- Hey, I'm John Kanell,
and today on Preppy Kitchen,
we're making an easy delicious chocolate pie.
So let's get started.
First off, preheat your oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
It needs to be toasty for this pie shell.
You can use a homemade butter crust like I am
or a store-bought pie shell.
If you're using a store-bought one,
I would like double-check the instructions
because they're all a little bit different.
Line this with parchment paper.
Plop your pie weights in.
I keep my pie weights in this little nest of foil
and I can just press it against the edge of my frozen pie
and it holds everything together.
This can go into the oven for 20 minutes,
then remove the paper and pie weights,
and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more
or until everything is nicely golden and dried out.
It's time to make our luscious chocolate filling.
In a medium pot,
I'm adding one and a half cups of granulated sugar,
that's 300 grams.
I also want half a cup of cocoa powder, 50 grams,
and I'm using a natural cocoa powder.
If you wanna use Dutch process, that's totally fine.
Now, my scale is done,
I'm gonna whisk this gently together
so no cocoa powder jumps out.
This is helping to break up any lumps of cocoa powder
and just give you a nice even mixture to start with.
Now I'm slowly whisking in one and a half cups of milk.
I have two cups for the recipe, so don't add it all in yet,
save half of a cup.
Last splash of milk.
And you can see because we whisked this slowly,
it is a beautiful, like nice thick mixture,
there's no lumps anywhere, it's perfect.
This goes over medium high heat
and we're gonna bring it to a simmer
while whisking constantly.
(lighthearted hip hop music)
Oh right, so I actually lied.
You're gonna stir frequently
because we have to grab a big bowl
and we're gonna mix the rest of our ingredients right here
while that warms up.
I want four egg yolks.
You can use the whites for a delicious meringue.
There's so many delicious meringue things you can do.
This pie looks pretty impressive.
It tastes delicious, but it's actually so quick.
And today I totally cheated
because a few days ago I had some extra time
and I said, "Hey kids come into the kitchen"
and we made some pie crusts together
and then I showed them how I rolled 'em out
and crimped the edges,
it was like a fun little lesson,
and I just left that in the freezer
and it's hanging out and ready to use.
Now, stir, stir, stir.
Just talking up a storm.
I'm gonna add in three tablespoons of flour.
This will help like hold things together
and give it some substance.
Gonna add in half a teaspoon of salt,
carefully measured of course.
Stir, stir, stir.
Hmm.
Gonna grab another whisk
and just give this a head start
and whisk in the remaining half cup of milk.
(gentle swooshing)
Nothing's spilled, it's fine.
Okay.
That's beautifully mixed up.
Stir, stir, stir, it's coming to a simmer.
If this comes to a simmer fast,
just reduce heat to low and let it keep warm.
The last thing I have to do
is just cube up a quarter cup of butter.
Ooh, oh my gosh.
The cocoa powder really blooms in that hot milk mixture
and just gives you an intense chocolatey flavor and color.
(chuckles)
Okay, just a little secret, tip of the trade,
just museum wax to hold your bowl in place.
If you're filming a YouTube channel,
you don't want things to move.
Okay.
One final thing.
For this pot,
if I'm ever heating up any kind of a milk mixture
for a custard pudding situation,
I always grab a narrow whisk.
It's so handy
because it really hits the edge and corners really well,
so nothing's gonna burn in that area.
The balloon whisk has a harder time.
And my final thing, while I'm holding this heavy hotpot,
use a pot with a thick wall.
If you have a pot that's like a thinner wall on the side,
it'll scorch your milk, it gets really hot.
This will transmit heat nicely.
If I just dump this into the egg yolks,
the egg yolks will curdle up like scrambled eggs.
We want this to not happen, nice and silky.
So, in a slow and steady stream,
just whisk it in.
Whisk vigorously and add it in slowly.
And if this pot's too heavy for you,
just grab a cup at a time and whisk that in
'cause not all of us have massive forearm strengths.
There we go.
Whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk.
That's the thing about a heavy-walled pot, they're heavy.
Oh my gosh.
Okay.
Grab this mixture.
We're gonna pour it back into the saucepan now
and this gets taken back over heat.
Pop it onto medium low heat,
not too crazy,
and now we're gonna stir constantly.
I dunno if this sounds basic or not,
but when you're stirring,
just a little FYI, stir at the edge
so your whisk is hitting the edge and corner.
Work your way towards the center
and then go back out towards the edge,
it's like a spiral going in and out, in and out.
If you just whisked in the middle
or like towards the middle,
yes, the whole mixture is moving around,
but the entire edge of the pot
is gonna have like a little layer
of like burnt milk-egg situation, which is not nice.
I'm stirring it until it's thickened and bubbling.
So you see a couple bubbles coming out,
it's leaving a trail,
and just like that, I know it's done.
On most cooktops,
there'll be about five minutes of cooking.
Mine is less 'cause it's mega hot.
Okay.
It looks perfect, it smells amazing,
but it could be even better.
I'm gonna add a teaspoon of vanilla in right now.
Mm.
Along with my quarter cup of cubed butter.
We're gonna whisk this up just until it disappears.
So, this came together so quickly
that my pie shell is still wrapping up
its like final bake time.
If that happens to you, you can transfer this to a bowl
and just press some like plastic
or parchment paper onto the top so it doesn't develop a skin
or, I mean,
this honestly could just hang out for a few minutes,
it'll be okay.
The skin's not gonna happen instantly.
Because of my really good whisking,
this is almost like,
I don't see any lumps looking through the mixture,
it looks beautiful.
If you see some lumps or you just wanna double-check,
you can press this through a fine-mesh sieve
and just have like all the lumps or nonsense
totally removed.
I'm gonna skip that today 'cause this looks nice.
My pie crust is out of the oven and it looks gorgeous,
like that golden color, and it's so flaky too.
Let this cool a bit so it's close to room temperature
and then we're gonna pour it together
Before we do anything else,
this should come closer to room temperature,
so let it hang out for a bit,
and if you wanna speed things up,
it could go into the fridge.
Once your pie shell's cooled,
it's time to pour that filling in.
Look at that.
Before this goes into the fridge, one final optional step
is just to smooth it out a little bit.
I don't wanna see so many ripples.
And whatever's left in the pot is fair game for snacking,
so grab some spoons.
Mm, oh, and get to work, that's really good.
Into the fridge.
I have a chocolate silk pie on the channel too
and that is like a whipped butter fantasy.
This is a softer pie,
so it's almost a cross
between chocolate mousse and chocolate pudding
in this crisp butter crust.
It's super fast and easy
and it is just really delightful to eat,
but it does have a softer set,
so you're not gonna get these clean, crazy pieces,
it'll have a little bit of a chocolate ease to it,
but it's very delicious.
Mm.
I love the silky, decadent chocolate
with that crisp butter crust.
Oh my gosh, it is just like chocolate perfection.
I hope you get a chance to make this recipe
and if you like this video, check out my chocolate playlist.