Chocolate Pudding Pie for a Great Christmas

First of all, here's wishing you a MERRY CHRISTMAS, and a Happy New year too! May you have the best times of your life ahead of you! Christmas is one of my favorite holidays - and we have a LOT, here in India - simply because of the whole 'giving' spirit entwined with it. It's such a beautiful feeling. And plus, it brings on the party season!! :)



This pie, in all truth, goes completely against the spirit of Christmas. It's one that you will horde for yourself, instead of sharing. But still, it's the pie to make today, for Christmas. /ou can make two, one for the others, one for yourself :P You won't be sorry!

I kind of messed up with the meringue in this pie, so if you are making this, I would recommend using the meringue recipe from the Lemon Meringue Pie instead. So I'm just going ahead and including that recipe in the post.

Chocolate Pudding Pie
Recipe by Me

1 chocolate cookie crust - store-bought or homemade, I used homemade - bake for 15 minutes at 350 F [180 C]
1 recipe chocolate pudding filling [recipe below]
1 recipe meringue [recipe below]



For chocolate pudding -

1.5 oz chocolate - I used semi-sweet
1/2 cup [120 g] sugar
5 tbsp [50 g] flour
1 1/2 cup [400 g] milk
1/2 tsp vanilla - I used a vanilla bean
3 yolks
2 tbsp [30 g] butter

Instructions -

1. In a small bowl, mix the flour and milk together until it becomes homogenous.
2. In a saucepan, mic together the chocolate, sugar, flour mixture, vanilla and yolks.
3. Don't worry about the yolks cooking or anything, nothing of the sort will happen.
4. Take off the heat, and stir in the butter.
5. Allow to cool, and then pour onto the baked crust.

Meringue topping -
Adapted from Leiths Baking Bible
This is the other meringue recipe that I used in the lemon meringue pie, and it works perfectly.

3 tbsp water
2 tsp cornflour.
3 egg whites
1/3 cup [85 g] caster sugar

Instructions -

1. Place the water and cornflour in a clean saucepan. Stir over medium heat until the mixture is thick and translucent [same as above]
2. Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Whisk in the sugar, gradually.
3. Whisk in the cornflour gel until incorporated.
4. Add this meringue on top of the baked lemon cream filling, using a knife to make peaks.
5. Sprinkle a little extra caster sugar. [Do not use powdered sugar, trust me!!!!]
6. Put the pie back into the oven, and bake for about 15 minutes, until the topping is light brown.
7. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.
8. You're done!!! :)

 Here's the picture of the screwed up meringue, which came off very easily from the pie, but I would suggest retaining for a good balance of tastes and textures.



P.S - This is a scheduled post, I'm off vacationing in Europe at this time. See you in about 10 days!!!!