Ultimate Mud Pie

1 Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheatthe oven to 350°F. Lightly butter a 9-inch piepan.

2 To make the crust, combine the crumbs, meltedbutter, and sugar in a medium bowl until moistened.Press firmly and evenly into the pie pan.

Bake until thecrust is set and smells like warm cookies, about 12minutes. Cool completely.

3 To make the filling, in a medium saucepan overmedium heat, heat 2 1/2 cups of the half-and-half, thesugar, and the salt, stirring often to dissolve the sugar,until simmering.

Pour into a heatproof bowl. Rinse outthe saucepan.

4 In a small bowl, sprinkle the cornstarch over theremaining 1/2 cup half-and-half and whisk until dissolved.

Whisk the yolks in a medium bowl, and graduallywhisk in the cornstarch mixture. Gradually whiskin the hot half-and-half mixture and return to therinsed-out saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirringconstantly with a flat wooden spatula (to keepthe mixture from scorching), until it comes to a boil.Reduce the heat to medium-low and let the mixturebubble, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.

Remove fromthe heat, add the chocolate, butter, and vanilla, andwhisk until the chocolate melts completely. Strainthrough a wire sieve into a clean bowl.

Pour the filling into the cooled crust and pressplastic wrap directly on the filling to keep a skin fromforming.

Let cool completely. Refrigerate until the fillingis chilled and set, at least 2 hours.

6 To make the topping, whip the cream, confectioners'sugar, and vanilla in a chilled medium bowl withan electric mixer set on high speed until stiff. Uncoverthe pie.

Spread and swirl the topping over the filling.(If you wish, transfer the whipped cream to a pastrybag fitted with a star tip, and pipe the cream onto thepie.)

Sprinkle pie with cookie crumbs. Slice and servechilled.

Adapted from Diamond Dishes by Julie Loria (Lyons Press/ $24.9

Excerpts copyright 2011 by Julie Loria, with permission of Lyons Press