Chocolate Strawberry Pie

Strawberries were on sale and I might have gone a little strawberry crazy this weekend.  There's jam cooling on the counter, strawberries diced for spinach salad lunches this week and pie chilling in the fridge.

I wasn't sure what kind of strawberry pie to make exactly.  My mom's rhubarb is just beginning to come in but I was kind of in the mood for a fresher strawberry flavor.  It had to be pie though because I really wanted to use my new Fiesta pie plate.

Why wouldn't you plan your menu around your dishes?

I thought of making chocolate covered strawberries with that simple but perfect flavor pairing when it struck me that if I made it into a pie, I could use my pie plate.  Such determination.

I opted for a cookie crust, similar to a graham cracker crust but made with Nilla Wafers.  You could substitute a graham cracker crust.  I didn't  because, well, I don't really love graham cracker crust all that much.  That's not one of those things I like to admit often because it always has people staring at me as if I had two heads.  It's nothing like admitting that I can't stand Nutella though...that has others picking up stones to cast. Not sure why, but I've never liked hazelnuts, hazelnut flavors or even the word hazelnuts.  It's not even the ambivalence we sometimes feel when we say we don't really like something.  

Nope this is outright dislike--Nutella is pure evil in my mind.

The chocolate ganache filling on the other, that I could eat by the spoonful.  It's a pretty forgiving recipe nonrecipe really. Half and half plus chips (white chocolate, semisweet or milk chocolate) makes a thick truffle-like ganache filling that pairs wonderfully with the strawberries.  You could even add a big 'ole scoop of Nutella to the ganache filling if you happen to be one of the 99.9999999% of the people in this world that thinks Nutella reigns supreme. I hear strawberries and Nutella go well together.  I'll take your word for it.

You could leave the strawberry pie au natural and it's still quite lovely.

I opted for a jam glaze because a little shine is fun.  I could rave about this pie, but it's chocolate and strawberries. As Barefoot Contessa would say "how bad can that be?"

This pie is best eaten day of before the strawberries begin really releasing all their crazy juices.

Cuter than strawberry pie.  Way cuter than Nutella....

Chocolate Strawberry Pie

Ingredients

Cookie Crust:

2 cups Nilla Wafer crumbs (about 8 oz of cookies)

3 tbsp powdered sugar

6 tbsp melted butter

2 tbsp strawberry jam melted

Chocolate Ganache:

1 1/2 c chocolate chips

1/2 c half and half

1 1/2-2 cups strawberries washed and cut in half or quarters (lengthwise)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees
2. Combine Nilla Wafer crumbs, sugar and butter in bowl and stir to evenly distribute butter
3. Press into pie pan
4. Bake for 7 mins and cool completely
5. For the ganache, heat half and half in small pan until hot but not boiling.  Stir in chips and stir over heat for 1 minute.  Remove from heat and whisk continually until chocolate is melted.
6. Pour chocolate into cooled pie shell
7. Top with strawberries  and brush with melted jam.  Refrigerate for 4-5 hours before serving