This Chocolate Cream Pie is luscious, rich and chocolatey -- made from scratch with a chocolate pudding filling and a flaky pie crust, topped with homemade whipped cream!
In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, sugar and salt.
Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or fork until you see pea-sized chunks of butter remaining.
Gradually add in cold water, stirring each time until you can press it together.
Form it into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or freeze for 30 minutes until chilled.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Roll out so that it is slightly larger than a 9″ pie plate.
Press into the pie plate and up the sides. Try to get as high up the sides as you can as the pie crust may shrink when it bakes. Fold the excess pastry over and tuck it underneath to form a thick edge, crimping or decorating as desired.
Poke the bottom and the sides with a fork all over to help prevent puffing. Place a piece of parchment into the pie crust and weigh down with pie weights or dried beans -- this will prevent shrinking.
Bake for 10-15 minutes until light golden brown. If desired, remove pie weights and bake until the bottom of the crust is light golden brown, 5-6 minutes.
Set aside to cool while you make the filling (let cool at least 10 minutes).
Chocolate pie filling:
In a large skillet (off the heat), whisk together milk, cream, sugar, eggs, corn starch, and cocoa powder until smooth.
Cook filling, whisking constantly, on medium heat until very thick, scraping the sides as necessary to ensure there are no lumps.
Stir in chocolate until completely melted.
Place a fine mesh strainer over a medium bowl and strain chocolate filling to remove any lumps.
Pour into prepared pie crust. Place a piece of wax paper or plastic wrap on top of the filling, pressing it to stick, to prevent a film from forming.
Let chill in the refrigerator at least 8 hours or overnight.
Whipped cream
Combine cream, sugar and vanilla in a medium bowl.
Beat with an electric mixer (or whisk by hand) until stiff peaks form -- there is a step by step video here if you need help knowing when it's ready!
Remove wax paper and spread whipped cream over chilled pie. Top with chocolate shavings as desired.