Saturday, March 10, 2012

Bite-Size Chocolate Cream Pie

Bite Size Chocolate Cream Pie
Bite-Size Chocolate Cream Pie with Toasted Coconut


About a month ago, I made some bite-size banana cream pie bites, and they were so cute, and so good, that I realized I had to try this bite-size thing with other types of cream pie.  Chocolate was next on the list (and bite-size coconut cream pie followed that).  I've just adapted the chocolate cream pie recipe I adapted from Once Upon a Chef.  I really like the Oreo crust of the original, and I'm sure you could make this little pie with naked (unfrosted) Oreo wafers, but I wanted to see what would happen with the traditional pie crust (and I didn't want a bag of Oreos hanging around my house).
I tried a few different things with this batch.  I thought toasted coconut would be pretty and tasty on these, and I was right.  The sprinkles are Guittard Bittersweet Chocolate Sprinkles that I got from kingarthurflour.com.  I like them for these bite-size pies because they are just teeny tiny things.  The ones I've seen in the grocery store are about five times as fat as these little guys.
I ended up with more filling than crusts, so next time I think I might put more chocolate filling on each little pie.  Let me just say in closing, the bite-size pie thing seems to be working.  They are fabulous.  And adorable.

Bite-Size Chocolate Cream Pie

Ingredients:
  • 2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 1 1/2 cups whole milk
  • 14 Dove Dark Chocolate Promises, unwrapped & chopped (or 4 oz. other kind of chopped dark chocolate)
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 batch of pie crust (see recipe below)

For Topping

Instructions:

In a heavy medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt.

In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk milk and egg yolks until combined.  Pour milk mixture into pan while whisking.  Whisk until smooth.

Place pan on burner set to medium heat and cook, whisking constantly (yes, constantly), making sure to scrape bottom and edges of the pan, until mixture starts to thicken, about 7-9 minutes.

Remove from heat and immediately whisk in chocolate, butter, and vanilla.  Transfer hot filling to a bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap rests in contact with the filling so a skin does not form.  Refrigerate filling until cool, 1-2 hours.

I love this star tip
Once filling and crusts are cool, spoon filling into a pastry bag fitted with a star tip or a quart or gallon size zip top bag.  If you're using the zip top bag, once it's got the filling in it, cut about a half-inch or a little less off one corner. Also place whipped cream into pastry or zip top bags, preferably fitted with a star tip, but that's not absolutely necessary.

Squeeze about 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of filling onto each little crust.  Then top with about a teaspoon of whipped cream.  Top it all off with sprinkles, grated chocolate, or toasted coconut.  Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

Makes 60-70 bite-size pies





Wavy-edged crusts
Pie Crust



Ingredients:

(Note: you can also use store-bought refrigerated pie crust, like from Pillsbury)

  • 1 ¼ cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
  • ½ teaspoons salt
  • 4 tablespoons butter
  • 3 tablespoons Crisco
  • 3 1/2 to 4 tablespoons ice cold water
  • flour for dusting

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a medium bowl, mix flour and salt. Cut 4 T butter into flour until it looks like coarse meal, and then cut in Crisco until well blended. Add ice cold water and stir with fork. Then use your hands to gently work the dough into a ball.  Flour a rectangular sheet of wax paper, place dough ball in the middle, flour the ball, and cover with another rectangular sheet of wax paper. Roll dough out to a thickness of about 1/8”.  With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough roughly into 1.5”x 1.5” squares.  You can also be creative and use cookie cutters to make cute shapes.

Place dough pieces on a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Prick each piece a few times with a fork.  Bake at 400°F for 11-13 minutes, or until browned on the edges.   Remove from oven. Cool completely before using for bite-size pies.


Stabilized Whipped Cream Frosting
--adapted from cdkitchen



Ingredients:
  • 1/2 tsp unflavored gelatin powder
  • 2 tbsp cold water
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • pinch salt
  • 2 tbsp confectioner's sugar
Instructions:
1. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in small bowl to soften. 
2. Scald 2 tablespoon of the cream; pour over gelatin, stirring till dissolved.
3. Refrigerate until consistency of unbeaten egg white. (This takes about 10-15 minutes.) Then, with a whisk, beat until smooth. 

4. In a stand mixer with a whip attachment, or with a hand beater, whip remaining cream and sugar just until soft peaks form; whip in the smoothed gelatin mixture, stopping to scrape the bowl twice. You will probably only need to whip it another 10-20 seconds before it's done.

38 comments:

  1. Could you use milk chocolate instead or would it make it too sweet?

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    1. I think milk chocolate would be worth a try. The pie crust is a little salty, and you can just make sure the whipped cream isn't very sweet, and I think it would be a good balance. Let me know if you try it!

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  2. These are so stinking cute!! I'm going to make them for Easter. I love your blog!

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    1. Thanks, Mary! That makes me happy to hear! :)

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  3. These are so cute and look so delicious too!

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  4. Can't wait to try these!! They will be perfect for my son's wedding next spring!! Thanks for sharing!! Debbie

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    1. Fantastic, Debbie! I hope everyone enjoys them! :)

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  5. What a great idea! I bet these would also be great with coconut cream pie or banana cream pie!

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    1. Thanks, Emily! Have you seen the coconut cream pie and the banana cream pie bite posts here on Food Pusher? I will have to add the coconut cream pie bites link now.

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  6. These are so adorable!! And so are your other bite-sized pies. Excited to try these out for my upcoming High Tea that I'm hosting. Interesting recipe for stablizing cream ... I usually just add a teaspoon or so of instant vanilla pudding powder or a beaten egg white to my whipped cream.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks! I think they're pretty cute too. :) Somebody else made the suggestions of using the instant vanilla pudding powder. I'll have to try it!

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  7. I am going to try to make these for school tomorrow! It's the last day before Finals...everyone could use something delicious!

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  8. Oh, this is a beautiful idea. I am so going to be using these for parties!!! You may want to look into a product called Ultra Gel. It's a modified food starch made for home use, is an instant thickener, and a GREAT whipped cream stabilizer. Check it out at www.cornabys.com. I don't cook without it anymore.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for the tip, Julie! I will check that out!

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  9. Oh my gosh! These just look amazing! I can't wait to try these! Thanks!

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  10. These are adorable and I'm sure delicious. I would have to make sure I had a filling before I finished making these so I wouldn't want to eat them all. You did a wonderful job.

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  11. I just found your site - question - can these be made the day before you want to serve or do they get soggy?

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    1. They can be made a day ahead, as long as you use the stabilized whipped cream, but they really do taste better if assembled the same day they'll be eaten. I would make all of the parts the day ahead. Put the crusts in a bag or other airtight container. Put the chocolate filling in a piping/zip top bag, ready to pipe, and I'd put the whipped cream in the piping bag too. Refrigerate those bags. Then right before you need to go or serve, assemble the pies. It goes pretty fast once you have the parts made. I hope that makes sense.

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  12. Have you posted this on the Mars website, they love to see new ideas using their products/candy!

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    1. I have not posted this on the Mars website. I'll have to go check out how to do that. I know they've tweeted about my blog in the past when I've mentioned them, but I haven't thought about them beyond their Promises lately. :) I'm going to check it out now!

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  13. Found your site on Pinterest and have to say... Love You! I love mini food. =)

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    Replies
    1. Well, thanks! I'm glad you found your way here. Gotta love Pinterest too! :)

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  14. I am in the process of making these. The chocolate cream is more of a pudding consistency. Have I just not left it in the fridge long enough? It's been about 2 hours.

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    1. Hmmmm... Did you use skim milk by any chance? I think that might make the chocolate cream softer. I know I used whole milk for mine. Not sure if it just needs more time in the fridge. I hope it firmed up some more for you. Let me know. :/

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    2. I used whole milk. I'll check it in the morning. It's 1:30 am here. I'll let you know! Thanks!

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    3. It was still too thin. Weird. The family enjoyed eating it as pudding. lol I'll make another batch. I'm wondering if I didn't let it get thick enough when I was cooking the milk.

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    4. That is weird. Hmmm... If you try it again, maybe add a little more chocolate. Not sure what the problem could be...

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  15. Do you think this can be done with instant chocolate pudding (like the vanilla for the banana cream pies?

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    Replies
    1. I don't know if it would work. Instant is so soft, and the banana cream pie bites have the banana as the main star, whereas the chocolate cream pie just has the chocolate "filling." You can try it, but I think if you try piping it, you won't end up with the cool shape. Those are my thoughts.

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  16. OMG! Saw these on pinterest. Will HAVE to make these this week. I think I have it all.... :P

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  17. Just made these for a dinner party. Didn't have dark chocolate so used a combo of semi-sweet chips and a Hershey's bar. Also used skim milk. I added a tad more corn starch and cooked until it was pretty thick. I also used Pillsbury pie crust. Oh Wow!! My biggest problem is keeping my teenage son away from these before he eats them all! Although time consuming, well worth it and will definitely make these again.

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