Description
With a smooth silky starch-free filling that’s mostly chocolate, this is the chocolate pie that only a chocolate lover would ever dream up. Save your best chocolate for this pie and serve it with a dollop of whipped cream frosting.
Ingredients
Scale
- Two 9″ Graham cracker crusts (homemade graham crust or store-bought)
- 1 cup granulated sugar (200 g)
- 2 Tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa such as Hershey’s Special Dark or Droste (10 g)
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder (optional)
- Pinch of ground cinnamon (optional)
- 5 large egg yolks
- 1 and 1/4 cups half and half (295 mL)
- 1 cup heavy cream (236 mL)
- 1 pound chopped chocolate: any combination of dark, milk, semi-sweet or chocolate chips with maybe a square or two of unsweetened chocolate, (454 g)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the crust
- Make two crusts (double the recipe) following the graham cracker crust recipe.
You can also start with store-bought graham cracker crusts. Let the crusts cool while you prepare the filling.
You can also start with store-bought graham cracker crusts. Let the crusts cool while you prepare the filling.Make the filling
- Chop all of the chocolate into chocolate chip size pieces. Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl.
- Whisk the sugar, cocoa, espresso, and cinnamon in a bowl to break up any lumps in the cocoa. Add in the egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
- Pour in the half and half and the cream and whisk until smooth. Strain the mixture through a fine mesh sieve into a 4 quart pot to remove any egg bits and cocoa lumps.
- Gently heat the milk and egg mix over medium heat until it is 165-170 F (73-76 C). Be whisking constantly while the milk is heating, stopping every few seconds to check the temperature of the milk with an instant read thermometer . It’s important that the milk does not get hotter than this as it will curdle. At this temperature, the mixture will not really look like it’s thickening at all, and that’s okay.
- As soon as the thermometer is in that magic range of 165-170 F, pour the milk immediately over the chopped chocolate through the fine mesh strainer . Let the chocolate sit for a couple minutes to absorb the heat, and then whisk until smooth. The filling will still seem quite liquid, but it will set up as it cools.
- Pour the filling directly into the prepared crusts.
- Refrigerate for at least 3 hours before serving. Pipe on some whipped cream frosting for an extra special slice.
Notes
Chocolate Pie tarts: as good as this is in pie format, this filling makes incredible, adorable tarts that are even cuter topped with chocolate covered coffee beans. This filling will fill 8 mini quiche pans plus one 9″ pie pan. To do this, you can make 1 regular pie with a graham cracker crust and make the tarts with another batch of the graham crust using chocolate graham crackers, chocolate biscuits, or just make a double batch of the graham cracker crust. 
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 5 minutes
- Category: Pies
- Method: Stovetop
- Cuisine: American
