This twist on a classic features a fudgy, dark chocolate filling baked into a flaky, buttery pie crust. With a crackly top and dense, chocolate custard-like center, this dark chocolate chess pie is an elegant dessert that’s just as perfect for holidays as it is for an everyday chocolate craving.
A Rich and Decadent Dark Chocolate Chess Pie
There are many ways one could make a chocolate chess pie. Many recipes call for cocoa powder and evaporated milk, while other recipes use chopped chocolate, or a combination of chocolate & cocoa powder. My version of chocolate chess pie follows the latter approach and uses dark chocolate and dutch-processed cocoa to achieve a deeper, smoother flavor.
This chocolate chess pie starts with a flaky homemade pie crust and has a fudgy, brownie-like chocolate filling. As someone who prefers a pie that isn’t too sweet, dark chocolate is the perfect ingredient to achieve a rich dessert where the chocolate flavors really shine. Adding sea salt as well helps to balance out the flavors and introduces more depth to the chocolate.
Chocolate chess pie is great for holidays like Thanksgiving or Valentine’s Day as well as family gatherings or dinner parties. Serve it with whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, or both!
Ingredient Notes
Pie Crust
- Cold Butter: Cold butter is essential to flaky crust. Make sure to keep the butter cold. You can even freeze it before baking.
- All-Purpose Flour: Measure flour with a food scale for the best results.
- Granulated Sugar: A small amount of sugar in the pie crust gives it a subtle sweetness.
- Ice Water: Ice water keeps the crust cold.
Chocolate filling
- Chopped Dark Chocolate: Use high quality, chopped dark chocolate–pick your favorite! I prefer something that’s around 60%-70% cacao. Any more than that is too bitter.
- Dutch-Processed Cocoa Powder: Ensure that you are using dutch-processed instead of ‘natural’ cocoa powder. It should say ‘dutched’ or ‘dutch-proessed’ on the packaging. This type of cocoa is less acidic and has a smoother flavor.
- Granulated Sugar and Light Brown Sugar: Add sweetness. Make sure to use both types of sugar.
- Heavy Cream: Heavy cream’s high fat content helps make the filling silky and smooth.
- Salted Butter: You can substitute with unsalted butter but add in an extra pinch of salt.
- Sea Salt: Sea salt balances the rich chocolate and sweet filling. Use good sea salt if you have it available.
- Eggs: Make sure eggs are at room temperature.
- Cornstarch: Helps to thicken the filling
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Or vanilla bean paste.
Baking Tips
To help you make the best chocolate chess pie, I’ve gathered up some tips and tricks to keep in mind!
- Chill pie crust before baking: to help crust hold its shape and firm up butter after rolling, I recommend freezing your pie crust for 10-15 minutes while the oven is pre-heating to get it extra cold.
- Don’t overwork pie dough: minimize gluten development and prevent shrinkage by handling only as much as you need to and no more. The dough should be shaggy before you bring it together.
- Use the proper size pie dish: a pie dish, of course, will be necessary to make pie lol. But what size? This recipe works well for a 9″ pie dish that is 1 ½″ high. Avoid anything deep-dish or too much larger than this since then there won’t be enough filling.
- Room temperature ingredients: ensure that the heavy cream and eggs are at room temperature so that they incorporate evenly. Have no fear though as you do not need to let them sit out at room temperature for an extended period of time.
- Warm cream for a few seconds in the microwave.
- Soak eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
- Use high quality chocolate: chocolate is the foundation of this pie so using high quality chocolate will give you better flavor. While you could use standard chocolate chips, a good chocolate bar will just make this chess pie 100x better!
- Bake on the bottom third of the oven: place your the rack at the bottom third of your oven. This will help the bottom of the crust crisp up because nobody wants a soggy bottom (iykyk).
- Check for doneness: see the next section for more detail on this!
- Allow pie to cool before serving: the filling will set as it cools, so wait until the pie has reached room temperature before serving.
How to Check When Chocolate Chess Pie is Done
I was going to make this a tip but decided to give it a dedicated section because it’s important and I had too much to say lol. Anyways, custard pies can be notoriously difficult to judge doneness by sight alone. Combine that with dark chocolate being hard to see well anyways, and you’ve got yourself a tricky situation.
Here are a few things you can look for to check that your pie is done:
- Filling puffed up and dry-looking on top. It should not look raw.
- Give the pan a little shake. Thee middle of the pie will still have a slight jiggle (like Jell-o). Do not wait until there is no jiggle because at that point the pie is over-baked.
- Use an instead read thermometer–the center should reach 180°F (82°C). At this point, the eggs are cooked and the pie is safe to eat.
FAQs
- Can I use store bought pie crust?
- Yes you can use a raw store bought pie crust, but you will still need to blind bake it.
- How should I store leftover chocolate chess pie?
- Chocolate chess pie can be stored at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Cover the pie with plastic wrap or foil.
- Is it normal for my pie to crack on top?
- This is perfectly normal the result of the filling deflating as it cools down. Most chess pies will have cracked tops and that is just part of their charm!
Pin and Save for Later
Are you interested in making this recipe but not ready to bake yet? Not to worry! You can hover over (or tap on mobile/tablet) any image in this post to save it to Pinterest. You can also directly pin the recipe card down below. The recipe will be waiting for you when you need it. 🙂
Happy baking my friends and as always, hope you love your dark chocolate chess pie!
Stick around this blog long enough and you’ll learn that I gravitate towards dark chocolate when it comes to baking. If you are the same, I recommend checking out these other recipes as well!
Dark Chocolate French Silk Pie
Dark Chocolate Chess Pie
Think of this dark chocolate chess pie as a fudgy brownie baked into a flaky, buttery, crust. Using dark chocolate for the pie filling results in a deeper, richer flavor. Serve with a glob of whipped cream for a truly decadent take on this classic dessert!
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 160g (1⅓ cup) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp salt
- 113g (½ cup) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 3-4 tbsp ice water
- Splash of vinegar
Dark Chocolate Filling
- 3 oz dark chocolate (60-70%), chopped
- 113 g (½ cup) salted butter
- 17g (3 tbsp) dutched or dark cocoa powder
- 100g (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 120g (½ cup) light brown sugar
- 3 large eggs, room temperature
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 3 tbsp heavy cream
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Prepare the pie crust. Start by combining ½ cup of ice water with a splash of vinegar. You'll only end up using a few tablespoons of the water, but the extra volume will better dilute the vinegar. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together to combine them. Then add the cubed butter and pulse until the butter chunks are the sizes of peas. From there, pulse in the water one tablespoon at a time until a dough starts to form. It may be a bit crumbly but should hold when you press the pieces together. If you do not have a food processor all of this can be done in a bowl with a pastry cutter.
- Transfer the dough to a flat surface and press/form it into a disc. Tightly wrap the disc with plastic wrap and allow it to chill for at least 30 minutes in the fridge.
- Roll out the dough. After chilling the dough, lightly dust a flat surface and rolling pin with flour. Roll the dough out into a 12-14 inch circle, large enough that it is at least 2-3 inches longer on all sides than your pie dish. Transfer the dough to your pie dish by loosely draping it around the rolling pin and then pressing it into the corners and up the sides of the dish. Trim the overhang until it is 1 inch wide. Tuck the edge underneath itself so that the edge is thicker, and then use your fingers or a fork to crimp the edges.
- Blind bake the crust. Preheat your oven to 425°F. Chill the crust in the freezer while the oven preheats. Once preheated, line the interior of the crust with parchment paper or foil, making sure to press up against the sides. Then fill it all the way with pie weights or dried beans. Place the pie onto a sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes, until the edges start to brown. Then, remove the crust and use the foil or parchment to lift out the weights. Use a fork to prick a few holes along the bottom and sides, and then bake again for 4-5 minutes. Set the crust onto a wire rack to cool for 20-30 minutes.
- Prepare chocolate for filling. In a medium microwaveable bowl, combine the chopped dark chocolate and butter. Heat them in 20 second intervals, stirring between each, until the butter and chocolate are fully melted together. Stir in the cocoa powder until smooth. Set this aside for now.
- Finish the filling. In a large bowl, whisk the granulated sugar, brown sugar, eggs, and cornstarch together until very creamy and smooth, Then add in the heavy cream, vanilla, and salt. Lastly, add the chocolate mixture and whisk everything together until smooth.
- Bake the pie. Adjust the oven rack to the bottom third of the oven and set the temperature to 325°F. Pour the filling into the blind-baked pie crust and then brush the exposed crust with egg wash. Set the pie onto a baking sheet and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the center is set.
- Allow the pie to cool down completely before serving as it will continue to set as it cools. It may deflate and crack a little, but that is normal! Sprinkle with flaky sea salt and serve with whipped cream.
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