Amanda's Espresso Chocolate Pie

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

2. Stir graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and salt together in a bowl. Add melted butter, using your fingers to combine until moistened. Pat the mixture into the bottom and halfway up the sides of the prepared pan. Place the pan onto a cookie sheet.

3. Bake in the preheated oven until golden, about 10 minutes. Set aside.

4. Place chopped chocolate and butter for the ganache in a glass or metal bowl over simmering water; stir occasionally as it begins to melt. When almost melted, slowly add cream and vanilla extract. Stir until smooth and completely melted. Pour ganache into the crust; spread evenly and set aside.

5. Stir clear vanilla extract into whipping cream in a bowl. Sift in powdered sugar and beat using an electric mixer with a whisk attachment on medium speed until stiff peaks form. Reserve 1 1/2 cups whipped cream for filling; refrigerate the rest until needed.

6. Beat cream cheese in another bowl until smooth. Add milk and brewed coffee gradually, scraping down the sides of the bowl occasionally. Turn off the mixer and use a whisk to combine smaller pieces of cream cheese with the milk.

7. Combine pudding mix and ground coffee in a separate bowl; whisk into milk mixture. Whisk in reserved 1 1/2 cups of the whipped cream. Pour filling into a medium saucepan.

8. Heat filling over medium-low heat. Whisk in beaten egg slowly; continue to whisk until you have a very thick custard, 7 to 10 minutes. Do not allow to stick to the bottom of the pan. Remove from heat. Whisk pudding in the pan and run through a strainer into a bowl. Place a layer of plastic wrap directly onto the pudding and refrigerate to cool, 30 to 40 minutes.

9. Whisk pudding mixture again until smooth and pour into the pie shell on top of ganache. Top with remaining chilled whipped cream.

10. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, to overnight. Remove from the refrigerator 1 hour before ready to serve. Garnish with chocolate curls.

Cook's Notes:

I highly recommend keeping this pie refrigerated, but bringing it out about an hour before serving to make it easier to slice as the chocolate layer gets rather firm in the fridge.

To replace the 1 cup of pudding mix in the pie recipe, combine 6 tablespoons of dry milk powder, 1/2 cup of white sugar, 1/8 teaspoon salt, and 6 tablespoons of cornstarch. Run through a food processor.

Instant coffee comes in crystals. Place the crystals in a sandwich bag, squeeze the air out and seal it, and roll the jar over the bag grinding them up. You can also grind it with a mortar and pestle. One tablespoon of crystals will yield about 1/2 tablespoon of ground instant coffee.