Lick-the-Pot Chocolate Pudding Pie | Baking with Dorie

Imagine putting an instant chocolate pudding and pie filling on top of a store-bought pie crust. Follow the instructions on the box, voila, you get the chocolate pudding pie. That’s it. Quick and with very few ingredients. Select your favorite brand: Jello, Hershey’s or Dove. Of course, that’s not how we do it here. We’re making our own signature version and, dare I say, an elevated one with Dorie’s recipe.

Dorie’s pudding mix includes: bittersweet chocolate (200 g), milk (540 ml), sugar (67 g), egg yolks (4), cornstarch (3 tbsp), salt (1/2 tsp), butter (2 tbsp) and vanilla extract (1 1/2 tsp). I use bittersweet chocolate (from Trader Joe’s), finely chopped. But any kind of chocolate will do; adjust the sugar level accordingly.

• First melt the chocolate. (I do it in the microwave in 30-second bursts.) Separately, put milk, and half of the sugar in a medium saucepan. Stir until the mixture comes to a boil.
• In another large bowl, combine the remaining sugar, egg yolks, cornstarch and salt. Slowly drizzle in a half cup of the hot milk — that keeps the yolk from scrambling. Add the remaining milk mixture in a steady stream.
• Back in the saucepan over medium heat, simmer the pudding mix until thickened while whisking constantly. Off the heat, whisk in the melted chocolate, followed by butter and vanilla.
• Pour the chocolate pudding filling into the crust. You have a choice of store bought or making one from scratch, all-butter crust or crumb crust or nut crust. I make a crumb crust as outlined in Dorie’s recipe. (Simply press cookie crumbs (250 g) and 1/2 stick of melted butter over the bottom and sides of the pie dish.) It’ll all be fine.
• Finally, refrigerate the pie for at least three hours. Finish with a generous layer of mascarpone whipped cream (mascarpone, cold heavy cream and confectioners’ sugar).

I run my finger to clean up the pot with streaks of the chocolate pudding all over. It’s lick-able good. I don’t know which texture I prefer: runny or after the pudding is set. One thing though, the taste of small scoops of chocolate pudding, still slightly warm and smooth, is incredible. I can’t stop licking until the pot is clean. It almost beats eating the pudding pie with a fork.