Peppermint Chocolate Pudding Pie

Here's another fun Christmas dessert for you.  My absolute favorite Christmas flavor combination is peppermint and chocolate.  I'm the kind of purist who will only get a peppermint mocha at Starbucks between Thanksgiving and New Year's Eve.  It's just so yummy and reminds me so much of the Christmas season (prob from my years working at Starbucks!), that I can't ruin it by having it at different times of the year.  I have seen so many peppermint and chocolate goodies floating around the blog world this season and I want to try all of them!  I'm going to have to rename my Christmas board on Pinterest to "Peppermint and Chocolate Recipes".  I saw a pudding pie from Pillsbury that I wanted to try.  It was double-layered with a layer of chocolate pudding on the bottom and some kind of marshmallow peppermint layer on the top.  It sounded good, but I wasn't sure about the marshmallow part.  That sounded kind of weird to me.  So I created my own top layer using white chocolate pudding instead.  I also used a graham cracker crust instead of a traditional pie crust.  Here's how I made mine.

Peppermint Chocolate Pudding Pie

Ingredients:

2¼ cups milk, divided

1 box (4 serving size) cook and serve chocolate pudding mix (not instant)

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 box (4 serving size) instant white chocolate pudding mix

¼ tsp peppermint extract.

1 cup Cool Whip

1½ tsp peppermint sugar or red sprinkles, optional

1 chocolate graham cracker crust

1 candy cane, crushed

Directions:

In a 2 qt. saucepan, stir together the 1¼ cups milk and chocolate pudding mix.  Cook over medium heat as directed on box.  Reduce heat to low; continue cooking while adding chocolate chips, stirring until melted.  Set aside.

Combine the remaining 1 cup milk and white chocolate pudding mix.  Whisk until thick.  Add peppermint extract and Cool Whip.  You can also add sprinkles if desired, but be aware that the color will bleed and it will end up pink instead of white with red specks.

Spread chocolate pudding in the bottom of the graham cracker crust.  Top with white chocolate/peppermint pudding.  Cover and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.  Just before serving, sprinkle the crushed candy cane over the top.  Cut into 8 wedges and serve.  Store leftovers covered in refrigerator (crushed candy cane will kind of melt into the top, but it’s still good!).

Makes 8 servings.

Isn't it pretty?  This is what it looks like when you first put the crushed candy cane on top.  I did that before I refrigerated it and was surprised to see that the candy cane pieces had melted into the top when I got it out of the fridge.  That's why it looks pink in the top picture.  No worries; it was still delicious!

 I stirred some of these peppermint sprinkles into the white chocolate part and they also melted and turned the filling pink.  Again, didn't matter to us!

This pie is so good!  I love pudding pies, and these two puddings together are amazing.  I love the combination of the chocolate and peppermint.  Perfection!  This is an easy pie to make for your Christmas dinner as long as you have a few hours to chill it before serving.

I have two more Christmas recipes to share with you, but I'm running out of time!  Maybe now that I have my Christmas shopping done I will be able to get those up before the big day.