Chocolate Truffle Pie

I love chocolate, who doesn't?  My husband however, has an obsession, the darker, the richer the better.  This recipe is about as rich as it gets.  Imagine taking those expensive little chocolate truffles that you get about 4 in a bag of and making a pie with just that thick creamy center?  Well, that's this pie.

It's actually pretty simple and the real work doesn't take long at all.  I cheat on a step or two sometimes which lets me make this in even less time.

It is basically done in 3 stages, the crust, the filling and the whipped cream topping.  Now you can skip the first stage by a ready-made chocolate cooking crust, super cheap and saves a bunch of work.  That's what I usually do.

The last stage is whipped cream, which I do homemade because it's so easy, you could however use cool whip or a ready-whip style whipped cream in a can.

You'll need:

Crust:
-1 1/4 cups crushed chocolate cooking crumbs (think Oreos without the centers)
-1/4 cup melted butter

Melt butter and add cookie crumbs into bottom of 9" pie plate, press until the bottom and sides are evenly covered, set aside

Filling:
-1 bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1/2 pint (1 cup) heavy whipping cream
-1 tsp vanilla
-2 egg yolks

In a double boiler, melt chocolate chips, stirring in the cream gradually.  Once the cream and chocolate chips are melted and smooth, add the egg yolks and vanilla, stirring to incorporate.  Cook, stirring often, over medium simmer for 5 to 6 minutes until the mixture is glossy and thickened slightly.  You want to make sure the egg is cooked all the way as the filling won't set if you don't cook long enough.  Trust me, this is the longest, most involved part of the whole darn thing.

Pour into the crust and set into the refrigerator to set for 3 hours.  It will actually take about that long.  If you try to cut into it too soon, it will still taste yummy, but will be a mushy mess.

Topping:
-1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
-1 tbsp powdered sugar
-cocoa powder to dust

With a hand mixer, whip cream and powdered sugar until stiff peaks form. Spoon or with a pastry bag, cover top of pie with whipped cream mixture.  Dust lightly with cocoa powder, just for decoration really.  Some candied orange slices or chocolate shavings also make a lovely presentation.

Cut and serve.

Trust me, cut a small slice at first, it's much richer than you might think!

I changed things up a bit this time and added orange extract to the whipped cream, just adding a touch more powdered sugar to offset the additional liquid.  It was wonderful.  My husband thought it was like a Jaffa Cake pie, heaven on a plate to him.

You could add orange extract to the filling as well if you like the combination of orange and chocolate, which by the way is heavenly, or pretty much any other extract flavor that you like with chocolate.

This keeps very well in the fridge for several days and gets quite firm.  That's the way it's supposed to be. It's supposed to be like a truffle in pie form.