Tootsie Roll Pie; Revisited

Two years ago, I attempted to make a chocolate creme pie with soy milk. I made some adjustments to "make sure it would set up." The result has ever since affectionately been called Tootsie Roll Pie, by my friends. The taste was fine. The texture was far more solid than any chocolate creme pie has any business being.

So here we go again. Bryan was my pastry chef, grinding up graham crackers in the blender, adding sugar and margarine...

...pressing it into the pie pans...

... and baking them for 7 minutes at 375*. For the recipe he used for the crust, click here.

I cannot descibe how delicious these smelled coming out of the oven. I suppose it would be the equivelant to how it would smell to make graham crackers from scratch. It was heavenly, and you should make one today. Yum...

Anyway... here is the type of pudding mix I used for the filling. You could make your own from scratch, if you like. Bryan's aunt Randi always does. But everyone at our gathering today seemed to like this filling just fine.

Also, note the warning on the back against attempting this with soy:

Well, here is the soy:

Mix in the Jello chocolate pudding powder...

stir it all up...

And make room for a Tablespoon of our secret thickening agent:

Corn starch.

You honestly might be able to get it to set up with a bit less than a Tablespoon, actually. But that is what I used this time around. If you want to see what happens if you use a WHOLE LOT MORE corn starch... click here.

I heated it over medium heat, and anxiously awaited it boiling.

It started glumping up like pudding is supposed to. So that is good, right?

Then it did start to boil. Looking very much like pudding at this point. (Sorry, the steam fogged up my camera lens.)

I removed it from the heat a poured it into one of the cooled crusts.

Next, rinse and repeat. But this time, with real milk.

The real milk is whiter than the soy, which may have caused the difference in the final color of the two pies.

The soy pie was setting up nicely. But I didn't want to much of a "skin" on the top

so I covered it with plastic wrap as it cooled.

Here is the real milk pie:

Here they are side-by-side:


Everyone seemed to enjoy the pie at my family's gathering this afternoon. So I consider that a win! And, of the three different pies I've made (apple, lemon meringue, and chocolate creme) this is by far the least time-consuming to make.

Enjoy!

Edited to add: I forgot to mention that you cover the whole thing with Cool Whip if you can have dairy, or Soyatoo! (or some other vegan whipped topping) if you can't.