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
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.
SAM’S TIP: While it’s delicious by itself, I like to serve my chocolate chess pie with sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream. This can help cut the richness, and it makes the pie look pretty too! 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
SAM’S TIP: If you don’t have pie weights, you can use dry beans, sugar, or even pennies. We’re only partially baking our pie crust here, but I talk more about how to blind bake a pie crust in a separate post if you want to learn more about this important step. Enjoy! Let’s bake together! I’ll be walking you through all the steps in my written recipe and video below! If you try this recipe, be sure to tag me on Instagram, and you can also find me on YouTube and Facebook
More Recipes You Might Like:
