Sometimes You Feel Like a Walnut Crust

Rich and delicious are the first two words that come to mind upon my refection of the pie I made during my family vacation last week.  My only complaint about this pie is that I had not brewed a pot of coffee to accompany our tasting of the Chocolate Bar Pie from Better Homes and Gardens.

In my previous post I had mentioned that very little granulated sugar was needed to make this pie—it only needed two tablespoons.  I knew I did not want to pack a container of sugar for such a scant amount, so I made good use of the sugar packets, undoubtedly meant for the coffee brewed using the in-room coffee maker in the condo we had rented for the week.  The walnuts for the crust I had ground before leaving for vacation and the rest of the ingredients were easy to acquire at the local grocery store in Newport, Oregon.   

Simple ingredients

My first attempt at forming the crust was a little discouraging.  I quickly realized as I pressed the walnut crust into the glass pie pan, the one I used for almost all of my pie baking, that my ingredients were not going to stretch the distance or depth of the pan.  The recipe was designed for a smaller pan.  Thankfully my parents saved the day with a small metal pie pan they had packed, just in case I had not packed one of my own.  Thus, after scraping the first attempt into the second metal pie pan, the crust spread exactly the distance and depth for which it was intended.  Success!

Successful attempt at walnut crust using metal pie pan

While the crust baked, chocolate bars and marshmallows were melted with milk, and then combined with a whipped cream mixture. 

Chocolaty goodness ready to fill the crust

The walnut crust was filled with chocolaty goodness and then placed in the freezer while my family waited what seemed like forever for the pie to reach its desired chilliness. 

Chocolate Bar Pie

Since I began my pie mid-afternoon, and it needed to chill out in the freezer for 5 hours, we were all in our pajamas by the time we got our first taste.  We dressed up the chilly chocolate slices with a whipped topping and chopped chocolate almond bars. 

Dished and ready to go

EAT ME!

While my first impression of the Chocolate Bar Pie was rich and delicious, there was some discussion among my family of whether or not the crust needed to be walnut or if a graham cracker crust or a pastry crust would have sufficed.  Everyone enjoyed the pie, but the consensus seemed to be that sometimes you feel like a walnut crust, and sometimes you don’t.