chocolate cream pie

It was my brother's birthday last week and we had a little dessert get-together at our house to celebrate him being super awesome. Stephen is an incredible guy and I feel so lucky to have him as my big brother. When asked what he wanted for dessert, he said, "Something with a graham cracker crust and maybe chocolate if it makes sense." Ha! Well, obviously, chocolate cream pie always makes sense! I used this recipe as inspiration and everyone loved it! I doubled the crust (cause, yum!) and changed up a few things and hot dang! - it's a winner! Try it, you won't be disappointed! Also, I think it's even better the next day... thankfully, we divvied up the left overs so not all of it was in our fridge!

CRUST:
9 ounces whole graham crackers
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
pinch of kosher salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Toast the pecans in a dry skillet over medium heat until lightly brown (be careful not to burn). Remove from heat and place in a food processor. Pulse until finely chopped. Pour into a bowl and set aside. Add graham crackers to the food processor (will probably have to do this in batches) and pulse until you have fine crumbs (don't over process into powder, though). Pour into the bowl with the pecans. Add sugar, cinnamon and salt and combine. Drizzle in butter and mix well. Pour into a deep quiche/tart pan, springform pan or large pie pan (it makes a thick crust) and firmly press the crumbs into the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Place the pie crust into the refrigerator while making the filling.

FILLING:
2 large (5 ounce) boxes Jell-O Cook and Serve Chocolate Pudding Mix (NOT "chocolate fudge", "sugar-free" or "instant")
6 cups whole milk
6 Tablespoons (3/4 stick) butter, cubed
5 ounces milk chocolate bar, broken into pieces (I used 4 standard Hershey's bars)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Pour pudding mix into a medium saucepan and whisk in milk until no lumps remain. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until pudding comes to a full boil (around 10 minutes). Remove the pan from heat and stir in the butter cubes until melted. Add chopped chocolate and salt and stir until melted and smooth. Pour the pudding into the pie crust* and cover with plastic wrap (making sure to touch the plastic to the entire pudding surface to make sure a "skin" doesn't develop). Return pie to refrigerator until set and cold (about 4 hours).

*you'll likely have some leftover and you could split it into a smaller pie, if you want or just eat the leftovers like we do!

TOPPING:
2 cups heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Semi-sweet (or dark) chocolate bar, for shavings

When ready to serve, whip the cream until it begins to thicken. Add powdered sugar and vanilla and continue to whip on high speed until stiff. Smooth the whipped cream over the top of the pudding and shave chocolate on top.

It was a big hit with Fritz!