"Oh Fudge" pie with a danish butter cookie crust

Why is it that I am suddenly pie obsessed? All I want to do is bake pie after pie after pie. I've only made two so far, but I am cooking up all these crazy pie ideas in my head, trying to figure out what my next one will be before I even finish my first. After mulling over it for a few hours the other day I decided to try an easy fudge pie and a homemade graham cracker crust. Mmmm sounds delicious right? I thought so too. But then I realized I didn't have any graham crackers so back to the drawing board.What I did have was a tin of those delicious danish butter cookies that you get around the holidays. They are so unbelievably buttery and subtly sweet and it seems that no matter how many you eat, there are still more to be found in the tin they come in. So instead of graham crackers, I ended up with a danish butter cookie crust for my pie, something I just threw together but turned out tasting much better than I had hoped. Add the combination of the fudge pie filling to the crust and you've got yourselves a hellaciously good "oh fudge"  pie, named after one of my all time favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story. I came up with the name because the pie reminds me of an old fashioned Christmas, and it's referencing the iconic scene in the movie because of the sinful fudge filling. It's an all around good thing, this little pie and I am certain there is an "oh fudge" pie in your future, too.

"Oh Fudge Pie"

For the crust:

• 1 1/2 cup danish butter cookies, crushed
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 5 Tbs melted butter

Crush the danish butter cookies with a rolling pin, about 3-4 handfuls, in a large Ziploc bag. Melt the butter on the stove and in a bowl, mix together the crushed cookies, sugar, and melted butter. Press into an 8 or 9 inch pie plate and chill for one hour.

For the fudge filling:

• 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
• 1/4  cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 4 Tbs butter
• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and chocolate chips together. Add the heavy cream and stir for about a minute. Off the heat, add the sugar and eggs and mix thoroughly to combine. Pour the filling into the chilled pie shell and bake for 25 minutes or until pie sets! serve with real whipped cream. (recipe follows)

For the whipped cream:

• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• sugar (preferably powdered to taste)
• In a large chilled bowl, beat the heavy cream until soft peaks begin to form. Add the sugar and vanilla and continue to beat until stiff peaks form with a curve at the end. Serve with "oh fudge" pie.