No-Bake S'mores Pie

If y'all aren't familiar with Cheeky Kitchen, a super cute recipe blog I found through the fantastic parenting site Babble, you'll want to familiarize yourself:

Although I've been browsing this blog in my Google Reader for months, I just made a recipe from it for the first time last Thursday. My aforementioned good friend Mary just welcomed her second sweet baby boy, & I took dinner over to her house Thursday night. I gave her several options to choose from, & that silly lady picked the healthiest thing I mentioned. ;)

(She should have known better.)

So since I didn't feel like pan-roasted chicken breasts with potatoes, & grilled asparagus with parmesan, were hearty enough for me to present to

a breast-feeding new mommy,

an overwhelmed grandmother,

& two hungry men

(well, okay, so one of them is still in diapers)...

...I decided a dessert would have to be added to the haul.

& let me tell you, I figured out really fast that I was going to have to go ahead & whip up a second pie for our family to enjoy, too. Amazing!

(You can find the original recipe post here. There are also ideas for variations on this recipe, to make it in a peanut butter or rocky road style.)

no-bake s'mores pie

(yield: 8ish servings)

• 4 (1.55 oz.) milk chocolate bars
• 8 ounces whipped topping
• 13 ounces marshmallow creme
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/4 teaspoon French vanilla flavoring
• 1/8 teaspoon coconut flavoring
• 1 prepared graham cracker crust
• 2 tablespoons crushed graham crackers
• 1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

*To prepare this recipe, you will need two large bowls. In the first bowl, microwave 3 of the chocolate bars for 20 seconds. Remove from microwave & stir. If the chocolate is still not melted, return to microwave for an additional 20 seconds, then remove & stir. Repeat this process until chocolate is fully melted.

(I used Hershey milk chocolate bars. I believe it took about a minute for the 3 bars to melt, using this process.)

*Remove bowl from microwave. To the melted chocolate, add approximately half the tub of whipped topping, half the jar of marshmallow creme, & 4 ounces of the cream cheese. Add the remaining whipped topping, marshmallow creme, & cream cheese, as well as the French vanilla & coconut flavorings, to the second bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat together the marshmallow-flavored mixture until light&fluffy. Transfer the electric mixer to the other bowl & beat together the chocolate mixture until light&fluffy.

(The jars of marshmallow creme that I bought, which were Kraft, were in 7-ounce size jars. So rather than using "half the jar," I used one jar in one bowl & the other jar in the other. Thus, I ended up having about an ounce more marshmallow creme than the recipe called for. Tasted great! I was also unable to find French vanilla flavoring, although I admit that I didn't go to more than one grocery store, as this was a last-minute addition to a meal I already had the ingredients on hand for. I used my standard *real* vanilla. Tasted great! Oh, & I used coconut *extract,* rather than "flavoring," but I think that's one of those cases of "same difference." Did I mention that it tasted great?!)

*Using a spatula, transfer the white, marshmallow mixture into a large zip-top bag. Snip off one corner of the zip-top bag. Using approximately half of the marshmallow mixture, pipe several large dollops around the bottom of the crust through the cut corner of the baggie. Carefully spoon&smooth the chocolate mixture into the pie crust, on top of the marshmallow dollops. Pipe the remaining marshmallow mixture around the top of the pie crust & chocolate mixture.

(I have never been very good at the whole "dollop through the corner of a zip-top bag" thing. I really should invest in some of those tubes that pipe out frosting, etc., in a pretty manner that requires no real effort on my part. Until then, I try to make up for my piping struggles by using a fork to make pretty curlicues & loop-di-loos in the failed dollops. You can see my earnest attempts to prettify in the photos accompanying this post.)

*Garnish by sprinkling graham crackers, mini chocolate chips, & small squares of the remaining chocolate bar around the top of the pie. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Slice&enjoy!

(I am quite sure I used more crushed graham crackers than called for, & my chocolate chips may or may not have been "mini." Also, I was annoyed that I had to buy a package of six Hershey bars because I knew I'd give in & eat the extra two. However, I ended up needing two chocolate bars to garnish with any kind of symmetry...so there is only one extra evil chocolate bar in my pantry. If you compare my dollops&garnishes to the original photos over at Cheeky Kitchen, please be a sweetie & don't remind me that I struggle with making my desserts gorgeous. They are delicious, & that is all my family&friends ask of me. ;))