As a child, my favorite pie was chocolate cream. My mother always used a mix that she got from a coffee company called Cooks. While it was quite good, I didn’t know what I was missing until I tasted my spouse’s mother’s Pennsylvania Dutch Chocolate Pie recipe. Eventually, I coaxed Eleanor Lehman to give me her recipe.
Over the years I’ve made a few changes to the original. I added some cocoa powder to give it a more deeply intense chocolate flavor. Eleanor used only flour as a thickener, but I decided to go the French route, mixing half corn starch with half flour to give it a more velvety texture. The use of cornstarch demands a more precise way of cooking, so I changed from direct heat to a double boiler.
You can definitely buy a prepared pie crust to make the chore simpler. However, with a food processor, homemade pie pastry is a cinch. If the idea of using lard turns your stomach, you can use all butter or substitute vegetable shortening for the lard. I can assure you, though, that you won’t achieve as flaky or as tasty a crust as you will with lard.
Make certain before you begin that your butter and lard are very cold. Place the flour and salt in the processor bowl, and process for a few seconds. Cut the butter and lard into pieces and add to the bowl.
Add butter and lard to the flour.
Pulse until the mixture becomes coarse crumbs. With the processor going, add ice water a little at a time until the dough forms a mass. Don’t add any more water than necessary.
Process until the dough forms a mass.
Form the dough into a disk and wrap with plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I like to let the pastry rest in the refrigerator over night because I find it’s easier to roll out.
Chilled disk ready to roll.
You do have to work a bit at first because the pastry is very solid having, been refrigerated that long. If the dough is not sticky, I roll it around my rolling pin, which makes it easier to line the pie plate.
Pastry rolled around rolling pin.
Pricked the lined pastry all over.
Prick the pastry all over, so that it stays relatively flat when it bakes. Bake in a 450-degree oven for about 15, just until golden brown. Cool it completely on a rack.
Baked shell.
Roughly chop the chocolate.
Coarsely chopped chocolate.
In the top of a double boiler, whisk together the flour, corn starch, sugar, coca and salt.
Whisk together dry ingredients.
Gradually whisk in the cold milk. Stir in the chopped chocolate.
Whisked in milk.
Place the pan over boiling water, whisking constantly for 8-12 minutes. Then cover and let cook undisturbed for another 10 minutes.
Melted and thickened pudding.
Beat the egg yolks in a separate bowl, and whisk in 1 cup of the hot chocolate mixture. This slowly warms the eggs and help prevent them from scrambling.
Egg yolk beaten with hot chocolate mixture.
Return the the egg yolk-chocolate mixture to the hot chocolate pudding and cook for 2 more minutes, whisking constantly. Do not overcook. Remove from the heat, and beat in the butter in vanilla. I like to very gently whisk the pudding every few minutes until nearly cool, which helps prevent a skin from forming. Scrape the mixture into the baked pie shell.
Filled pie shell.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Whip a cup of heavy cream and spread over the pie. I like to decorate with chocolate shavings. To do this, hold a good-quality semisweet chocolate bar on edge. Using firm pressure, slide a vegetable peeler along thin edge of the chocolate.
Shaving chocolate.
Chocolate curls.
If you use a lighter touch, you’ll get just a lot of chcolate crumbs, instead of curls.
To print or download this recipe, click here.
Click on these dishes for other Pennsylvania Dutch Recipes on this site: Chocolate Cake and Chicken Corn Soup.
