Classic chocolate cream pie (American) + 1 year blog anniversary!

Dear friends, on the 2nd of December (that is, yesterday) was our 1 year blogging anniversary. It's been a joyride and we're glad to have met all of you. We learned a lot about cooking and about food photography :P and we're confident things will just get better and better. Here's to you guys and have a slice of creamy chocolaty goodness :)


Now to get to the pie itself:
This is a very common dessert in American households, the type of pie you would expect every USA grandma to make on a weekly basis. The chocolate cream pie is back in the trends in the last few years and the revival has brought lots of posh-ed up versions of it, but here we made it in its most classic form, the one which a lot of people living there grew up with. 
It's supercreamy and delicious and not such a big deal to make as it would seem: basically a crumbled biscuit base topped with a generous layer of chocolate-flavored milk pudding. The slices are then served with some whipped cream and grated chocolate. Delicious. Enjoy :)


Last year: Complete-meal salad with basil and Simple-fried bananas with cinnamon and honey. 

Ingredients (for a 26 cm pie dish):


For the base:

• 300 simple vanilla biscuits
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 85 g butter

For the chocolate cream:

• 1 liter whole-fat milk
• 6 egg yolks
• 225 g sugar
• 60 g starch
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/3 teaspoon salt
• 1 thick slice butter (3 tablespoons)
• 150 g milk chocolate
• 50 g dark chocolate

For serving:

• 200 ml whipped cream
• about 50 g chocolate chips

First, preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Get the biscuits:

Smash them into crumbles (it's easiest if you put them in a bag, close it and smash them with a rolling pin - or use the blender). Add the sugar and melted butter:

Mix well, then press the whole thing on the bottom and sides of the pie dish. Put it in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes, middle rack. Take out and marvel at how it all came together in a pie-base :)

Turn off the oven, you won't need it anymore. Get started on the cream. Put the sugar, vanilla extract and yolks in a large bowl:

Mix everything very well with a hand whisk until creamy and even. Then, also add the salt and starch:

Mix well. Put the milk in a large pot and bring it to a boil. Afterwards reduce it to a simmering and add one cup at a time to the yolk cream, mixing very well. When the whole thing seems well mixed, return it to the pot and bring it to a simmer again:

Stir continuously. After 4-5 minutes or so when the starch did its part you'll notice it thickened. Turn off the heat, add all the chocolate and the slice of butter and mix well:

The chocolate cream is done. Pour it in the pie-dish:

After it cools a bit put it in the fridge for at least 4 hours (or overnight). Take out and it's done:

Slice it, arrange on plates and top each portion with whipped cream and chocolate shavings. If you serve a lot of people (so you can finish the pie all at once), you can decorate before you slice it, but  it's better to avoid storing the spread whipped cream in the freezer, it's better when it's freshly spread. :)
The pie keeps well for 2-3 days in the freezer. But it probably won't last that long ;) Dig in!