Chocolate Dulce de Leche Pie

I don't know why, but I'm on a pie kick these days. This is my new, yummy recipe for a chocolate caramel pie.

pie crust

Make or purchase a nine-inch pie crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 8 minutes. If you read "I get pie with a little help from my friends." in Chocolate Rehab, you know to make a foil liner for the crust to keep it from collapsing. After eight minutes of baking, remove the foil and bake 3 1/2 minutes more. I am always impatient to get the crust cooled. A great trick is to set the Pyrex (it won't crack) pie pan on one of those frozen packs that you get when they ship food. It will cool down in about 15 minutes.

caramel layer

Place 6 tablespoons of Dulce de Leche in a small bowl and soften in microwave about 20 seconds, until pourable. Pour into bottom of hot pie crust. Allow to cool.

pie filling

8 ounces dark chocolate

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter

Melt the butter and chocolate in the microwave for one minute. Stir until the chocolate melts. Add:

1 1/2 cups marshmallow fluff (or 7 ounces)

Microwave 20 seconds and stir until well combined with the chocolate. Then add:

1 teaspoon mocha powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Allow to cool.

Beat:

1 cup whipping cream until stiff.

Fold into chocolate mixture and place in cooled pie crust on top of caramel layer. Chill.

topping

1 cup whipping cream

1 tablespoon dulce de leche

1/3 cup confectioner's sugar

1 teaspoon whipped cream stabilizer

Beat until firm. Place on top of chocolate pie filling. Keep pie refrigerated.

Tips: Dulce de leche is a caramel canned milk product by Nestle. It is much thicker and darker than sweetened condensed milk. It may be with the canned milk or the Hispanic foods. Nestle also makes a condensed milk and the labels are similar, so check carefully. Do not use the squirt bottle version of dulce de leche, it is too thin.

Whipped cream stabilizer is available from King Arthur Flour. You can also following the directions for stabilizing whipped cream in Chocolate Crimes, if you don't have the powdered stabilizer.

When measuring sticky things like the marshmallow, spray the measuring cup with Pam and it will release much easier. If you have a food scale, you can just spray a piece of waxed paper and then place the marshmallow on top as needed until you reach 7 ounces.