Strawberry Chocolate Decadence Pie

Happy (late) Valentine's Day, all!  Hope you were all able to spend the day with someone special, even if it was your cat.  I got to spend the day with my sweet princess making pie for our small group get together last night.  The pie involved strawberries which resulted in lots of begging and whining and general flailing until I decided to share.  Didn't know Zooey was so enthusiastic about that particular fruit.

I didn't do a great job documenting the pie making process, but its pretty self explanatory.  You should be able to do all right without a lot of visual aid.  To fulfill my goal of posting at least one recipe this month, I give you the Strawberry and Chocolate Decadence Pie!  (Used this recipe found on Pinterest.)
I deviated from the original recipe right from the beginning.  I knew that if I bought Oreos to make the pie crust, Daniel would get a hold of the package and there wouldn't be any cookies left to make a crust with!  So we just went with a plain old, store-bought chocolate pie crust.

First, gather all of your ingredients.  It helps me to go ahead and measure everything out.  Sure it means more to clean later, but it also ensures I don't forget anything that I'll end up having to hunt for at a critical moment. Granted I didn't remember to do this until after I'd put the strawberries in the pie but we're not judging me right now.  We're making pie.  Move along.

Pictured: Semi-sweet chocolate chips, milk, salt, eggs, ginger, nutmeg, sugar, vanilla extract, cocoa powder, a delicious looking pie full of strawberries and an assortment of measuring cups.

The next step is to cut up your strawberries to layer in the bottom of the crust.  I don't know about you but my ideal chocolate to strawberry ratio is at least 2:1.  I may have gone a little overboard.  Just layering halves along the bottom didn't seem like enough to me.  To really berry it up I cut up several more berries and sprinkled them in the sad little gaps.  I told you.  I really, really like strawberries.

Like, a lot a lot.  I really could have done with a few more.

All right,  Time to assemble the delicious, rich, spiced chocolate pudding mixture that will cushion all the beautiful red berries.  Mmm....  Ahem.  Combine your sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder, ginger, nutmeg and salt in a medium sauce pan.  Whisk 'em all together and try not to get the dust in your eyes.  Take a break, feed your baby some strawberries.  Now separate 6 eggs and stir the yolks into your powder mixture.  This will be very thick.  So thick that you won't think it will all combine.  It will, though, I promise.  Mix in your milk, whisking until there aren't anymore thick lumpy bits lurking around in there.  Basically this looks like a big pot of chocolate milk.  Heat this mixture over medium-high heat and whisk until it thickens boils for one minute.  Take it off the heat and let it cool for five minutes.  While it cools, stir in about 6 oz. of semi sweet chocolate chips.  Give it a good whisk every now and then to avoid lumps and sticking.

This is what the mixture will look like about half way through the cooling process.

This is what your kid will look like half way through.

After five minutes, pour this thick chocolate decadence over the strawberries in the pie shell and stick in the fridge to chill.  Garnish with whipped cream and a pretty fanned strawberry.  Or any way that strikes your fancy really.  Or not at all.  If you want, just start eating it out of the pie tin.  I'm not here to judge.

All filled and ready to chill.

You'll probably have a good bit of mixture left over.  Use this to dip more strawberries in later or even make another small pie.  Or eat it with a spoon.  Like I said, I'm not here to judge.  This is more than just a simple chocolate pudding pie.  Adding the ginger and nutmeg gives it just a little kick, enough to really make people take notice and elevate it way  beyond the realm of silly boxed chocolates.  

Why are you still bumming around here?  GO!  Make a pie!