Mom's Chocolate Pie [mom]

So, my mom makes awesome chocolate pie. She's got it down. She's been making them probably as long as I've been alive, if not longer. The crust is awesome. It is the 'super-flake' crust. She makes them every holiday and usually around a birthday or any time someone asks. I got her to show me the technique Thanksgiving, I think, 2 years ago. Anita was introduced to the deliciousness sometime around then and recently asked me to make one for her. Since I finally had someone compelling me to make one, I did. My crust was good. Mom has still got me on that one. I might have opened the door to improving the filling, though. Not that it needed improvement. I'll sit down and eat an entire one of those things if the rest of the family would let me. I just had to tweek it a little due to some lacking ingredients, and it just might have turned out for the better.
I actually don't have the recipe with me now so I will post it later. I just happened to have some internet access and thought I'd start. Will finish soon. I promise.

....Ok, 4 days later.
So start with the crust. Yes, you can buy pre-made pie crusts, but that's lame as hell, they're easy and cheap to make, and they taste way better.
You need:
3/4 cup AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
sift together
1/4 cup shortening
use a pastry blender or a fork to roughly blend into the flour
1/4 cup cold water
fluff the water into the mixture

The idea is to be as light and gentle with this stuff as you can while still incorporating everything together. This will give it that flaky texture. Mom is great at that. Mine was a little on the dense side.
Knead lightly on a floured surface and roll out til large enough to overlap the pie pan. Once again, don't get too rough with it. Lay it into the pan so that the edges fall over the sides.
Cut the edges and crimp using your fingers. Prick the dough a few times with a fork. This keeps air bubbles from forming.
Bake the crust in a 450F oven for 10 minutes. About halfway through, stab any other air bubbles forming with a fork. Do not over bake!
Let the crust cool while you prepare the filling.

For the filling you need:
1 cup of sugar
3 tbsp cornstarch
dash of salt (leave out if you use salted butter, but you shouldn't use salted butter)
6 tbsp cocoa powder
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp vanilla (I probably use a little more)

Those are the traditional ingredients. I made a slight twist. I only had about 3 tbsp of regular cocoa powder and the other container I had, which I thought was more of the same, turned out to be dark chocolate cocoa powder. I like dark chocolate, but I wasn't sure I wanted a dark chocolate pie. I did, however, have some ghirardelli milk chocolate chips. So I ended up using ~3.5 tbsp regular cocoa powder, 2 tbsp dark cocoa powder, and a handful of milk chocolate chips. The chips made for a smoother, fuller, and creamier pie filling and the touch of dark chocolate gave the flavor a nice little tweek. I think more melted chips would have made it too heavy. As it was, it was a very good combination. Mom, if you don't try it before I see you (and I'm not sure when that will be) we'll have to make one together.

So, add the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and cocoa in a small pot. If using the chips, hold off til later.
Stir together til no lumps. Gradually add milk while stirring.
Turn on the stove to high heat.
Cook and stir constantly. Add the chips, if using. Keep stirring til it thickens. You will know when this happens. There will be no doubt. It might start popping at you. Keep stirring.
Once it thickens, we're almost there. Remove the pot from the heat. Temper your eggs with some of the mixture. Mix well, and add it back to the pot. Return the pot to the heat for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and add the butter and vanilla.
Stir well. Pour into the pie crust. Let it cool for and hour or two at room temperature and then place in the fridge to finish cooling.
Eat all of it in one sitting.