Easy Chocolate Meringue Pie

Okay, so you need something you can keep on hand for a quick dessert when the grandkids come over. Who doesn't love chocolate? This is my secret to a quick and easy dessert. Regular ingredients on hand, except for graham cracker crumbs and chocolate pudding mix. These can be stored indefinitely, so you can always have them on hand. The rest you probably keep on hand at all times.

So, lets start with the graham cracker crust.

To make the graham cracker crust, I use 1-1/4 cups of crushed graham crackers. I make my own graham cracker crumbs by simply putting a pack of graham crackers crumbled into the blender. It comes out as fine as if I purchased the crumbs. Place the crumbs in a bowl with 2 Tbsp. sugar and 3 Tbsp. melted butter. (You're not still using margarine are you? You do know that stuff has a 40-year shelf life? It's only 1 molecule away from being plastic!) Mix it all together well, until all of the crumbs are moistened.  This particular recipe will set up firm when refrigerated, but not as firm as store bought crust. You can get it that way if you add another tablespoon of butter, but I prefer the 3 rather than 4 tablespoons of butter. Taking the back of a tablespoon press the crust in a glass pie pan using the back of the spoon It won't be perfectly smooth, as you can see, but no one is going to see this.

Set this aside.

Now for the pudding. I use Jello brand cook pudding mix. The instant just does not set up as nice for meringue as the cooked does. 

Put 3 cups of cold milk (whole works best) into a saucepan and add the powder mix to the milk using a whisk to stir. Turn the heat over medium. You want this to cook slow. Too fast and it will scald and burn. Stir constantly. I like using a small wire whisk, as it keeps it from sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When it begins to boil, remove from the heat and pour into your pie shell.

Bubbles will naturally form. You can eliminate these by gently tapping the pie plate against the counter, or leaving them. I used to always remove them. Any more I am lazy and I just leave them. No one seems to notice. But that's up to you. Set the pie aside to begin to set up and cool.

On to the meringue.

For the meringue you will need 4 eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 Tbsp. sugar. If you want to slightly broil your meringue, I would add 1 tsp. cream of tartar. My broiler went down as I was heating it up, so I did not add the cream of tartar for this particular pie.

Separate the yolks from the whites in your eggs.

I use an egg separator.

(You can purchase one like this below.)

This device allows the white to drip down into the cup.

And leaves the yolk in a small holder on the device.

I put the yolks into a Ziploc bag. These can be frozen for baking at a later time, or simply added to your next batch of scrambled eggs.

Pour the whites from the cup into a medium size mixing bowl.

Begin to whip the whites using an electric mixer. )I have made this by hand when I was younger, but I don't have the muscles or speed to do it any more!)

Quickly the whites will turn foamy and begin to expand.

Slowly add the tsp. of vanilla to the mixture, half at a time. SLOWLY. Making meringue is very, very simple, but you don't want to add anything quickly or it will not keep it's fluffy appearance and will go flat on you!

Once you've added the vanilla, add the sugar. About 1/4 tsp. at a time. Very, very slowly. Make sure your mixer speed is on high.

Once all the sugar is incorporated, keep whipping until stiff peaks form.

Notice how the peaks stand off from the mixer blades? These are how stiff you want your whites to become. No drips.

Now spread the meringue all over the top of the pie. Here I haven't quite finished spreading the meringue. Take it all the way to the edges of the pie. 

At this point, you can set it under the broiler of your oven just to lightly brown it if you prefer. This will seal the pie. However, I warn you that without the cream of tartar you must watch it closely, because the meringue will begin to pull away from the sides of the pie crust and may leave a bit of a watery trail, which is eliminated when using the cream of tartar.

Now just refrigerate and serve when completely cold!

You can dress this up for company (not just grandkids), with some shaved chocolate curls for a dressy look.

I've made this so many times, it's become my fail proof dessert! If you broil your topping, you can transport this for social dinners as well. The pudding will stay firm beneath the meringue. And everyone loves it!

Hope you enjoy!

Here's the amazing egg separator I use!