Tarte au Chocolate

I feel like I just conquered the world. That is the kind of chocolate filling this is. I feel like I just surpassed the
whole chocolate industry (by not melting a bar of chocolate and calling it homemade) and I want to sing. The kind of singing where birds fly around you as you spin, your skirts twirling outward. Yes, I

imagined the opening scene of The Sound of Music in describing my

feeling.

Takes a good 30 minutes to make, an hour if you make a homemade crust, but my mind is

already flying with the possibilities of this...

I.

4 tablespoons of coco powder

3 tablespoons of corn starch

1/2 c sugar

a pinch of salt

II.

1 1/2 c cold milk

III.

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

AND one pre-cooked crust

1/ Set up a double boiler; boil a big pot of water, turn it down to a simmer and put another dry pot or bowl - i set a bowl in a colander that will fit in the pot of water - on top. Put all your ingredients in this second bowl, making sure that no water from the first ever gets into it. Google this for all the possible configurations.

2/ Put I. in the boiler and add II half a cup at a time, stirring to avoid clumps.

3/ Let this thicken for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring frequently with a whisk to keep it homogeneous.

4/ There will be a point when you say "shit, this is really thickening!!" Take it off the heat then and stir in III, whisking vigorously when the egg yolk goes in.

5/ Pour into your pre-baked crust, or find some other beautiful use for it, like the filling between layers of a cake. Or just eat it with spoons from little cups. 'tis wonderful

There will be another tarte au chocolate to follow that Estelle taught me (you know its good if it came from Estelle...), but I have to make it first...