Milk chocolate Cream Pie recipe

Whenever my husband, the strapping stallion I call Marlboro Man, imagines chocolate pie—and I imagine that he imagines it frequently, because it’s one of his favorite desserts—he doesn’t think of French Silk Pie or Chocolate Chiffon Pie or Chocolate Chess Pie or any other variation. He thinks of this one. This is just good ol’ basic, can’t-go-wrong, everyone-loves-it, super-easy-to-make, been-around-forever chocolate pie with a pudding filling, and my beloved could seriously eat a slice every day of his life and never get bored.

I could too, I might add.

And speaking of that: This pie is always one of those things that drives home to me the differences between Marlboro Man and me, and let me explain: In no universe would he ever, ever consider adorning his chocolate pie with anything. Not whipped cream, not fruit, not nuts, not sauces…nothing. To him, that would mar the beautiful simplicity of this luscious dessert and he sees absolutely no logical reason for it.

I, on the other hand, will keep adding stuff to the top of my chocolate pie until my fridge is empty, my pantry is cleaned out, and the cows come home.

Differences make the world go ’round!

Now, the first step to making this homemade pie is to put a storebought frozen pie crust into the oven. Ha. At least that’s what I did. I was out of my frozen crusts and I didn’t feel like making one on the spot, so I used a storebought frozen one.

I am not ashamed.

Now, if you really want to impress your friends, forget about the pie crust and come close to burning it, as I did above.

They’ll be amazed at your talent!

All of that’s about to be forgotten, though, when you make this luscious pie filling, which is nothing more than chocolate pudding. (So consider this a chocolate pudding recipe, too!) Start by putting sugar into a saucepan…

With some cornstarch…

As a thickener.

Add a little salt (about a fourth a teaspoon; don’t be thrown off by the 1/2 teaspoon measure you see here, as I only added half. Don’t be like me)…