If you are a stress-eater, please do not make this pie. You will be mad at me because you will eat two slices for dinner every night until it is gone. You will try to take a photo of it for your food blog but it looks so enticing that after only a few photos your will-power gives in and there is no pie left to photo.

Do not make this pie if you live alone. No one will see you hunched over the counter, fork in hand, eating directly from the pie plate. No one will be the voice of reason and remind you that you are not, in fact, participating in a pie eating contest.

Do not make this pie if you have a late-night eating disorder in which food calls out to you from the refrigerator. All of your good intentions will not be strong enough to ignore the magnetic pull. Especially if you keep opening up the refrigerator in order to refill your wine, er, uh, water glass, being that you are a thirsty girl who needs to stay adequately hydrated.

And lastly, do not make this pie if the combination of sweet, salty, creamy, chocolaty, and flaky are words you live for. The crust has the perfect amount of salt for each bite to be just addictive enough to want another one. Even though you have unbuttoned the buttons on your fat-girl pants and know somewhere in the depths of your mind that this is all wrong, still you cannot stop.

Do make this pie if you live in a house full of people who will help you to gobble it up. Or if you have a lot of friends that stop by frequently or are going to a party somewhere. This is a great pie to take to a party. Everyone will love it. If not, then you should not be friends with them anyway, as they clearly do not possess good taste.

The only semi-challenging piece to this pie is the crust. It needs to be blind-baked but yours truly took the beans out a little too soon and the crust shrank a bit. Hopefully yours does not, but at least take comfort in the fact that others too suffer from shrinkage. Such is life, my friends, and sometimes your crust will shrink. But please don’t fret, as it still tastes perfectly delicious.

The filling is super simple. It will turn from a gritty brown to a deep, velvety, rich, thick chocolate pudding in a matter of minutes. For you apprehensive pie crust makers, this could also be served in cups, or a cookie crust, or any other creative vessel you can think of.

Chocolate Pudding Pie
Courtesy of Gourmet Magazine
Serves 8

Pastry dough

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 stick cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 tablespoons cold vegetable shortening
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 tablespoons ice water

Filling

1/4 cup cornstarch
1/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar, divided
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
4 oz bittersweet chocolate (not more than 60% cacao), finely chopped
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup chilled heavy cream
Equipment:pie weights or dried beans
Garnish:bittersweet chocolate shavings (optional)

Make dough:

Blend together flour, butter, shortening, and salt in a bowl with your fingertips or a pastry blender (or pulse in a food processor) just until mixture resembles coarse meal with some roughly pea-size butter lumps. Drizzle 2 Tbsp ice water evenly over mixture and gently stir with a fork (or pulse) until incorporated.
Squeeze a small handful of dough: If dough doesn’t hold together, add more ice water, 1 Tbsp at a time, stirring until incorporated. (Do not overwork dough or pastry will be tough.)
Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 4 portions. With heel of your hand, smear each portion once or twice in a forward motion to help distribute fat. Gather all of dough together, with a pastry scraper if you have one, and form into a 5-inch disk. Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until firm, at least 1 hour.

Make pie shell:

Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface with a lightly floured rolling pin into an 11-inch round, then fit into a 9-inch pie plate. Trim edge, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, then fold overhang under and crimp edge decoratively. Prick bottom and side of shell all over with a fork, then chill shell 30 minutes.
While shell chills, preheat oven to 375°F with a baking sheet on middle rack.
Line shell with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake on baking sheet until pastry is set and edge is pale golden, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove weights and foil, then bake shell on baking sheet until pale golden all over, 15 to 20 minutes more. Cool shell.

Make filling:

Whisk together cornstarch, 1/3 cup sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a 2-qt heavy saucepan, then gradually whisk in milk. Bring to a boil over medium heat, whisking constantly, then boil, whisking, 2 minutes (mixture will thicken). Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate and vanilla until smooth.
Pour filling into cooled shell and chill, its surface covered with wax paper (if you want to prevent a skin from forming), until cold, at least 2 hours.
Just before serving, beat cream with remaining 2 Tbsp sugar until it just holds soft peaks. Spoon onto pie.

Pastry dough can be chilled up to 2 days.
Pie (without whipped cream) can be chilled up to 1 day.