Give your sweetie something extra special for Valentine’s Day, a gift of chocolate pie. (Press-Register file photo)

Chocolate cream pie perfect for your Valentine

With February and Valentine’s Day looming just over the horizon, the timing seems right to talk about a treat for your sweet or maybe even for yourself.

Something chocolate, something delicious and something that you might not have thought about lately — an old fashioned Chocolate Cream Pie.

Comforting, creamy, darkly delectable (and rather easy to make) a cream pie is just the ticket to say to your cutie “I’m kinda fond of you.”

After all, nothing says you like someone more than taking time out of your crazy schedule to cook for them. At least, that’s my way of thinking.

Chocolate Cream Pie reappeared on my culinary radar a couple of months back after having a food chat with my friend J. Through one of those curving, winding conversations, we wound up musing on the perfect Chocolate Cream Pie. My Aunt “Sister” — who was a champion pie baker — used to bake delicious chocolate pies for our Wilcox County family gatherings, but I had not had one or truly even thought about chocolate pie in a long, long time.

J. maintained that this holy grail of chocolate pie should contain only milk chocolate; no dark, only have a pudding-like texture and never, ever have meringue on top of it just piles of whipped cream. He was adamant about the no meringue part.

A week or so later, my friend Peg and I also had a conversation about chocolate cream pie (this was a hot topic for a while).

She relayed that she likes her chocolate pie more mousse-like not pudding style and made with very, very, extremely dark chocolate, no milk chocolate. She did, however, (adamantly) agree with J. about the meringue. Absolutely no meringue allowed.

Turns out I am surrounded by meringue loathers.

Since then, other friends have weighed in on this compelling topic with their own chocolate pie ideologies. The chocolate issue and the texture issue and then the meringue issue turned out to be mere tips of the iceberg on the whole chocolate cream pie subject.

The crust itself can come in several permutations — graham, chocolate graham or pastry. I personally prefer chocolate cream pie with the pastry pie crust which I blind bake and then simply pour the filling into.

And oh, did I mention that if you do like meringue, there’s a chocolate cream pie variation that comes with chocolate meringue topping, although, this seems to me like gilding the lily.

And then there’s that whole meringue issue.

Taking all of my friends’ persnickety predilections into account, I have tinkered and toyed with cream pie recipes and have come up with a Chocolate Cream Pie that should — I believe — please almost everyone.

I used bittersweet chocolate (Sorry, J.!), but the type of chocolate (bitter, unsweetened or semi-sweet) can be changed to suit the taste of your sweetie.

It has what I would call a pudding-style texture (Sorry Peg!), but I did cave on the meringue so this pie is topped with layers of whipped cream. You can easily substitute your meringue recipe if the object of your affections is meringue friendly; and if they are a complete chocoholic, you could go with chocolate cream pie with a chocolate graham cracker crust AND a chocolate meringue topping. Wow!

I’m sure we could uncover many other chocolate cream pie variations — crunchy things to add to the fillings, treats to sprinkle on top, perhaps a nut crust, but I am (temporarily, I’m sure) closing the book on my chocolate cream pie explorations.

I have reached what I think is a very nice and flavorful stopping point. Below is the result. Hope you and/or your beloved enjoy it. As always, adapt away to suit your tastes.

Chocolate Cream Pie

Pastry: One 9-inch pie crust, baked

Pudding Filling:

2 tablespoons salted butter

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/3 cup sugar (can be increased to 2/3 if you like a sweeter pie)

7 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate, melted (See note)

¼ cup cornstarch

Pinch of salt

4 large egg yolks

3 cups whole milk

Topping:

2 cups of heavy cream

¼ cup powdered sugar

1 teaspoon of vanilla

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and yolks in a saucepan until well blended then gradually add milk, whisking constantly to eliminate any lumps.

Bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking constantly, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking pretty much almost constantly until thickens.

Remove from heat. Stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla. Whisk!

Pour the filling into cooled shell and cover with wax paper to prevent a skin from forming and chill.

Before serving whip the heavy cream along with the powdered sugar and the teaspoon of vanilla until stiff peaks hold. Pile whipped cream on top of pie and serve.

Note: You can substitute semi-sweet or unsweetened or any combination that might appeal to you. I used 60 percent dark bittersweet chocolate for my pie.

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By VIKKI TURNER FINCH

Correspondent

Chocolate with Bill & Sheila
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