Rich Chocolate Pie Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Spread the pecan pieces and the chocolate chips evenly on the bottom of the pie shell. In a mixing bowl, whisk the remaining ingredients together. Pour the filling over the pecans. Bake for about 1 hour or until the filling sets. Cool for 30 minutes before slicing. Cut into individual servings and serve with a drizzle of Caramel Sauce and powdered sugar.
• In a small, heavy-bottomed saucepan, combine the sugar and water and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring often. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture is a deep caramel color and has the consistency of a thin syrup, 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from the heat. Stir in the cream, return the saucepan to the high heat, and boil the sauce until it regains the consistency of a thick syrup, about 2 minutes. Cool.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 325°F. In a large heavy saucepan, combine flour, cocoa, and sugar. Stir in milk and egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wire whisk, until mixture comes to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla. Pour mixture into prepared piecrust. Using the back of a spoon, spread meringue (recipe below) over hot filling, sealing to edge of pie crust. Bake for 23 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Sift cocoa over the top of the pie if desired. Store in refrigerator. MILE-HIGH MERINGUE: Separate a cold egg by transferring the yolk between the broken halves and letting the white drip into a small bowl. Transfer the white into a metal or glass mixing bowl. Separate the next egg over the small bowl as well-not over the mixing bowl. This way, if some of the yolk gets in the white, then you have lost only one egg. Let egg whites come to room temperature. Beat the egg whites at the mixer's top speed until the mixture looks like sea form on a beach. Add cream of tartar to the foam to help stabilize the meringue. Keep beating egg whites at high speed until they reach soft peaks. When you lift the beaters from the beaten egg whites, the peaks will stand up straight and then fall over. Add the sugar gradually, about a tablespoon at a time, all while beating at a high speed. When you lift the beaters, the meringue pulls into pointy peaks that stay that way. At this stage, add the vanilla, and beat just long enough to mix it in.

Steps:

• For the crust: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
• Pulse the cookies in a food processor until finely chopped. With the processor running, add the butter. Press the crumbs into the bottoms of four 4 1/4-inch disposable aluminum pie pans. Bake until set, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
• For the filling: Whisk together the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk in the milk and egg yolks. Stir over medium heat until the mixture just barely comes to a boil and becomes thick, 6 to 8 minutes. The second it starts to bubble and thicken (it should be thick like pudding), remove it from the heat. Add the chocolate, butter and vanilla, then stir until everything is beautifully combined. Pour the pudding into the pie crusts and place in the fridge, uncovered, to chill for 4 hours. Serve topped with whipped cream.