Your Taste Buds will Thank You

One usually equates a light green color in a pie to be the flavor of mint.  Not so with this pie!  It has a unique combination of pistachio and chocolate that is almost addicting.

Pistachio Dark Chocolate Pie

INGREDIENTS:

2  (13.5 oz.) cans coconut milk- full fat (14g)

1/3 cup powdered sugar

3 Tablespoons tapioca flour

2 boxes (4 serving) instant pistachio pudding

1 package (8 oz.) gluten-free dark chocolate sandwich creme cookies

3 Tablespoons Spectrum palm shortening

DIRECTIONS:

Empty the 2 cans of coconut milk into a glass container.  The milk and oil will be separated.  Whisk them together until smooth.  Cover and refrigerate overnite.  The next day, set aside 3 of the cookies.  Crush the remainder of the cookies into crumbs.  You will be crushing the entire cookie–including the creme center.  Melt the palm shortening.  Combine the melted palm shortening with the crumbs and press firmly into a greased 9″ pie plate.  Press the crumbs all the way up the sides.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake cookie crust for 10 minutes.  Cool crust completely on a baking rack.  The crust has to be cool to the touch.  Whip the refrigerated coconut milk with an electric mixer.  Add the 2 boxes of pistachio pudding and continue to whip until soft peaks.  Add powdered sugar and the tapioca flour and whip together for a few minutes.  Place pistachio mixture into the cooled pie crust.  Spread some nice swirls on the top with a butter knife.  Crush one of the remaining cookies and sprinkle on top.  Place the last 2 cookies in the center of the pie decoratively.  Refrigerate at least 3 hours before serving.

TIPS:

The term “Easy as Pie” surely fits this recipe.  It’s easy to make but does take some time for items to cool.  Concerning the ingredients:  Make sure that your cans of coconut milk are not the lite version.  They need to be full fat.  Some brands offer “lite” and “classic”.  You’ll want the “classic” which is generally around 14 grams of fat.  I usually use the JELLO brand of pistachio pudding.  Kraft foods state on their website that the majority of their puddings are gluten-free (except flavors like “cookies and creme”)  The original recipe that I modified uses Oreo cookies for the crust.  I use the Kinnikinnick brand “KinniToos (K Toos) Chocolate Sandwich Creme Cookies”.  I feel they taste the closet to Oreo cookies.  The K Toos do contain soy lecithin and may contain traces of egg.  These are in small amounts.

THOUGHTS:

This is a modified version of my own recipe that I made several years ago that I called “Pistachio Oreo Pie”.  The original recipe had an Oreo cookie crust made with butter, pistachio pudding, Dreamwhip and milk.  I had never seen pistachio and chocolate put together before.  When I tried it, I fell in love.  And even better was the combination of Oreos and pistachio pudding!  When I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease and multiple intolerances I decided to try to replicate my favorite pie recipe.  I didn’t know if I could get it close to the original version.  I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted this recipe.  The first thing that people say when they see this pie is “Oh, it’s a mint chocolate pie”.  Well….surprise!  It’s even better!