Ladies Who Lunch, Part Three

This is the trifecta of dinner party desserts: incredibly easy, made ahead of time, and delicious! It’s also open to a lot of augmentation. You can make it a ginger chocolate pie with some candied ginger in the pudding. You can make a graham cracker crust and add vegan marshmallow fluff for a S’mores Pie. Chocolate lends itself well to orange, mint, and raspberry flavors, so any of these can be swapped in for the vanilla in the filling. However, I’m partial to the classic, as it’s hard to go wrong with these clean, chocolate flavors.

 

Chocolate Pudding Pie

Chocolate Cookie Crust

1 ½ cups chocolate cookie crumbs

6 tablespoons non-dairy butter

¼ cup sugar

Melt the butter. Mix cookie crumbs and sugar in a bowl. Add the melted butter to the dry ingredients, and mix together with a fork. Pour the crumb mixture into a greased pie pan and press evenly across the bottom and the sides of the pan. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes.

Chocolate Filling

½ cup sugar

¼ cup corn starch

¼ teaspoon salt

3 cups non-dairy milk

2 tablespoons non-dairy butter (I prefer Earth Balance)

¾ cup chopped bittersweet chocolate

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a large saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Turn the heat to medium, and gradually add the milk, stirring constantly. Then add the butter, continuing to stir. Bring mixture to a boil. Simmer for one minute, then remove from heat. Add the chocolate and vanilla and stir until completely blended.

Pour the filling mixture into the chilled pie crust. Place the pan in the refrigerator and allow to set overnight.