Chocolate Cream Pie

So tomorrow is Mother's Day, and I wanted to make something special for my Mom.  I remember her loving chocolate cream pie when I was younger, so I decided to make that.  Believe it or not, I've never made it from scratch (meaning, I've made it using a pudding mix and some Cool Whip, but that's it!)  So I tried my hand at making it today, and it is super easy to do.  No more pudding mix for me!  

Ingredients:

8 oz. Cream cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/3 cup milk
1 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp. Sugar
Mini chocolate chips or shaved chocolate
Graham cracker pie crust 

A note on the pie crust -- you can buy one, or see my Peanut Butter Chocolate Cheesecake Recipe from last Mother's Day for a recipe to make a graham cracker pie crust homemade (chocolate or regular works)!

Instructions:

You're going to need a mixer for this recipe!  In your mixing bowl, add the cream cheese (softened), the cocoa powder, the half cup of sugar, the milk, and the vanilla extract.  Mix this until it is a smooth and creamy pudding-like consistency.  It's not going to look as thick as store bought pudding or that from a boxed pudding mix.  It will be a little bit creamier.  Now, if you've bought the premade pie crust, pour the pudding into the pie crust and distribute evenly.  If you've made the crust homemade, just make sure it's cooled before you do that step.  Next, you're going to clean your mixing bowl and then add the heavy cream and the two tablespoons of sugar.  On a higher speed on the mixer, and using the whisk attachment, you're going to beat this together and let it go for about four or five minutes like this.  Just keep an eye on it and make sure you turn the mixer off when you see that it looks like the consistency of whipped cream and it has some peaks in it.  Now, smooth this whipped cream onto the pudding in your pie crust.  Make sure it covers the whole top of the pie.  Lastly, sprinkle on some mini chocolate chips or shave some chocolate on top.  All done!

Enjoy!