 1 cup)
• 1 ½ cups Semi-sweet chocolate chips (divided ¾ cup and ¾ cup)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• Chocolate shavings

Directions:

- In a double boiler (I used a heat safe glass boil over a pot of boiling water), add ¾ cup chocolate chips and 1/3 cup of heavy cream. Stir until melted and smooth.

- Pour mixture into your baked and cooled pie crust and freeze for 20 minutes.

- While that chills in the freezer, heat ¾ cup of chocolate chips and ½ cup of heavy cream in the same pot. Again, mix frequently until melted and smooth. Let cool to room temp. I popped it in the fridge to cool because I’m impatient.

- In a separate bowl, beat 1 cup of heavy cream and vanilla until soft peaks form.

- Add cooled chocolate mixture to whipped heavy cream and continue beating until thick, soft peaks form.

- Pour this second layer into the pie crust on top of first chocolate layer and return to the freezer for 20 more minutes.

- In another bowl, mix 1 cup heavy cream with ¼ cup powdered sugar until sniff peaks form then spread over chocolate pie.

- Top with chocolate shavings (I just grated some leftover chocolate chips)

- Serve immediately or return to freezer.

- When serving from freezer, remove and transfer to fridge for 30-60 min beforehand.

Enjoy!

Love, Nikki