The Best Chocolate Pie Ever

This rich chocolatey goodness is heavenly! I make this pie every Christmas and it adds magic to the wonderful holiday. The recipe is easy even though it seem to have a lot of steps, its very quiet simple and its hard to get wrong and mess up. This chocolate pie recipes includes the chocolate crust, chocolate custard filling with homemade whipped cream!

There are 3 parts to making this pie.

• The Custard
• The Pie Crust
• The Whipped Cream

Ingredients For Chocolate Pie Filling

Sugar

We will use white sugar for the chocolate pie filling sweetening our cocoa powder. You could also substitute the sugar in the recipe with monk fruit sweetener.

Eggs

These eggs are going to create a nice chocolate custard by thickening and holding together all our other ingredients as they cook together. I do not recommend substituting this part of the recipe.

Cocoa Powder

You can use any brand of cocoa powder. Typically the cheaper ones are not as rich in flavor and the name brand more expensive ones like Ghirardelli, today I used Toll House and it turned out great. The better quality cocoa powder the less likely the chance of your chocolate tasting bitter.

Heavy Whipping Cream

For the filling I use heavy whipping cream but this could be partially substituted. You could use milk, half & half or cream for the custard part of the filling. We will however be folding in whipped cream into the custard to make it thicker and lighter. The heavy whipping cream cannot be substituted for making the whipped cream. So if you don’t have enough heavy whipping cream for both parts substitute for the custard and use your heavy whipping cream for the whipped cream.

Dark Chocolate Chips

You could use semi-sweet or milk chocolate but I think dark chocolate is the best for this recipe. Its slight bitter, rich flavor elevates our chocolate palate in this epic chocolate pie.

Butter

Unsalted butter is best for this recipe. I keep a pound or two of unsalted butter in the freezer for baking with. That way I don’t have to run to the store or hope something doesn’t turn out too salty.

Vanilla Powder

I like to use vanilla powder in place of vanilla extract. The two are equal in flavor, I believe the price for the powder is cheaper then the extract, but mostly I feel more confident in measuring out the powder than extract so its a lot easier for me to write recipes out using the powder.

How To Make Chocolate Pie Filling

Make The Custard

In a sauce pan combined sugar, eggs, cocoa powder, and 1 cup cream. Wisk together then use a spoon or spatuala to continually stir as you heat it on medium heat till it thickens up. Be patient, this could take 20 or even 30 minutes. Keep an eye on it and don’t let it get to hot to quickly. You don’t want it to come to a boil, just barely a simmer. You may need to turn the heat up and down a little for best result.

The mixture with the heavy whipping cream is thick already. If you substitute for milk this step may take a little longer because milk has less of a fat content to it. It will get thicker as the eggs cook, that is our goal in this step.

Add Chocolate Chip, Butter and Vanilla

One the custard is thickened, turn it off the heat and put in the butter, chocolate chips and vanilla. Still to melted in.

Strain the Custard

Sometimes there are clumps of egg whites that don’t get mixed in properly. To make our pie as smooth as we can we will strain, or push though a mesh strainer. If the mesh strainer is to fine we will have a hard time with our thick custard. I suggest a medium mesh strainer. It will get all the egg bits out.

Refrigerate

Before adding in the whipped cream we need to cool our custard down. Let cool on the counter top for 15 minutes to so till its room temperature (or close enough) and place the bowl in the refrigerator to cool down till cold. Refrigerate for a least 1 hour, 2 is better.

Make Whipped Cream

Read below.

Fold 1/2 The Whipped Cream Into The Custard

Take about 2 cups or 1/2 of the whipped cream and fold in gently to the custard.

Pour Custard Into The Cooked Pie Crust

Pour the custard into the cook and cooled down pie crust.

Add The Rest of The Whipped Cream To The Pie

Take the rest of your whipped cream and plop it on top of the custard. Sprinkle a little cocoa powder on the top for fun!

Ingredients For Chocolate Crust

Flour

All-Purpose Flour. We are making a dessert so although most of the time I like to use whole grain flours for at least half of my recipe when making desserts I go for 100% all purpose flour. It will create a lighter dessert while also allow the sweet and chocolate flavors to come shine though without the extra flavor of whole grain flours.

Cocoa Powder

You can use any brand of cocoa powder. Typically the cheaper ones are not as rich in flavor and the name brand more expensive ones like Ghirardelli, today I used Toll House and it turned out great. The better quality cocoa powder the less likely the chance of your chocolate tasting bitter.

Baking Soda

Baking soda will give our crust a nice puffing rise that will collapse down on its self and creating almost a brownie or cookie like texture for our crust.

Softened Butter

Typically we use cold or frozen butter to make a pie crust but in this recipe we are using the baking soda and not the melting butter with its steam pockets to act as our rising agent.

White Sugar & Brown Sugar

In this recipe we will use both white sugar and brown sugar. You could use 100% white or brown for this recipe if you want or if you are out of one or the other. If you are out of brown sugar you could add a little molasses to the recipe to add the brown sugar flavor. (read here to find out more about making brown sugar from scratch) You could also substitute the sugar in the recipe with monk fruit sweetener.

Egg

We use 1 egg for our pie crust and this egg will help hold the pie together, along with the butter so we don’t end up with a crumbly crust.

Vanilla Powder

I like to use vanilla powder in place of vanilla extract. The two are equal in flavor, I believe the price for the powder is cheaper then the extract, but mostly I feel more confident in measuring out the powder than extract so its a lot easier for me to write recipes out using the powder.

How To Make a Chocolate Crust

Mix Dry Ingredients

In a bowl mix together flour, coco powder, baking soda, sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla powder.

Add Wet Ingredients

Add the butter and egg and mix with a spatula or spoon and then eventually your clean, washed hands.

Form to Pie Pan

Plop on to your 9 inch pie pan and press with your hands molding it to the pan.

Bake & Cool

Bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees. When you take it out of the oven it will be puffed up quite a bit. You can let it collapse on its own or help it out by poking it with a fork. I like to poke it.

Ingredients For Homemade Whipped Cream

Heavy Whipping Cream

You need heavy whipping cream, not just cream, not half and half, not milk. The good thick heavy whipping cream. Its literally in the name whipping cream. That’s the one you want for whipped cream.

Powdered Sugar

Just a little powdered sugar. We don’t need to make our cream as sweet as our dessert we are putting it on, we just want to lighten it a little. If you don’t have powdered sugar you and make your own by added a cup of white sugar to you vita-mix blender, food processor or coffee grinder and blended till its powder.

Vanilla Powder

I like to use vanilla powder in place of vanilla extract. The two are equal in flavor, I believe the price for the powder is cheaper then the extract, but mostly I feel more confident in measuring out the powder than extract so its a lot easier for me to write recipes out using the powder.

How to Make Whipped Cream

Step One: Whip the Cream!

In your Kitchen Aid or a bowl and hand mixer or by hand whisk the cream by its self until it comes to a soft peak.

A soft peak is when the cream gets just thick enough to stand up yet still a little floppy, not firm enough to be molded.

Step Two: Add Powdered Sugar and Vanilla

Once your cream is at a soft peak add the powdered sugar and vanilla and whisk still the cream is firm. Don’t over whip your cream or it will start to separate the cream and the little bit of milk and start turning into butter. When firm you are done!

Storing Whipped Cream

Store you whipped cream in a air tight container with a little room on top. We don’t want to smash the cream down and lose its fluffiness. Keep in refrigerator.

You can keep your whipped cream in the fridge up until the expiration date on the whipping cream carton.