Chocolate Mousse Pie Sticks to Pan

[Amanita]

Yesterday, I tried to invent this pie, making a crust out of about 1 1/2 cup of ground-up chocolate cookie crumbs and half a stick of melted butter. It ended up quite liquidish. Crossing my fingers (for luck, not technique), I patted it into one of those white porcelain pie pans with fluted edges and refrigerated it. I then made the mousse (to which I had to add cream because the chocolate and egg yolks were too stiff, but that was serendipitous) and poured it over the crust. Many hours later, when it came time to serve, practically impossible to remove it from the pan. Delicious but not presentable. Where is my problem?

[Amanita]

Thanks, all. Next time, I will reduce butter and try baking it for a little while. I used to make a crumb crust cheesecake, but that was a long time ago, and I couldn't remember the details.

[Becca Porter]

We make a lot of of chocolate mousse pies in my family. The (extra) butter congealed in the fridge and glued it to the pan.

All you need to do is dip the pie plate bottom in hot water for about 10 seconds to melt the butter a little. It works every time.

[Kelli2006]

I agree with the blind baking suggestion, but I would remove at least 1TBL of the amount of butter. A crumb crust should be quite stiff and almost crumbly in consistency. Chilling it before service would also help.

If the pie sticks, you can line the plate with a sheet of parchment, cut to size.

[laurendlewis]

The crumb crusts I've baked do not require blind baking, just regular ole baking.

[Candy]

Blind baking is baking without the filling. Sometimes you might put a piece of foil or parchment down og gthe bottom of the crust and then weight it with pie weights, beans or rice. This is done more often with pastry crusts to keep them from bubbling up. I also thoroughly chill the pastry crust in the pan before blind baking it helps to prevent it from shrinking and sliding down the sides of the pan.

[LJS]

Yep, I agree, blind baking should not be necessary-maybe the problem was the ratio of butter to crumb because the type of cookie you used had a fat of its own? I know its sounds counter-intuitive, but a less-good chocolate cookie to start with may make a better chocolate crust...

[laurendlewis]

Maybe the crust was not solid enough because the ratio of butter to crumbs was off?

I agree about baking the crust.

[tartiflette]

Did you bake your crust before filling it with the mousse? Most recipes with a similar crust base (like grasshopper pie) will bake the crust for about 10-15 minutes at 350F to set it before proceeding with filling and chilling.