Best Friends Baking: Mocha Cream Pie

So, uh, would you believe me if I told you that this entry is so late because I needed the whole week to fully taste test this pie? No? Ok, it's true, the pie only lasted in this house for about 3 or 4 days. I have no excuse for taking so long to get this entry written up. :)

So this pie really was easy to make, but I still accidentally screwed it up. More on that in a moment. The crust is an Oreo cookie crust, but I decided to use Trader Joe's Joe-Joe's instead. Normally they have a regular Oreo version, but my store was sold out. So I made do with the chocolate creme and chocolate cookie variety instead. Cuz really, can you have too much chocolate? I think not. :)

The Cookie Crust

The pudding came along pretty nicely. I got a little bit concerned when it got sort of lumpy after everything was put together, but it all seemed to turn out fine in the end. I also intentionally kept it as a chocolate cream pie buy omitting the espresso powder since I am not a coffee person.

Melting down the chocolate

You can see the lumpiness here

Now, I have made puddings plenty of times, and I am pretty darn familiar with adding the butter and vanilla flavoring at the very end. I was clearly distracted in the kitchen as I was trying to do too much at once - baby, dinner, dessert, etc., and somehow misread the recipe. I thought it said to add the butter and vanilla after it cooled. Why I thought this was correct is beyond me. Fast forward to a couple hours later, and I'm still distracted while pouring the cooled pudding into the pie shell. It wasn't until after I stuck the pie in the fridge that I noticed the butter and vanilla sitting on the counter patiently waiting for me to add them to the pudding. DOH! I half contemplated dumping the pudding back into the bowl, but decided that ultimately it wasn't worth it. I had a taste of the pudding and thought it tasted pretty good as it was.

I opted to let it set up overnight, and the next night I whipped up the cream, topped the pie and after another 30 minute chill, we dug in. Let me just tell you, this pie is seriously in my top 10 favorites from this cookbook so far. It is that good. Hubby and I each took our first bites and nearly swooned with chocolate induced happiness.YUM!!