My Chocolate Cream Pie

I've been eyeing this recipe in my binder for a couple months now, and the thought of using 9 egg yolks all in one recipe was a little disconcerting...so I adapted it and made it my way. Consider yourself warned: this is a very rich dish...so use little plates when serving!

Enjoy.

My Chocolate Cream Pie 

Adapted from Saveur

Crust:
8 oz. graham crackers
1 stick melted butter

Filling:
3 c milk (I used 1%)
1/2 c heavy cream
2/3 c sugar
1/4 c cornstarch
7 egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 stick butter (cut up 1" pieces)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
8 oz semisweet chocolate chips
2 oz unsweetened chocolate

Topping:
2 c heavy cream (this can vary, depending on how thick you want the top layer to be)
1 tsp vanilla
2 T sugar

For the crust:
Preheat oven 350 deg. Combine graham crackers in blender, blend until crushed, add melted butter, stir and press into 9" pie plate. Bake for approx. 15 min or until nice and brown. Cool the crust.

For the Filling:
Combine milk and heavy cream in heavy duty sauce pan over med heat. Whisk constantly to ensure the mixture does not burn. When it just begins to simmer, remove from heat. In a large separate bowl combine sugar and cornstarch, whisk, add egg yolks and eggs, whisk until smooth. Add this egg mixture very slowly into the hot milk/cream mixture. You want to temper the egg mixture and be sure not to scramble the eggs. There is a very thorough demo on tempering here. Once all the eggs have been added, return the saucepan to the stove, cook over med heat, stirring often until bubbles rise to surface and mixture is very thick. Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, butter and vanilla. Whisk until chocolate and butter are melted and incorporated. Cool.

For the topping:
beat cream, vanilla and sugar until stiff peaks form.

When crust and filling are cool, dump chocolate filling into crust, smooth the filling and top with whip cream. This pie is best if it has been chilled for a couple hours before serving, but who really can wait that long...I say dig in as soon as you get it into the dish. Enjoy.