Chocolate Cream Pie (Semi-Homemade)

Creamy, velvety chocolate custard nestled in a graham cracker crust and optionally topped with your favorite whipped topping

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword chocolate, graham cracker, heirloom recipe, no-bake, pudding, semi-homemade

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Cooling Time 4 5

Total Time 4 25

Servings

Calories 300kcal

Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
Remove all plastic and paper packaging from the pre-made crust. Place the tin pan containing the crust on a baking sheet in the pre-heated oven for 5-10 minutes until lightly golden.
1 10" pre-made graham cracker crust
Remove from the oven and allow to cool completely.

Combine the milk and boxed pudding mix in a medium saucepan.
5 cups milk, 3 boxes cook and serve chocolate pudding mix
Cook, stirring continuously over medium heat until the mixture thickens and comes just to a boil.
Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent a skin from forming on the surface.
Pour the pudding into the crust, shake the pan gently to help the pudding level (or spread with a spatula). If you don't like a light skin to form on the surface, you can press a layer of plastic wrap directly on the surface (this may cause some odd patterns on the surface of the pie unless you can get the plastic perfectly smooth)
Refrigerate until set (at least 4 hours) before serving.
Serve plain, or with dollops of whipped topping.
2-3 cups pre-made whipped topping

I don't remember mom ever pre-baking the store bought crust for this recipe, so you are welcome to skip that step, but I found that the crust held up better when I pre-baked it.
Be careful not to over cook the filling, while the flavor is still good the texture is more along the lines of a Jell-o Jiggler which your guests may find a little disconcerting.
The tin pan the store bought crust comes in can be a bit flimsy, if you want to make it easier to move the pie without having the pie tin bend and potentially crack the crust, just put the entire pie, tin and all, into a slightly larger ceramic or stoneware pie plate. I find it is best to do this before filling the crust.