Black Bottom Chocolate and Nutella pie, with sweet cherries

 

It is Pie Day at the office, and Jocelyn, the pie winner, last week requested 'something with nutella and cherries.'  I combined a few recipes and eliminated and added a bunch of ingredients, and came up with my own creation:  a Black Bottom Chocolate and Nutella pie, with sweet cherries.  Speaking with absolutely no bias, it is awesome.

Crust
16 Oreo Cookies
2 ounces of butter
Pinch of Cinnamon
2 tbs of milk

Crumb cookies in food processor on pulse
Add cinnamon and pulse
Add melted butter and pulse
Add milk and pulse

Place into greased and floured 9” pie dish and press gently with your fingers until the crumb crust covers the pie dish completely.  Bake in preheated oven at 325 for 6 minutes.

Filling
1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup unsweetened Hershey Cocoa powder
2 tbs cornstarch
1 ½ cups whole milk
2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
2 tbs Nutella spread
2 tbs unsalted butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
30 bing cherries

Combine sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch and salt into a medium saucepan.  Whisk in milk.  Cook over medium high heat until almost boiling.  Reduce heat to medium.  Add chocolate and nutella.  Cook, stirring constantly, until chocolate has melted and mixture is thick, about 5 minutes.  Do not boil.  Remove from heat; whisk in butter and vanilla until smooth.  Set aside for 15 minutes to cool.  Wash cherries and remove stems and pits.  By now, filling should be nearing room temperature.  Pour filling into pie crust.  Let it set.  Place pitted cherries on top of filling and distribute them evenly; press down into filling.

Top
1 cup heavy cream
1 tbs nutella
1 tbs frangelico
1 tbs powdered sugar
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped

Set bowl and beater blades in freezer on ice to chill for ten minutes.  Remove and pour heavy cream into bowl and beat on high until stiff peaks form.  Add nutella, frangelico and powdered sugar while beating on low.  Spread gently on top of filling until cherries can no longer be seen.  Drizzle chopped chocolate on top of whipped topping to garnish.