COOKING: Triple Chocolate Mud Pie

It just so happens that my husband is not really a "sweets" person. His favourites, though, in this category are: Ice Cream and Mud Cake.

He recently had a Birthday Dinner where we invited his two adult children and their partners plus children. I made a wonderful roast lamb dinner, and left it up to husband to choose the sweets course.

I assisted his decision by showing him the front of my favourite "foodie" magazine .... Super Food Ideas (August 2012):

Gloriously Gooey - Triple Chocolate Mud Pie.

He was sold.

Here is the link: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/30447/triple+chocolate+mud+pie#comments

This was mine. I HAD to include white chocolate in my curls on top - but that was the only real change I made.

It was fairly easy to make - here are some steps which I photographed:

The case calls for Arnott's choc ripple biscuits.

I love my food processor! Make chocolate cookie crumbs.

Melt the butter in the microwave for speed.

You need a 23cm loose base flan tin for this pie.

Make your choccy case.

In a saucepan, make the "brownie" layer. Melt together dark chocolate, butter, sugar, water, instant coffee powder and milk. Stir till sugar dissolved and everything is well combined.

After saucepan mixture is left to cool off a bit.... add the sifted flour and cocoa powder - plus the beaten egg.

Mixture will be thick and lush ... like this - pour into biscuit case and bake for about 35min. 

It should feel firm to touch when done.

Make ganache by combining chocolate and cream together and heat gently. Put 2/3 of your ganache on top of brownie layer when everything is cooled down.

Mmmmmm Chocolately goodness!

To serve. Beat whipping cream with some cocoa and I added a couple of tablespoons of icing sugar as well. Put cream on top of pie and decorate with curls of chocolate and drizzles of ganache.

Serve.

Your guests will be happy.

Our pie served 12 people. This is VERY rich and even a true chocoholic will stop at one small slice.

My biggest tip is to serve this at room temperature - if you make it the day before - you will want to refrigerate it. But allow it time out of the fridge before you add the topping or it will be very hard to get the fork through.

ENJOY!