Since today is “Pi Day” (3.14 — get it?), you can bet there will be a lot of pies flying around the internet. Maybe you’ll even want to make a pie. Especially if it gets you extra credit in math class. For midweek pies, however, I recommend the easy route. Chocolate pudding pie in a store-bought shortbread crust is about as easy as it gets, while still tasting like (and totally qualifying as) homemade. With a couple decorating hacks (piped chocolate and stabilized whipped cream!) the pie will look good all the way through second period.
Start with a ready-made crust, available in the baking aisle. For chocolate fillings I like the shortbread shells. If you can’t find those, the graham cracker or Nilla wafer shells would work too. Of course you could make your own pâte brisée pie crust, which would be delicious and less processed — but that would kind of negate the “quick and easy” point of this recipe.
So if we’re going for easy, why stabilize the whipped cream? It’s not necessary if you’re going to use the whipped cream/eat the pie right away. But– if you want to make the pie a day ahead and don’t want to risk having your beautifully whipped peaks deflate and weep, you should stabilize the cream with gelatin. (Learn more about stabilizing cream from Cook’s Illustrated here.)
Chocolate Pudding Pie
Subee's Kitchen
Ingredients
- 1 prepared pie crust (preferably shortbread)
- ¾ cup sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate chips (or chopped bittersweet chocolate)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Stabilized Whipped Cream
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cold water
- 1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
- 2 cups (1 pint) heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Piped chocolate decorations
- 1 cup dark chocolate melting wafers
- 1 large ziplock bag
Directions
In a heavy saucepan over medium-high heat, add sugar, cornstarch, salt and milk. Whisk to combine. Whisk gently until mixture comes to a boil. Pudding will start to thicken just before boiling. (It will look like Elmer’s glue.)Remove from heat. Add vanilla and chocolate chips and whisk until smooth. Pour into pie shell. Chill in refrigerator while preparing whipped cream.Place 1 1/2 tablespoons water in a small microwaveable bowl. Sprinkle powdered gelatin over water and let stand for a couple minutes to “bloom”. Microwave mixture 15 seconds at a time, until gelatin is liquified.
Whip the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla in a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, staying on low speed for two minutes and then increasing speed to medium-high. Pour in the liquid gelatin and continue beating until soft peaks form.
Spread whipped cream over pudding pie and chill.
Place 1 cup melting wafers in a large ziplock bag. Microwave in 30-second increments until chocolate is melted. (Squeeze bag to mix.) Cut the tip off one of the corners and pipe desired letters onto parchment or waxed paper. Let cool before peeling off and placing on pie.
Homemade chocolate pudding is really easy! (Note no eggs in this recipe.)
Pour pudding into pie shell.
To make the stabilized whipped cream, you need to “bloom” the gelatin over a little water (it will turn to a gel) and then heat it to liquify.
Pour liquid gelatin into the partially-whipped cream, then keep beating until soft peaks form.
Spread the whipped cream over the pudding pie.
These Ghirardelli melting wafers melt easily in the microwave. Be sure to seal the bag!
Cut a teeny tiny corner off the bottom of the bag. Then practice piping. Eat whatever doesn’t turn out.
Or skip the piped decorations altogether and just top with chopped/shaved chocolate.
A+!
Subee's Kitchen 
Ok, so not food related…you’re girls are growing up so fast! Beautiful!
Thanks, Dani. Miss you!
Chef Subee you have inspired us yet again!!
We are going to attempt this after school today…we missed our chance for extra credit in Math, but there must be extra points to be gained somewhere for this hopeless chef who can’t imagine how “blooming gelatin” is considered “easy” in your world!! Sigh :))).
Can you stay by the kitchen bat phone today, I’m sure I will be needing you!!??
Excited to try, thank you for the inspiration!! Xo
Will be standing by the bat phone! Good luck!
Thank you! Will be making this today. Minus the stabilized whipped cream.
Yumm! I think I can use this for St Paddy’s day too, yes?? Maybe with a few green sprinkles on top?
Why not?? Or try my No-Bake Grasshopper Pie!
I would like to report back on our mid-week pie making event last night….awesome!!!
With only time for a quick stop at our local WalMart, pickings were slim for pie crusts. So I went with an Oreo crust and a box mix (didn’t even know they had that, my Grandmother, who would make pie from scratch as she prepared dinner, would cringe!). My girls went with the Oreo crust, not a big surpruse!!
With only having to referee (there was some Ms. Bossypants power struggles) from the sidelines, our tween/teen girls were able to make this all by themselves! We started way later in the night then I had planned, but it all worked out and they were extremely happy with their pie in honor of pi day.
I had some this morning (oh the guilt, promised our dogs not to tell anyone!) and it is DELICIOUS!!! It tastes very “special”, not processed, high quality and it’s decadent without being too rich. It is just so yummy!!!
This was a very nice and unexpected treat for us to do while juggling work, homework etc. It actually had the girls sharing, giggling, and overhearing conversations both big (walkout day) and small (I’m not giving up chocolate again for Lent😉) it turned into a very heartwarming experience.
Thanks to Chef Subee, you don’t have to turn on your oven to make a meal warm your home!
Wow – thanks for the report, Karen! Glad you all enjoyed the pie as well as the experience!
Trying this today…kept looking at how delicious it looked and now I can’t resist!
You can even use skim milk, so it’s diet food!