I am a pie girl. I love it. I like how pretty it looks when it comes out of the oven. The smell of it cooking. This is my first sweet pie I have posted. I have done three savory pies: chicken pot pie, tuna pie, and sloppy joe pie. I kind of want to eat them all. Right now. Yum!

Speaking of which: I made a tuna pie tonight. Excuse my diversion, but isn’t she perty?

Oh! And for dessert, I made a pistachio pudding pie. So, when I do not fit into any of my clothes next week, please just whisper one torturous word into my ear: “pie.”

Notice: “pie” rhymes with “thigh.” Coincidence?

I think not.

Excuse me while I “cry.”

Anyhoo, we’re talking about chocolate pie. Here it is: the chocolate pie I grew up with. The one that no other chocolate pie has ever stood up to. I had stopped making this pie for many years. It made me sad to make it. It was my uncle’s favorite thing at the holiday meal. I remember how excited he would be about it. He passed away a few years ago and I just could not bring myself to make or eat this pie. But a few months ago, The Pioneer Woman made a very similar pie. And it made me want to make my family’s pie again. I wanted a new generation to enjoy it. My uncle would have been happy about it.

There was only one problem. I could not find the recipe. Surprise!

I called my sister for it. “We just use your recipe,” she said. I assured her she was incorrect. I’ve always used our mom’s recipe.

I called my mom. She replied with, “Sweetie, we use your recipe.”

At this point, I was feeling more than slightly crazy (well, more than usual).

“Mom, I use your recipe.”

“No, honey. Remember when you changed it with Egg Beaters?”

Awwww. Now it made sense. Years ago, I had changed my mother’s recipe to use Egg Beaters instead of raw eggs and now it was “my recipe.”

I happily got “my recipe” from her.

I made it for Thanksgiving. It was a huge hit. I went home. The next day I made another pie for our family. This is because a day without pie for lunch is no day you want to be a part of. Again for lunch, not with lunch. Big difference.

Ingredients:

1 cube (8 Tbsp.) softened salted butter
2/3 cup Egg Beaters or you could use 3 pasteurized eggs
1/4 cup chocolate chips
2 squares or 1 oz. unsweetened chocolate (4 small rectangles if it comes like that.)
3/4 cup of sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 pie shell (I use Pillsbury. My mom always made her own. But this is my recipe, so we take shortcuts.)

Optional:

Whipped cream for topping individual slices

Preheat oven to 425 degrees or 400 degrees convect bake.

In a pie dish, lay your pie crust. Crimp the edges. Pierce the bottom and sides several times with a fork. If you are scared of shrinkage (mine always shrinks a little, but it doesn’t bother me), you can line your pie sheet with foil and beans or marbles to weigh it down. I never do this. But you could if you are not as lazy as me. It does not affect the taste one bit.

Bake for twelve minutes.

Remove the pie pan from the oven. Turn off the oven. Let pie shell cool completely (I usually wait one hour before moving on to the next step). If you added marbles or beans with foil, now would be the time to remove all of that (after it is cooled). This might seem obvious, but I am a maker of a chocolate pie recipe I did not know was mine. Therefore, I have lost my marbles. I do not want you to eat yours.

Melt chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate in a small bowl in the microwave for thirty second intervals. Stir. Keep repeating until chocolate is completely melted.

In a mixer or with a hand mixer (be warned if you are using this method, you will be mixing for 17 minutes. I guess you could think of it as working off chocolate pie calories), mix together sugar and butter for one minute. Add Egg Beaters and beat on medium high speed for three minutes.

Turn mixer to low and very slowly start drizzling in the melted chocolate. After all of the chocolate is incorporated, scrape sides, and turn mixer to high. Mix for 10-15 minutes. I usually do thirteen minutes. This is the extent of my patience. I can not wait longer than thirteen minutes for anything.

It’s called being a grown up.

Pour the chocolate heaven mixture into the pie shell. Carefully cover pie without touching the covering to the filling (if this happens, you will have to explain to the surgeon why your stomach is full of foil. Nobody got time for that). Refrigerate until ready to serve. This needs to refrigerate at least three hours before serving.

Lunch is ready! Enjoy!

* Update: Lovely Lisa just asked me about whipped cream. You can absolutely top your slices with that airy heaven. Most of my family does! Thanks Lisa! : )