Double Chocolate Holiday Pie

I have been meaning to make this for the last month. I had planned on making it for home fellowship a couple of different times, but was too tired. It seems weird that I always work the Thursday night before home fellowship, so I am always a zombie at home fellowship. I was supposed to work last night, too, but I got downstaffed. Woot! So today was the day for the pie. This is the last one I have marked from the Oct/Nov 2011 Simple & Delicious.

Double Chocolate Holiday Pie
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips (I didn't want to buy a whole bag for the sake of 1/2 cup, so I used the regular semi-sweet chips that I had already)
1/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 extra-servings graham cracker crust (9 oz)(they have this at Hannaford but not at Walmart)
2 tbsp plus 1/3 cup slivered almonds, divided
1 cup cold milk
1 pkg (3.3 oz) instant white chocolate pudding mix (I could only find sugar-free, and this was checking both WM & H)
1 envelope unflavored gelatin
2 cups heavy whipping cream, divided
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp almond extract
1 can (14 oz) whole berry cranberry sauce
1/4 tsp grated orange peel

Place chocolate chips and condensed milk in small microwave safe bowl; microwave 30-60 seconds or until chocolate is melted; stir until smooth. Spread into crust (this firmed up quickly so hurry); sprinkle with 2 tbsp almonds.

Whisk milk and pudding mix in a large bowl for 2 minutes; set aside. Sprinkle gelatin over 1/2 cup cream in a small saucepan; let stand for 1 minute. Heat over low heat, stirring until gelatin is completely dissolved (this took a while and looked weird for a bit, almost like tapioca, but then it dissolved). Remove from heat.

Beat remaining cream until it begins to thicken in a large bowl. Add sugar and extract; beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in gelatin mixture. Fold into pudding. Pour into crust. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

Place cranberry sauce in food processor (I used my Tupperware choppy thing); cover and process until blended. Stir in orange peel. Spoon over top; sprinkle with remaining almonds. Refrigerate leftovers.

So if you don't buy the bigger graham cracker crust, it will definitely be too much filling. Even using the bigger one, it was almost too much. This took a little bit of time to do, but I think it was worth it. Everyone that ate it seemed to like it. Steve didn't want me to leave the last piece there, he wanted me to bring it home, which is always a good indicator. I didn't notice if the kids ate theirs or not. Typically children do not like the desserts I make, but I don't care really because there's plenty of other stuff they can eat. So, Steve said it's a keeper.