This rich, velvety, chocolate cream pie is topped with sweetened whipped cream. It is out of this world.
*A short cut for this recipe is a store-bought pie crust.
In a small bowl, lightly beat the egg yolks with about 1/4 cup of the sugar. Set aside.
In a heavy-bottom saucepan set over medium heat, add 1 pint of the half & half, the remaining sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining pint of half & half, whisking constantly until the pudding begins to steam.
Add the chopped chocolate and continue stirring until the mixture comes to a boil and is very thick, about 8 to 10 minutes.
Reduce heat, about one cup of the hot mixture to the egg yolk mixture, return to the chocolate pudding and continue cooking and whisking vigorously, about 1 minute.
Remove form heat, stir in the butter and vanilla.
Pour into the prepared pie shell. Cool. Cover with plastic wrap. Chill for a couple of hours.
Spread the prepared whipped cream onto the pie. Decorate with chocolate curls.
Serve chilled.