Chocolate Cream Pie

This recipe came by way of my old roommate KT, who sent it to her friend Kim, who published it on her pieloveyou.blogspot.com blog. The recipe itself is adapted from Gourmet Magazine in 2004. I made this for the Robber for Minnissippi Founders' Day.

Ingredients:

Crust:
2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs (you can use the accompanying recipe for chocolate wafers, or I just used one package of Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers which are delicious and worked just fine for this recipe)
1 oz. bittersweet chocolate, chopped
5 T. unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar

Filling:
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 large egg yolks
3 cups whole milk
5 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped
2 oz unsweetened chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping:
1 pint chilled heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F.

2. Use a food processor to crumb the cookies or put the cookies in a resealable plastic bag and press the air out before sealing. Roll over the bag of cookies with a rolling pin until they form fine crumbs.

3. Stir together crumbs, chocolate, and sugar. Pour hot melted butter over the top and combine (The butter will melt the chocolate). Firmly press onto the bottom and sides of a 9-inch deep pie pan. Bake for 15 minutes and before cooling on rack, use the back of a spoon to press the hot crust back up the sides of the pan. Cool completely.

4. Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, salt, and yolks in a 3-quart heavy saucepan until combined well, then add milk in a stream, whisking. Bring to a boil over moderate heat, whisking, then reduce heat and simmer, whisking, 1 minute (filling will be thick).

5. Force filling through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl (I skipped this step, it was fine!), then whisk in chocolates, butter, and vanilla. The pudding should still be warm hot enough to melt the chocolate. Cover surface of filling with plastic wrap (make sure there are no air bubbles between the pudding and the plastic wrap) and cool completely, about 2 hours.

6. Spoon filling into crust and chill pie, loosely covered, at least 6 hours.

7. Just before serving, beat cream in a bowl using an electric mixer until it just holds stiff peaks add vanilla and sugar and spoon on top of pie. Top with chocolate shavings for additional effect.