Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

I love pumpkin. I love chocolate. I love infinity three kinds of chocolate. So of course, I love triple chocolate pumpkin pie. And you will too. I wanted to blog about this pie so badly that I put down my schoolwork (reading a book on cyberwar – actually pretty interesting) to share this with my faithful readers. Some of those faithful readers may need a serious chocolate fix right now!

This pie is SUPER rich and incredibly good. To be honest, it’s a little hard to handle after a full turkey dinner. But, by breakfast time, it hits the spot. (Don’t judge me: You know you have pie for breakfast on the Friday after Thanksgiving.) The pumpkin/chocolate custard is almost more akin to chocolate mousse than your standard pumpkin pie filling. Plus, the super chocolately crust (especially if made with Trader Joe’s Chocolate Cat Cookies as suggested) is incredible. I could eat a bowl of the uncooked crust mix all by itself (granted, its just crumbed cookies, butter and a little sugar – what’s not to love?).

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie

I adapted this recipe from Martha Stewart. Her pie is pretty good, but I think mine may be better.

• For the Crust

  • 2 cups finely ground chocolate animal cookies (I use Trader Joe’s Chocolate Cat Cookies, which are AMAZING)
  • 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3 ounces dark chocolate (with high cacao content), finely chopped
• For the Filling

  • 6 more ounces dark or semisweet chocolate (either with same, or slightly lower cacao), chopped

  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 can (15 ounces) solid-pack pumpkin
  • 1 can (12 ounces) evaporated milk
  • 3/4 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • Ground cloves

  For the Topping

  • 1 ounce milk chocolate, melted

1. Make the crust. Preheat over to 350F. Combine all crust ingredients EXCEPT THE CHOCOLATE together into bowl. Then press into the bottom of 9.5 inch pie pan. Bake in oven for 8-10 minutes.

2. While crust is still warm from oven, sprinkle the 3 oz of dark chocolate over the crust, and place in oven for another 1 minute.

Chopping chocolate.

Then sprinkle the chocolate over the warm chocolately crust:

Creating a chocolate shell to hold our delicious chocolately filling.

3. Once the chocolate has sat in the shell in the oven for 1 minute, smooth the melted chocolate over the crust with a spoon. Set aside.

Should look like this:

Chocolate shell spread over chocolate crust. Are you drooling yet?

4. Reduce over temp to 325F. Make the filling – melt together the 6 oz chocolate and butter in a double boiler with a large bowl, or in the microwave. If using the microwave, heat in 30 second increments, stirring after each 30 seconds. Otherwise, you may burn the chocolate. Set aside for a bit.

5. Mix pumpkin, milk, brown sugar, eggs, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and a pinch of cloves in a medium bowl. Whisk about 1/3 of this mixture into the chocolate mixture until completely mixed. Then mix in the rest. Stir until completely incorporated.

6. Place pie dish on rimmed baking sheet. Pour the filling into the pie. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes. Until the center is set, but still wobbles a little. Let cool.

7. Before serving, drizzle with the 1 oz milk chocolate. You can melt this in a double boiler, or in the microwave, stirring after 30 second time intervals. The drizzles in the picture below are a little wider than I would have liked, but I waited to melt and drizzle until after T-day dinner, so I had very little patience. If I had warmed the chocolate a little more, the drizzles would be finer and more lovely. At that point, I just needed some chocolate to counter-act the turkey. Time was of the essence. There was serious risk of starving. Seriously. For serial.

Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie... MMMMMMMMM

Enjoy!

Languidly lounging in a chocolate coma,

Rachel