Easy Chocolate Pie

The perfect dessert for a chocolate lover, this Chocolate Pie recipe is full of chocolatey goodness. A rich, silky, and creamy filling in a buttery crust, this pie will be the star of the show!

INGREDIENTS

1 pie crust homemade or store-bought
1½ cups granulated sugar (300g)
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (50g)
2 cups milk* (480ml)
4 large egg yolks
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ cup unsalted butter cubed (57g)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
whipped cream for serving (or make your own)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400F.
Line a 9-inch pie pan with pie crust and crimp as desired. Line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove parchment and weights and continue baking until the edges and bottom are golden and appear dry, 10 to 15 minutes. Cool completely.
In a medium saucepan, whisk together the sugar and cocoa powder. Slowly whisk in 1½ cups of milk until well combined. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer, stirring frequently. Reduce the heat to medium-low.
Meanwhile, in a large heat-proof mixing bowl, whisk together the remaining ½ cup of milk, egg yolks, flour, and salt until well combined. When the milk comes to a simmer, slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture. Pour back into the saucepan.
Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until thickened and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter and vanilla until melted and completely combined. Pour the pudding into the baked pie shell. (For an extra velvety filling, run the pudding through a fine mesh sieve before filling the pie.) Refrigerate (uncovered) for at least 4 hours or overnight before slicing. Serve with whipped cream, if desired. Keep leftovers covered and refrigerated for up to 1 week.

TOPPING

You can either just buy a tub of whipped topping, use the can or make your own. Super simple to make! All you need are:

1 cup chilled heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Just before serving, beat cream with sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form. Spoon whipped cream on top of pie. Garnish with grated chocolate, if desired, and serve.

NOTES

* For the milk in the filling, you can use whole milk or evaporated milk.
Be very careful when adding the simmered milk mixture to the egg mixture. The slower, the better. If you add the milk too quickly, the yolks will curdle, and you’ll end up with scrambled eggs.
Cold egg yolks are easier to separate from the egg whites. Room temperature yolks are more likely to break than cold ones.
To make slicing the chocolate pie easier, warm the knife under hot water. Wipe the knife clean between each slice with a warm, wet paper towel.
If you want to make this a no-bake chocolate pie, you can swap the pie crust for my flavorful graham cracker crust or substitute the graham crackers with Oreo cookies!
For a more decorative topping, you can add some shaved chocolate on top of the whipped cream or even make a chocolate ganache to drizzle over the pie.
If you use a store-bought pie crust, keep in mind that they’re usually on the thinner side, so they’ll bake faster. I recommend following the directions on the package if using a frozen store-bought crust.