Chocolate Chess Pie: For Serious Chocolate Lovers Only
A true chocolate lover’s dream, chocolate chess pie is a decadent cross between a chocolate pie and my favorite fudgy brownies.
It’s got a rich and semi-molton, almost custard-like texture, a papery thin meringue-like top that shines and crackles like the top layer of your favorite fudgy brownies, and a buttery, flaky, (and yet sturdy) classic pie crust. It practically begs to be cut into.
This recipe was carefully developed as a hybrid between my flourless brownies, flourless chocolate cake, and a chocolate pie from Cook’s Illustrated (no direct link since they’ve put it behind a paywall, sorry!). It starts out with a blind baked pie crust filled with a custardy chocolate filling that’s made with not one, but TWO forms of chocolate. True. Chocolate. Heaven.
Add this pie to your dessert menu (maybe even for Thanksgiving?) and your guests will be impressed!
Let’s get started!
What You Need
Ingredients
- Pie dough. I recommend using my super simple, foolproof homemade pie crust for best flavor, but you can use store-bought to save time.
- Butter. Use unsalted butter, and make sure to cut it into pieces for easier melting.
- Chocolate. I recommend using a semisweet or 60% dark chocolate bar. Make sure you either finely chop it or just break it up into pieces for easier melting. While chocolate chips will work in a pinch, you’ll have the best results if you use a quality chocolate bar instead.
- Heavy cream. Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream will work here. This is a key ingredient that gives our chess pie that nearly molten texture.
- Eggs. For an extra indulgent pie, we’ll use two large eggs and two extra egg yolks, which lend themselves to the rich, custardy interior of the pie. The eggs will incorporate best if they’re at room temperature, so bring them out of the fridge ahead of time to warm up. When you do incorporate them, make sure you whip them very well to get that crackly, meringue-like surface.
- Sugar. Plain granulated sugar works just fine here, though caster sugar may be substituted!
- Cocoa powder. Yes, you’ll be adding chocolate and cocoa powder–I told you this pie was a chocolate lover’s dream! You can use either natural or Dutch process cocoa for this pie, but I prefer the less intense flavor of natural/unsweetened.
- Vanilla and Salt. For flavor and to balance out all the chocolate. I like to use my homemade vanilla extract.
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make It
- Roll out your chilled pie dough, place it in a pie plate, and flute the edges.
- Cover the crust with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for 15 minutes at 375F before removing from the oven and carefully lifting out the parchment and pie weights (don’t burn yourself, the weights will be hot!). Reduce the oven temperature to 350F.
- Melt together chocolate and butter until smooth and completely melted.
- Combine cream, eggs and yolks, sugar, and vanilla extract and whisk vigorously for 15-30 seconds. Vigorous whisking is key here for that nice crackly meringue-like layer on top!
- Sift the cocoa powder into the egg mixture and add salt.
- Gently stir the melted cocoa mixture into egg mixture and then pour into your pie crust and bake for 25-30 minutes. Cool for about four hours before slicing and enjoying.
