Chocolate Mousse pie

 

This weekend I asked my husband what he wanted to eat.  After some careful thought he stated Chocolate Mousse.  He then decided, what better way to enjoy Chocolate than in pie form.  I agreed, two things I love, chocolate, and pie.  When making this pie the quality of your ingredients really matter.  The chocolate I used was a semi sweet Ghirardelli chocolate callets.  Using a good quality chocolate rather than nestle or some other cheap brand really makes a difference.  Splurge a bit and buy your favorite chocolate because this is really the best way to enjoy it anyways.  The pie crust is just a basic recipe I use for all of my sweet pies:

1 1/2 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

6 tbsp cold unsalted butter

2 tbsp vegetable shortening

about 5 tbsp of ice water

For the pie filling:

2 1/2 cups Ghirardelli semi sweet chocolate callets

1 pint of heavy whipped cream

2 tsp powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract.

Sift the flour, salt, and sugar into a medium mixing bowl.  Cut your butter into cubes and add it to your flour mixture with the shortening.  To mix the fats with your flour use a pastry cutter.  You can also do this in a food processor.  I still have not invested in a food processor so everything is still by hand in my kitchen.  Mix until the mixture has a cornmeal texture.  Add two tbsp of water and mix.  Keep on adding water one tbsp at a time until the dough comes together.  Make sure you don't put to much water, just enough to bring everything together.

After you are able to form a ball with your dough, press it into a disc and wrap in plastic wrap.  Let the dough chill for at least an hour.

After your dough has chilled take it out and let it warm up a bit so that it is workable.  Roll it out until it is big enough for your pie pan.  I like to place my pie dish on the dough just to make sure I have rolled it out enough.

The trick to getting your pie crust into your pie pan is to gently roll it up around your rolling pin.  This way you can carry the pie crust over to your pan and gently un-roll it over the pan so the crust gently covers your pan.

Pinch the sides of your crust in what ever design fits you and poke a bunch of holes into the bottom and sides of the crust.  The holes allow steam to escape as the pie shell bakes.  After this I chilled my pie crust for about 30 minutes. 

So your pie keeps its form while baking use beans, or  pie weights.  These beans are the ones I use over and over again for this specific purpose.  They sit in my pantry marked pastry beans.  This is more effective and cheaper than pie weights.  Bake your pie in the middle rack at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes.  Remove the beans and place back in the oven for about another 5 minutes, or until the bottom of the shell is hard and slightly brown.

As soon as you pull your pie out of the oven place about 1/2 cup of chocolate callets on the bottom of the crust and let them sit until they look glossy.

Using a pastry brush, coat your pie crust with the melted callets.  Allow this to come to room temperature.

While the crust is cooling off, make your filling.  In a double broiler place 2 cups of the callets with 3/4 cups heavy cream.  Mix until the chocolate is completely melted and the cream is mixed in.  Remove from heat and set aside.  Allow the chocolate mixture to come to room temperature.

Beat remaining cream, vanilla, and sugar in a chilled mixing bowl until cream forms stiff peaks.  Fold the whipped cream into your cooled off chocolate.  Do not over mix because you want the chocolate mixture to retain its fluffiness.  Pour the mixture into your pie shell and smooth the top with your spatula.  Refrigerate your pie until firm....about 2-3 hours.

You can garnish your pie with chocolate pieces, melted chocolate, and whipped cream.