Chocolate Cheesecake Pie

I made this one today, totally by accident. But let me tell ya, I am making this Chocolate Cheesecake Pie from now on! Best part? There is no guilt! Notice, I did not add a single granule of sugar! When we tried it, it tasted seriously, restaurant quality. All I needed was some coco powder dusting or shaved chocolate on top for presentation. I may also add some orange zest into the cheesecake mixture.

To tell you the truth, I was making a cheesecake, but after I softened and dumped my cream cheese into the bowl, I realized I was out of one of the key ingredients – sweetened condensed milk. What?! How did this happen? I always have some on hand! But oh well, what can I do at this point? I already leaked out the excitement to the kids that we are having a cheesecake! I was searching my pantry for inspiration, what can I used that may mimic the thick texture of sweetened condensed milk, and gives amazing flavor? Then my eyes gazed on the white mini chocolate chips. I had some left overs from making cake pops for my daughter’s birthday party. That’s it! Here is what I did.  A hint: this is a no bake cheesecake pie! How much easier can that be?

Ingredients:

2 packages of cream cheese, softened (either leave the cream cheese on the counter for at least 2 hours in the packaging, or simply follow the instructions printed inside the box, you didn’t know there was instruction there, did you? Took me years to realize that too!)

1 cup of mini white chocolate chips, or  baking chocolate, cut into small pieces (a lot easier to melt)

1/4 cup of unsweetened coco powder

1 store-bought pie crust

Method:

I already dumped the 2 packages of cream cheese into a medium size mixing bowl. I melted white mini chocolate chips in another glass bowl in the microwave. 45 seconds on high to start out with, stir, added 30 seconds more, that did all the trick. Or you can melt your chocolate chips in double boiler. Again, I didn’t feel like using the stove and another pot. Now, if I didn’t dump out the cream cheese earlier, I would add my softened cream cheese into my chocolate mixture at this point to save another bowl.

I mixed the cream cheese and chocolate with a large spoon. Don’t use a whisk, the cream cheese will get stick in the middle of the  whisk and that doesn’t really help. Once chocolate and cream cheese is mixed together, I added the coco powder. Slowly press the coco powder into the cream cheese mixture using the back of the spoon. If you try to stir, chances are, you will make a huge mess with the coco powder. The mixture will feel a bit too dry at first, but it will loosen up a bit as the coco powders are incorporated.

Simply remove the plastic cover from the pie crust, pour the chocolate cream cheese mixture into the pie crust. Using the back of the same spoon, even out the top of the cheese mixture. I don’t know any kid doesn’t like chocolate, or cheesecake, or pie… I had a little helper, really a little taster. She was also playing with a spatula, and had tons of fun tasting the cheesecake pie.

After smoothing out the top, doesn’t have to be perfect. I didn’t fee like adding extra bells and whistles to this one, I put the lid back on and stuck the pie in the fridge to let it set  a bit.

If you want to go fancy, shave some chocolate shavings and sprinkle on top, or you can arrange marsh mellows on top, and quickly torch it before serving, it would be a s’more version! The alteration is endless!

Have fun making this one! Everyone would love it!