Chocolate Chiffon Pie
A fluffy, chiffon pie made with unsweetened chocolate
Servings 8
Cost 5
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 ½ cups graham cracker crumbs (from 12 sheets or 24 squares)
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
- ⅛ teaspoon salt, omit if using salted butter
Chocolate Filling
- ¼ cup water, cool
- 1 envelope unflavored gelatin (2 ½ teaspoons)
- 1 cup whole milk (225 grams)
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
- ½ cup granulated sugar (130 grams)
- 2 large eggs, separated
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream (see note)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream Garnish
- ¾ cup heavy whipping cream
- ⅔ tablespoons confectioners' sugar
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust
- Make the graham cracker crust first. Mix together graham cracker crumbs, sugar, butter and a pinch of salt (optional). Press into the bottom and up sides of a 9 inch pie plate. Bake at 350 for 8 minutes. Let cool completely.
Chocolate Filling
- Soften the gelatin by sprinkling it over ¼ cup of cold water. Press it down with the back of a spoon if you need to to make sure that the gelatin is covered in water.
- Meanwhile, add some water to the bottom of the double boiler and bring it to a simmer.
- Put the milk and chocolate in the top of a double boiler and heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is very hot. Add the softened gelatin and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat.
- In a large bowl, beat the egg yolks until thick and lemony and beat in the half the sugar and vanilla. Stir the slightly cooled chocolate into the egg yolk mixture. Do it gradually so as not to cook the egg yolks. Set mixture aside to continue cooling.
- If you want to speed things up you can whisk it over a bowl of ice water or put it in the refrigerator (just keep an eye on it so it doesn't start to gel).
- In another mixing bowl, beat the egg whites until stiff peaks start to form, then gradually beat in the remaining sugar. In a third mixing bowl, beat the cream until it holds its shape and starts to form peaks.
- Fold ⅓ of the cooled and perhaps slightly thickened chocolate mixture into the egg whites, then another ⅓ of the chocolate mixture into the cream, then fold everything together in one bowl, then fold everything (including that last ⅓ of chocolate) together in one of your many bowls. You can use the one you whipped the cream in or the egg white bowl.
- At this point the filling will most likely be too runny to pile into the shell, so put the whole bowl in the refrigerator and check it in 30 minutes. If it's already started to thicken, you can start putting it in the shell.
- Pour some of the mixture into pie shell, filling just to rim. Place pie with filling in the refrigerator along with remaining filling that is in the bowl. Check the filling in the bowl every 30 minutes to see if it has thickened. When it is thick enough to pile, pile into the center of the pie.
- Garnish the sides with piped sweetened whipped cream. To make whipped cream, beat ¾ of cream along with 2-3 tablespoons of confectioners' sugar until stiff peaks form. Beat in vanilla.
- Chill for 6 hours or overnight.
Notes
Maida's recipe calls for 1 ½ cups of cream and 2 extra-large or jumbo eggs. My version uses less cream and more egg whites for a slightly fluffier pie.