Chocolate Cream Pie

Here is my first ever Chocolate Cream Pie!

Ingredients:

1 (pre-baked) pie crust:

1/4 c. canola oil

2 1/2 Tb. milk

whisk oil and milk together. Then add:

3/4 c. all-purpose flour

dash of salt

Stir with fork until it starts to clump together. You may have to add a bit more flour. Turn onto floured surface or wax paper and knead a few times to form ball. In between 2 sheets of wax paper, roll out the crust. Uncover and flip the crust onto a pie pan. Place a piece of sprayed aluminum foil over pie crust,

fit to shape and fill with dry beans.

Bake @ 350* for 15 min. then remove foil and beans and bake another 10 min. Set aside to cool.

**Time saving tip, you could buy a pre-baked pie shell @ the store.

pie filling:

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 c. milk (I used 2%)

4 Tb. cornstarch

2 Tb. all-purpose flour

1/2 c. cocoa powder

1/2 tsp. salt

4 egg yolks

1 Tb. butter

1 tsp. vanilla

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar & milk. Turn on stovetop to medium heat. Once sugar & milk are warm, add cornstarch, flour, cocoa & salt. Whisk after each addition. Add egg yolks, one at a time & whisk after each addition. Stir constantly with spatula until mixture comes to barely a boil. If there are any clumps in mixture, take off heat & use whisk to smooth. Once boiling, turn down heat to low & continue stirring constantly until very thick. Remove from heat & stir in butter & vanilla.

Continue stirring until mixture has cooled a bit.

Pour filling into cooled pre-baked pie shell. Cover pie with plastic wrap. The plastic wrap will cling to top and prevent pie from forming a top crust on filling.

Place in refrigerator for at least 3 hours to cool.

whipped cream:

1 c. whipping cream

2 Tb. sugar

With a mixer, whip the whipping cream.

Slowly add sugar and whip until stiff peaks form.

It will take about 10-12 minutes.

Refrigerate whipped cream until pie is cooled, set & ready to serve.

**Time saving tip, you could use store-bought whipped cream.

Cover pie with whipped cream. I used a decorator's bag to pipe stars to cover. You could just spread whipped cream on with spatula. Store refrigerated. *another option...This pie would be a great summer frozen dessert. Once pie is prepared with filling and whipped cream, just pop in the freezer until you are ready to serve.

Warm a knife with hot water to cut.

Enjoy!