Mocha Mousse Pie

This is a rich pie. It's pretty easy to make, but it tastes special. I used to make this pie for Dn. Nat's restaurant, many years ago (almost 30!).

I have two different crust options here, or you can use a chocolate cookie crust.
I originally used the English Toffee Pastry shell. It's very good, but it does require a little more time. The Crunchy Pie Crust is great!. It's quick and works well for this pie.

English Toffee Pastry shell
1 stick Pie crust mix (same as a single pie crust recipe w/o the water added)
3/4 C Walnuts, chopped
1 square Unsweetened chocolate, grated
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
1 TBS Water

Using pastry blender, crumble pie crust mix until very fine. Blend in brown sugar, nuts and grated chocolate. Remove 1 TBS mixture, set aside in shallow pan (to be baked alongside crust). Add water to remaining pastry. Blend well.
Press firmly into bottom and up sides of well buttered 8" pie pan. Moisten fingers with cold water for easy handling of pastry.
Bake crust at 375 for 15 minutes. Bake reserved crumbs for 5 minutes. Cool.


Crunchy Pie Crust
25 Vanilla Wafers, crushed
1/2 C Pecans, chopped (roasted and salted)
1/4 C Butter, melted

Mix together and pat into pie pan.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Cool


Mocha Mousse Pie
4 oz Unsweetened Baking Chocolate, melted
1 C Butter, softened
1 1/2 C Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
4 tsp Instant Coffee
1 C Egg Beaters, (equivalent of 4 eggs)
       (I use Egg Beaters or something similar because they are pasteurized)

Topping:
2 C Whipping Cream
2 TBS Powdered Sugar

In microwave-safe bowl, melt unsweetened baking chocolate. Set aside to cool.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer, using whisk attachment, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
When chocolate is cool, drizzle over butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla extract and instant coffee. Beat mixture thoroughly until combined.
At medium speed, continue to mix, adding eggs one at a time, beating about 5 minutes after each addition. (This will be 1/4 C egg beaters for each egg) This will take about 20 minutes.

When mixture is thoroughly blended, pour into cooled pie crust.
Chill.
To be safe, you may want to cover the pie when you chill it.

Before serving, top with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate curls or sprinkles, or reserved, toasted English toffee pastry mixture.