Chocolate Cream Pie
A rich chocolate pastry cream in a baked shell, cooked fully so the starch never tastes chalky.
Makes 1 9-inch pie · Prep 25 min · Bake 10 min
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 Sweet tart shell or basic pie pastry, blind-baked and cooled
Filling
- 3/4 cup Granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup Cornstarch
- 1/3 cup Cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 1/2 cups Milk
- 4 Egg yolks
- 4 oz Dark chocolate, chopped
- 2 tbsp Butter
- 1 1/2 tsp Vanilla extract
Topping
- 1 1/2 cups Heavy cream, cold
- 1/3 cup Icing (powdered) sugar
Instructions
Filling
- Whisk the sugar, cornstarch, cocoa, and salt together in a saucepan, then whisk in the milk until smooth.
- Whisk in the egg yolks, then cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened and it comes to a full boil.
- Continue boiling, still whisking, for a full minute past the point it first thickens. (Tip: This extra minute is what cooks out the raw, chalky cornstarch flavour — the filling thickens before the starch is actually finished cooking, and those are two different milestones.)
- Off the heat, whisk in the chopped chocolate, butter, and vanilla until smooth and glossy.
Chill
- Pour into the baked shell, press plastic wrap directly onto the surface, and chill until fully set.
Topping
- Whip the cream and icing sugar to soft peaks and spread over the chilled pie before serving.
Tips
- Filling tasted chalky or starchy: It was pulled off the heat too soon after first thickening. Thickening and being fully cooked are different points — let it boil the full extra minute even though it already looks done.
- Use a good dark chocolate: Since the chocolate is the last thing added and isn't cooked further, its quality carries directly through to the final flavour more than in a recipe where it's baked — worth using something you'd eat on its own.