Mini Chocolate Cream Pie

My Grandmother made the best chocolate cream pies. At least that's what I've heard. I never actually got to taste one of her pies made with her hands but my mother has carried on the tradition and passed the recipe down to all the girls in the family. I've been dying to try it in mini form. It was pretty easy!

I like to start with Pillsbury pre-made crusts. One of these days I'll be able to make a good crust but until then I use these. Love them. You get two in a pack but I only used one today because I used the other to make a pie a few weeks ago.

I simply unrolled it on my Pampered Chef pastry mat. It's the first time I've used it and I love it. I didn't use any flour and my crust did not stick! I used a rolling pin to flatten down some of the wrinkle edges.

I do not have any circle cookie cutters. But I do have jar rings in two sizes. The regular mouth ring is good for mini cupcake size. The wide mouth ring is better for regular cupcake pans.

I cut out circles and stuffed them into my cupcake pan. I did not grease my pan and I used a tart shaper to help smooth these out. You can definitely do it by hand.

12 little crusts ready to be baked. I baked mine for 10 minutes. Be sure to poke a few holes in the sides and bottom. This helps to keep it from puffing up. I still had a few that puffed.

All Baked! They did shrink up a little so I will be keep my eyes out for a larger circle cutter. But using the wide mouth ring I was able to get 12 mini crusts.
I used a small scoop to fill my little crusts and then placed a dollop of Cool Whip on top. Place them in the refrigerator to cool and set-up. I had some filling left over. I'm guessing that I could have made 24 if I had another crust.
Here is my Grandmother Cook's recipe. If you find that it does not set up you made need to play with your flour/cornstarch ratio or even add a little more. Remember, this was my grandmother's recipe......a dash of this, a sprinkle of that.