Mile High Mississippi Mud Pie

Remember how I said I was horrible at making layered cakes? Ok, so maybe just ones that involve various types of layers. When Stephen begged me to make this Mississippi Mud Pie from the Baked Explorations cookbook, I was really hesitant! It's not often that he requests that I make a dessert for him, or at least a very specific and complicated one :) But I wanted to give it a try, so I shopped for the ingredients and told him that if he would help me tackle it, I'd be happy to do it. The book has the recipe split up it steps, but I've made some adjustments to help things flow a little more smoothly (I love to simplify recipes and make it easier on home cooks). I also added a few ingredients and cut down the portions of others. I think that with these changes it turned out to be one tasty pie! I mean, look at all of those layers, how could you go wrong?! Oreo crust, flourless chocolate chip cake, dark chocolate pudding, marshmallows and homemade whipped cream... mmm. Stephen loved how dark and rich it was and I did too! I know the picture above is a little less than perfect, but it's mud pie right? It's bound to get a little messy when you cut into it!

Mile High Mississippi Mud Pie
Ingredients
Crust:

2 c. (16 oz.) Oreos, about 40 individual cookies, finely crushed
6 tbsp. butter, melted

Flourless chocolate chip cake:

1 c. sugar

6 oz. dark chocolate (60-70%), chopped
¼ c. warm water + 1 tbsp. espresso powder (dissolved in water)

4 tbsp. (½ stick) butter
6 eggs, separated

¼ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. vanilla

½ c. semi-sweet chocolate chips

Dark chocolate pudding:

¼ c. + 2 tbsp. sugar

¼ c. dark unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1½ tbsp. butter
2 egg yolks

1¼ c. milk

¹⁄₈ tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1½ oz. dark chocolate (60-70%), chopped

1½ c. miniature marshmallows, set aside for assembly

Homemade whipped cream:

1 c. heavy cream

1 tbsp. granulated or powdered sugar

½ tsp. vanilla

pinch of salt

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Lightly spray a 9" springform pan with baking PAM, then line with parchment paper, lightly spray again with PAM, set aside.
2. In a food processor or blender, grind cookies until they become fine crumbs. Place crumbs into a medium size mixing bowl and pour melted butter over top. Mix with a spatula until the crumbs are coated.
3. Firmly press crumb mixture into the bottom and sides of the springform pan, leaving about ½" inch between the top of the crust and top of the pan. It may take several minutes, but you want to make sure it's thin, even and it climbs up those sides! Place crust in oven and bake for 8 minutes, remove and allow to cool.
4. Meanwhile, to make the flourless cake, increase oven to 350 degrees.
5. Using a double boiler, melt butter and chocolate, mixing until smooth. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
6. In a 1 c. glass measuring cup, dissolve espresso powder in warm water. Add salt and vanilla, set aside.
7. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (note: I have two KitchenAid bowls so I used one for the whites and one for the yolks), beat the egg whites until foamy, about 2 minutes. Gradually increase speed to high and slowly add ½ c. sugar, beating until soft peaks form. If you've got the ice cream cone top when you lift your whisk out, you've gone too far! Set aside.
8. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks with the remaining ½ c. sugar until the eggs are light and have almost doubled in volume, about 3-4 minutes. Add the cooled chocolate mixture and beat until just combined. Scrape down sides and bottom of bowl and with mixing speed on low, add the coffee mixture. Beat until just combined.
9. Remove the bowl from the stand and gently fold in 1 c. of the beaten egg whites. After about 30 seconds of gentle folding, add remaining egg whites and continue folding until almost completely combined, do not overmix.
10. Pour the batter into the cooled crust, gently sprinkle chocolate chips over top and place in oven to bake for 38 to 40 minutes. The cake will have a semi-crisp top and will still jiggle a bit. Remove from oven and allow to cool to room temperature. The center and edges of the cake will fall- this is normal. Once the cake is cool, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

11. While the cake is baking, to make the pudding, in a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cocoa powder, cornstarch, salt, egg yolks and milk. Whisk until no clumps remain. Set pan over medium heat. Whisking constantly, bring mixture to a boil. Once the mixture has boiled it will begin to thicken immediately. Cook for one minute then remove from heat. 

12. Whisk in chocolate chunks, butter and vanilla. Pour into a bowl and let sit for 15 minutes before covering with plastic wrap (directly onto the surface of the pudding to prevent a skin from forming) and placing in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

13. While cake and pudding are cooling, to make the whipped cream, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat together all ingredients for 1-2 minutes until soft peaks begin to form. We like our whipped cream extra firm so we go until stiff peaks. Remove whipped cream from bowl, transfer to a smaller bowl, cover and refrigerate until needed.

14. Once the cake and the pudding have cooled for two hours (really you can let them go longer if you want), remove from refrigerator and spread the pudding over the top of the cake in an even layer. Gently press the marshmallows into the top of the pudding. Spread the whipped cream over the marshmallows, filling in the cracks and spreading until smooth. Refrigerate for 2 more hours before serving.

Adapted from Baked Explorations, Mississippi Mud Pie | Makes one 9" round cake or approximately 8-12 servings