Filling can be made in your microwave oven! This is the filling for one chocolate cream pie. Flavor variations can be found below.

• One baked pie crust
• Meringue (below Filling)

Milk Chocolate Cream Pie Filling

• 1 cup sugar
• 3 Tablespoons Argo cornstarch
• 2 level Tablespoons Hershey’s cocoa
• 1 regular size can Pet evaporated milk (12 oz.)
• 1 cup water
• 3 egg yolks
• 1 Tablespoon vanilla
• 2 Tablespoons butter or oleo (oleo is an old-fashioned term for margarine, a cheaper butter substitute made of vegetable oil that comes in sticks or tubs in the dairy section)

Sift sugar, cornstarch and cocoa into microwave safe bowl.  Beat egg yolks with a fork.  Stir water into egg yolks and set aside.  Pour about a tablespoon of Pet evaporated milk into sifted dry ingredients and stir into a paste.  Continue to add a little milk at a time, stirring constantly, until all milk is used.  Add egg-water mixture and stir with a fork until thoroughly combined.

Cover with microwave safe lid and heat at 50% power for 3 minutes.

Remove from microwave and stir.  Place cover back on container and heat again, this time at 75% power for 3 minutes.  Remove from microwave. Open cover on the far side of the bowl (away from you) to prevent steam burns on your face.  Stir and replace cover.

Cook in microwave on 75% or full power for 3 minutes.

Remove from microwave and uncover (again cautiously, to prevent steam burns).  If the mixture is somewhat lumpy, stir to smooth and set aside to cool.  If very few lumps appear, cook one last time, at 50-75% for 2-3 minutes.

While hot pie filling is cooling, stir in vanilla and oleo and continue stirring until oleo is melted.  Pour hot pie filling into baked pie shell and use the remaining 3 egg whites to make a meringue or top completely cool pie with whipped cream.

Meringue

• 3 egg whites (left from when you separated the eggs for the pie filling)
• 6 Tablespoons white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

To beat the egg whites, pour the whites into a small metal or glass bowl and beat with a mixmaster on high.  Both the bowl and the beaters have to be clean and dry or the whites will not rise.  Add the cream of tartar to stabilize the egg  whites and make them stiffen more easily and then retain their shape without dissolving back down.  After beating the egg whites and cream of tartar for 3 minutes on high, the whites should be foamy but they won’t be standing tall just yet.  Keep beating on high and add in the sugar 1 Tablespoon at a time.  After beating a total of 6 minutes, stop the mixer and test the firmness of the whites.  You should be able to gently sculpt the whites into peaks.  If your peaks can’t hold a firm point, you need to beat a little longer.  Turn on the mixer again to high speed and beat 3 more minutes.  After 9 total minutes of mixing on high, your egg whites should be able to form stiff peaks if you caress them with a knife and lift the knife away from the egg whites.  This is your meringue (Texans ignore most of the vowels in this word and just call it “muh-RANG”).

Drop large dollops of meringue all over the top of your pie filling and gently connect the tops of the dots of meringue.  Don’t worry about the space underneath, the meringue will expand while it cooks.

Bake meringue-topped pie at 350°F for 7-10 minutes until tips of peaks begin to brown.

Carlyn Foshee Chatfield

Note: Diane Chambers Foshee’s pie recipe was adapted for microwave cooking by Carlyn

Coconut Chocolate Cream Pie Filling

Use a 12-14 oz package of shredded coconut. From the original recipe, leave out cocoa and follow rest of directions.  When pie filling reaches the cooling stage, add 8-10oz shredded coconut and 1 teaspoon coconut flavoring with the butter and vanilla. Top with coconut meringue. When beating the meringue, after it has reached its peaks, turn off the mixer and blend in the rest of the coconut with a spatula. Depending on how much coconut it includes, this meringue may look a little spiky, but it tastes delicious!

Butterscotch Cream Pie Filling

Leave out cocoa and add 12 oz Butterscotch flavored chips. Mix the sugar and cornstarch. Mix the eggs and water separately. Slowly pour the liquid into the dry ingredients. Add the evaporated milk next. Finally add in the Butterscotch chips. They will sink to the bottom and that is fine. Microwave 3 minutes at 50% power then stir well. Chips are beginning to melt slightly. Microwave 3 minutes at 75% power then stir well. Chips are still melting and but remaining on the bottom of the bowl. Microwave 3 minutes at 100% power. Stir well, the pudding should have thickened, the chips are fully melted and integrated in the pudding. If it still feels too ‘thin’ then Microwave 2 minutes at 50-70% power. Too much heat and the pudding will turn into lumps you’ll need a mixmaster to break up. Remove from microwave, add butter and vanilla and stir until thoroughly combined.