Mini Chocolate Cream Pies

A pie being enjoyed by my nephew Sam who is my official taste tester. He gave it thumbs up!

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies are delicious and so easy to serve because no utensils are needed. Guests can just pick a pie up and dive right in! These decadent pies were part of an assortment of 150 pies that I recently made for a wedding reception.

To make them, I used my favorite pie crust and chocolate cream pie recipes and pre-baked the crusts in muffin tins. I didn't have to grease or line the muffin tins for the crusts to easily lift out after baking. The only real trick is to not line the entire depth of the muffin tin with pie dough, you only want to line it two-thirds of the way up because you want pie-shaped pies, not muffin-shaped pies.

After baking, lift the crusts out, fill them with chocolate cream filling and let them cool for a bit before placing them in the refrigerator to chill for at least two hours.

Before serving, I garnished each pie with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of shaved dark chocolate.

Here's the recipe:

Mini Chocolate Cream Pies
(makes 18 to 20)

Crust:
3 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1 cup ice water

In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Divide dough in half and roll out each half into a rectangle on a floured surface. Use a cutter to cut 4-inch rounds and place each one in a muffin tin,  pressing the dough into the bottom and evenly up the sides so that 2/3 of the tin is lined. Gather up the excess dough and repeat until all the dough is used. Chill the crusts in the refrigerator for at least 15 minutes then bake in a 375-degree oven for about 12 minutes or until the crusts are baked thoroughly and golden brown.

The baked crusts.

Filling:

1 2/3 cups water

3 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 (14 ounce) can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
 

Directions:

In a medium-sized saucepan, use a whisk to mix the water and cornstarch and cocoa until smooth. Stir in Eagle Brand milk and the three egg yolks. 

 

Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until it becomes thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

 

Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes before filling the baked pie shells. My favorite tool for this task is a 1-inch cookie scoop. 

 

Let the mini pies cool at room temperature for 15 minutes before transferring to the refrigerator. Let the pies chill for at least 2 hours before serving.

A dollop of whipped cream adds a nice touch to the chilled pies.

And, a sprinkle of shaved dark chocolate on top of the whipped cream makes them even better!

 

Happy Pi Day!

It's Pi Day and this year it's extra special because we get to add two more digits to the equation (3.1415) and that won't happen for another hundred years!

It's really not too late make homemade pie to celebrate that wonderful, always the same, more than a trillion digit number that's the ratio of every circle's circumference to its diameter.

The record for memorizing digits of Pi certified by Guinness Book of World Records is 67,890 digits, recited in China by Lu Chao in 24 hours and 4 minutes on November 20, 2005. Now that's very impressive but not necessary, knowing the first five digits will suffice. There's even a handy symbol too — π, which is the Greek symbol for the letter "p" which was taken from the Greek word for "perimeter." 

Now back to the pie part of Pi Day, this chocolate cream pie is so simple to make and a family favorite. It can be made in 30 minutes and then just needs to chill in the fridge for a couple hours before serving. 

Here's the recipe:
Chocolate Cream Pie
(makes 1 9-inch pie)

First, make and bake a 9-inch pie crust. I used my favorite shortening crust recipe.

Pie Crust: 
1 1/2 cups flour
2 /3 cups vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.

Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface for the bottom crust.

Place the dough in a pie pan and crimp the edges. Bake for 5 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is set and golden brown.

Filling:

1 2/3 cups water

3 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 (14 ounce) can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

In a medium-sized saucepan, use a whisk to mix the water and cornstarch and cocoa until smooth.

Stir in Eagle Brand milk and the three egg yolks.

Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until it becomes thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes before pouring into the baked pie shell. 

Let the pie cool at room temperature for 15 minutes before transferring to the refrigerator. Let the pie cool completely before slicing and serving.

A Garden Excursion And Chocolate Cream Pie

With my brother Josh at the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden.

 

One of the highlights of my recent trip to Los Angeles to visit my brothers was a Sunday afternoon outing to the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden with my brother Josh and his boyfriend Edward.

 

The 127 acre garden and historical site is located in the city of Arcadia and jointly operated by the Los Angeles Arboretum Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation and features plant collections from all over the world.

Josh and Edward in front of the Queen Anne Cottage at the garden. The Victorian style house was built in 1885. 

 

Banana

Black Pepper

Okra

 

Walking through the gardens was so lovely. It wasn't crowded at all and because it was a weekend, there were multiple wedding parties scattered throughout the gardens which was fun to see.

 

When we returned to my brothers' house we made dinner and decided that we should make another sweet treat for dessert. I searched online and found a Chocolate Cream Pie recipe on the Food.Com website that we all decided was the thing to make.

 

The recipe had few ingredients, came together in minutes and needed just an hour or so to chill before serving. 

 

We topped slices of the pie with freshly whipped cream and we all loved it. The easy recipe is a definite keeper. 

 

So after a delightful garden excursion, we enjoyed pie, an episode of "Charlie's Angels" and the 1959 sci-fi horror film "The Killer Shrews." So much fun and for me, the perfect way to end a great day. 

 

 

Chocolate Cream Pie
(makes 1 9-inch pie)

First, make and bake a 9-inch pie crust. I used my favorite shortening crust recipe.

Pie Crust: 
1 1/2 cups flour
2 /3 cups vegetable shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar. Add Crisco and using your fingers, break it into the flour mixture until it resembles coarse crumbs with some large pieces remaining.
Add the water, just a few tablespoons at a time until the dough is moist enough to pull together into a ball. Roll out on a floured surface for the bottom crust.

Place the dough in a pie pan and crimp the edges. Bake for 5 minutes and then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes or until the crust is set and golden brown.

The pie crust baking.

 

Filling:

 

1 2/3 cups water
3 tablespoons cornstarch
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 (14 ounce) can eagle brand sweetened condensed milk
3 egg yolks, beaten
2 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla


Directions:

 

In a medium-sized saucepan, use a whisk to mix the water and cornstarch and cocoa until smooth.
 

Stir in Eagle Brand milk and the three egg yolks. 

My brother John helping me with the hardest part of the recipe —  releasing all of the sweetened condensed milk from the can.

 

Cook the mixture over medium heat, whisking constantly until it becomes thick. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla.

 

Let the mixture cool for 5 minutes before pouring into the baked pie shell. 

 

Let the pie cool at room temperature for 15 minutes before transferring to the refrigerator. Let the pie cool completely before slicing and serving. 

 

After the pie cools completely, it's easy to slice and serve.

 

 

Top servings with lightly sweetened whipped cream.