Chocolate Pie

My friend Marrisa's birthday was yesterday. She didn't want me to go all out for her and make a cake, and requested cookies which I'll post on Tuesday...but I just couldn't let her celebrate her birthday without something to cut into! So I searched for an easy, tasty recipe so that I could make both the cookies AND the "cake"...or in this case, a pie.

Again, having no hand-mixer was a problem because this pie had the whipped egg-whites on top, but instead of killing my own arm I had the lovely help of David. Hooray! This was my first time making any sort of pie, so I was kind of intimidated. Still, it turned out great!

This cake was very thick and chocolatey--VERYYY chocolatey. But it was also very, very easy.

First, I made the crust. I've always thought that making the crust was the hardest part. Maybe it was...and it probably usually is, but I chose the simple crust by the blogger who posted this pie recipe originally, Homesick Texan.

Crust
Recipe adapted from Homesick Texan

1 cup of flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup oil
1/8 cup milk

Mix flour and salt. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. Can add more milk if dry. Roll crust out between two sheets of wax paper, line a buttered pie pan with crust.

Chocolate Pie
Recipe from Homesick Texan

Filling ingredients:
4 tablespoons of cocoa or 1 1/2 squares of baking chocolate
3/4 cups of sugar
5 tablespoons of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 egg yolks, beaten slightly
1 tablespoon of butter

Meringue ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of sugar

Any pie crust (recipe above)

Method:
Mix your sugar, flour, salt, cocoa, eggs and milk (all except vanilla and butter) with a whisk.
Cook while stirring on medium until it bubbles and thickens, about five to 10 minutes. If it becomes lumpy, just beat out the lumps.
Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla and butter.
Meanwhile, poke holes in your pie crust with a fork and bake it at 350 until it’s brown, about 20 minutes.
Beat your egg whites with salt and when they start to get fluffy add the sugar.
Pour the chocolate custard into the baked pie shell and top with the beaten egg whites.
Add 2 T of sugar for every egg white. Bake it until it the peaks on the meringue are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.