Black Bottom Pie

Blanche Burkhart's recipe

What would a New Year's Eve dinner be without Blanche's famous Black Bottom Pie? I believe she found the recipe and originally baked this for their "Dinner Club" group.

Crust:
(Use a non-stick pie pan)
1 cup crushed ginger snap cookies
1/2 stick butter - melted
Mix crushed cookies and melted butter and pat into pie pan
Bake at 435 until you see the crust "bubble" WATCH CLOSELY! Burns easily!
Cool crust completely before adding the custard.

Custard:
Scald 2 cups whole milk. Mix together 1/2 cup sugar and 1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch. Add a little of the scalded milk to the sugar/cornstarch mixture - stir and then add/whisk the sugar/cornstarch mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the scalded milk. Beat and add 4 egg yolks in a separate bowl. Take a little of the custard mix and add to the egg mixture - and whisk (so as not to have "scrambled eggs"). Take this egg mixture and slowly add and whisk into the scalded milk mixture in the saucepan. Cook over a low fire - stiring all the time - until the mixture begins to bubble.

Take out 1 cup of the custard mixture and add 1 1/2 squares unsweetened chocolate (that has been melted) - and stir well. Add 1 tablespoon vanilla to the chocolate mixture and pour into cooled pie shell.

Rum Top:
Dissolve 1 tablespoon of unflavored gelatin in 2 tablespoons cold water. Add this to the remaining vanilla custard and cool (to a finger test). When the custard is cool to the touch - (in a separate bowl) beat 4 egg whites until stiff, add 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar, 1/2 cup sugar and 2 teaspoons of rum (or more depending on taste) to the egg white mixture. Fold this into the cool custard and pour on top of chocolate layer. Put into refrigerator and chill for a few hours.

Topping:
Whip 1/2 cup whipping cream and 1 tablespoon of sugar until stiff. Put on top of custard. Grate chocolate over the top and chill again for an hour or so.