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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
If you love a rich, dense chocolate pie you’ll adore Chocolate Chess pie! Filled with a luscious, brownie-like filling, this unique old-fashioned pie makes for a perfect treat!
This buttery chocolate-filled pie tastes like a crackle topped gooey brownie that’s baked into a crunchy pie shell! An utterly unique texture, this is the kind of pie that needs to be tasted to be believed!
Love a chocolate pie more than anything else? Try my chocolate mousse pie, chocolate pecan pie, or chocolate pumpkin pie!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This pie comes together easy, especially if you use a pre-made pie crust!
- Total Time: This pie comes together in around 55 minutes! Just make sure to have 3 hours or more available to let it chill in the fridge before serving!
- Variations: This pie is excellent on its own, but if you want to jazz it up, you can serve it with lightly sweetened whipped cream, a scoop of high-quality vanilla ice cream, a drizzle of my delicious raspberry sauce for some brightness, or even a some gorgeous and easy to make salted caramel sauce!
- Tools For This Recipe: You will need a large mixing bowl, a whisk, and a pie tin to make this recipe! If you love making pies as much as I do, consider investing in a pie crust shield to keep your crusts from getting too toasty in the oven!
What You’ll Need for Ingredients
Pie Crust: You can always make your own pie crust if you have the time—check out my Betty Crocker Pie Crust recipe or my recipe for the Best Pie Crust (courtesy of Grandma Magpie)—but storebought is fine too! Just make sure to follow the box instructions to blind bake your crust before filling it.
Chocolate: You may be tempted to experiment by substituting the unsweetened chocolate in this recipe for semi-sweet, dark, or even milk chocolate, but definitely stick to unsweetened chocolate for this recipe! Not only does it provide that chocolatey taste, it also gives the pie filling an extra richness and fat from the cocoa butter content of the chocolate.
Cocoa Powder: Make sure to use high-quality cocoa powder for this recipe! The cocoa powder is the main ingredient that gives this pie its rich hit of chocolate flavor and gorgeous chocolate color, and it also helps to improve the texture of the filling. This is a great opportunity to reach for some of that primo Dutch Processed cocoa powder!
Eggs: Use large eggs for this recipe—and be careful, the size does matter! And to make it easy to incorporate them into your pie filling, make sure to bring them up to room temperature. A great way to do so evenly and safely is to put your fridge cold eggs into a small bowl of body temperature—not hot!—water for about five minutes.
How To Make Chocolate Chess Pie
This is a quick overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients & complete step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat your oven to 325°F and make sure you have a blind baked pie crust ready to go. Then melt your butter.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, heavy cream, cornstarch, and vanilla together. Once combined, gradually whisk in the melted butter.
- Pour your mixture into the prepared crust. Cover the edges of the crust with foil or a pie shield to prevent them from getting too dark in the oven.
- Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the center of the filling no longer jiggles and a knife or cake tester inserted into the middle of the filling comes out clean. Do not underbake! Remove from the oven and take off your crust protection, then allow to cool on a wire rack. Once cooled, over and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours until well chilled.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Chocolate Chess Pie
- The Crackle: The secret to this perfect Chocolate Chess Pie is the crackly, paper-thin crust on top that gives it the feel of a wonderfully cooked brownie. The two secret ingredients to getting a great, crackly brownie crust are to watch your oven’s temperature, and to keep the ratio of white sugar to other sweeteners the same. That thin, paper-like crust forms because of the sucrose in the pie mixture heating and melting into the pie at different rates because of the time it takes for the heat of the oven to penetrate the filling through the crust.
- Bolster Up: As I mentioned up above, you can absolutely use a pre-formed frozen pie crust for this recipe, but if you do, make sure to put your pie crust on a small baking pan before filling it and popping it into the oven! The aluminum pans that pre-made pie crusts come in can be a little flimsy, and this makes a dense pie! Without some extra stability, your pie might buckle as you pull it out of the oven.
Storage Instructions
Refrigerator: Allow your pie to come down to room temperature, then cover it tightly with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Freezer: Chocolate Chess pie freezes well! After allowing it to completely cool, wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store slices or a whole pie in an airtight container or zip-top bag, and this pie will keep for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to eat it, thaw your pie overnight in the fridge.
More Delicious Pie Recipes
- Looking for an easy, summery treat that won’t force you to turn on your oven? Give my No Bake Key Lime Pie a try!
- Pre-made pie crust and a can of cherry pie filling make for perfect Campfire Cherry Hand Pies that’ll make you feel right at home in the great outdoors!
- Even if it sounds a little strange, don’t knock my Cream Cheese Pineapple Pie before you try it! It’s creamy, sweet, tart, and an unexpected treat for any pie lover!
Chocolate Chess pie is an excellent dessert for any time of the year! I particularly love it as an offbeat offering for potlucks and big get-togethers—you’re guaranteed not to double up with anyone else providing dessert!
Give this delicious pie a try and let me know what your favorite way to eat pie is in the comments below!
Happy Baking!
Karlynn
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Chocolate Chess Pie
Ingredients
- one 9 inch pie crust, blind baked
Filling
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup salted butter, melted
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325 °F. Set your blind baked pie crust to the side.
- In a large bowl, whisk eggs, sugars, melted chocolate, cocoa powder, cream, cornstarch and vanilla. Gradually whisk in the melted butter.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared crust. Cover the pie crust edge with foil to prevent it from overbrowning.
- Bake until the center is no longer jiggle and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, around 35-40 minutes. Do not underbake!
- Remove from the oven and take off the foil. Cool on a wire rack then cover and transfer to the refrigerator for at least 3 hours until fully chilled.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Ken Nicholson says
Great looking pie going to make it on the weekend 👍🇨🇦