I don’t know about you, but for the last few weeks I’ve been hesitant to use anything that resembles an oven. Anything that may cause me to perspire more than I already do has no appeal to me in these 90+ degree Portland summer days. 

I will make an exception and turn on the oven for a crust to accompany the perfect pie. I tend to lean toward the no-bake variety of pie during the summer. However, sometimes it’s worth a little extra heat for a few minutes for something you know is going to taste like Nutella heaven. There are so many Nutella recipes these days, and most of them tend to mask the flavor of the star with too many ingredients. A good exception to my ban on using the oven is a pie that contains two main ingredients, one of which is Nutella.

Nutella deserves to be the star of any show, and this pie recipe gives my favorite chocolate hazelnut spread the main stage. This is a rich pie, so a tiny slice goes a long way, making it perfect to share among your Nutella-loving friends.

My kitchen notes

Nabisco chocolate wafers are my go-to cookies to use for this type of pie crust. They aren’t as easy to find as they used to be, and are usually hidden in the ice cream section with the ice cream cones and toppings. I’ve always wondered why the Nabisco chocolate wafer doesn’t reside in the cookie section with its close cousin, the chocolate graham cracker.

Nutella Pie

1 1/2 cups chocolate wafer crumbs

6 tablespoons  unsalted butter, melted

Pinch of salt

2 cups Nutella

1 1/2 cups mascarpone

1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. To make the crust, preheat oven to 350°.  Place cookie crumbs in a food processor with a pinch of salt, and combine until crumb-like mixture. Add melted butter to bowl and mix by hand.  Press crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9-inch pie pan.

2. Bake 10 minutes. Set pie pan on a wire rack to cool completely.

3. To make the filling, use an electric mixer on medium speed, beat Nutella, mascarpone, and salt until light and fluffy.

4. Spread filling into cooled pie crust. Refrigerate for at least an hour.