Chocolate Cream Pie

Day: 476
High Temp: Honestly, I cant find anywhere to tell me how warm it was today, but trust me, it was warm. I was wearing a tank top to water the garden and was getting sweaty.

Chocolate Cream Pie is a Becker family tradition. When I started celebrating Thanksgiving with Tom's family far away in California, I took the tradition with me. Honestly, I think it is the sole reason the Horans love me as much as they do...

Ingredients
1 baked pie crust
1 1/4 C Sugar
1/2 C Flour
1/4 C Cocoa Powder
Dash of Salt
4 Egg Yolks
2 C Milk (go ahead, use whole milk!)
1/4 C Butter, melted
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
3 C Whipped Cream (I like to make it from scratch, with a bit of brown sugar in it, but from the tub or the spray can is fine... I just think that stuff is a little too sweet to truly serve this pie)

Mise en place!!!

1. Combine Sugar, Flour, Cocoa and Salt in a medium sauce pan, and set aside.

The dry stuff...

2. Combine Egg Yolks and Milk in a bowl.

...and the wet.

3. Add the wet stuff to the dry in the sauce pan, and whisk together. Then add the melted butter. A whisk will break up most of the lumps, but the rest will cook out.

4. Cook mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it begins to thicken and just starts to boil. It will thicken up even further as it cools.

Be careful to scrape the bottom well while cooking, so the
milk doesn't burn. I recommend a silicone-coated whisk.

5. Remove sauce pan from the heat, and stir in the vanilla extract.

6. Spoon hot filling into baked pastry shell, and chill in the fridge until the pie is completely cooled and set.

The action shot!

And that, my friends, is it. You can make the pie up to a day in advance, just keep it in the fridge, lightly covered with plastic wrap. When you are ready so serve, top the pie with a thick layer of whipped cream. It is so amazing.  And if you don't like pie, make the filling and just eat it out of a ramekin with some whipped cream. For reals.