Chocolate Pie

The queen of chocolate pie making in our family is my Aunt Edna. Now for some reason I always seem to miss out on the family meal where she provides this pie, but I hear it is delicious. Aunt Edna makes her pie the old fashioned way with a regular pie crust and topped with meringue. Meringue is not my favorite thing, but it is starting to grow on me.

Since tomorrow is my birthday I decided it was ok to treat myself to a sinful dessert. I searched online for different recipes and didn't find any that looked fabulous so I decided to piece together my own. Using Aunt Edna's pie filling recipe, I paired it with an oreo crust and whipped cream...after all it is MY birthday.

This is a simple recipe and I made it even easier by making the filling in the microwave instead of stovetop. I also used skim milk (insert gasp here) and it thickened up just fine. This justifies eating two pieces today right??

Chocolate Pie

Ingredients:
Oreo cookie crust (crushed oreos and melted butter or you can buy one pre-made)
1/2 stick butter, melted
4 T cocoa powder
1 1/2 c sugar
4 T flour
4 egg yolks
3 c milk
2 t vanilla
Whipped cream or cool whip

Directions:
1. Combine melted butter and cocoa powder.2. Add in sugar and flour - will get really grainy. 3. Mix egg yolks with milk and then add to chocolate mixture. Whisk well.4. Cook in microwave in 2 minute intervals, taking out to whisk each time, until mixture gets thick. Here are pictures of what it looked like at the stages so you know it looks normal when you try. Make sure to whisk well at each interval.5. Stir in vanilla after done cooking.6. I let filling chill a little before adding it to pie crust. I was going to fold in some whipped cream but I didn't feel like waiting for that step. I pressed some wax paper on top of the chocolate filling when it was cooling to prevent a film from forming on top - if one were to form just whisk it good.7. Chill pie and garnish with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

I can't wait to dig into this later today - I hope it is yummy!

**If your pie filling comes out a little lumpy, it is likely because a little egg white got into the mix. No big deal just try to pretend they aren't there. :)