A rich dark chocolate cream pie with a buttery, cookie-like crust, a dense chocolate cream filling, and generous homemade whipped cream on top.
Thanksgiving pie season may be over, but you don’t need a holiday to enjoy a dark chocolate cream pie. It’s easy to justify making one anytime — rich chocolate filling, a tender cookie-like crust, and clouds of whipped cream make it worth the effort.
If you need reasons: it combines a deep, pudding-meets-ganache chocolate filling, a buttery shortbread-style crust, and plenty of homemade whipped cream. It’s comforting, celebratory, and reliably delicious whether you share it or keep it all to yourself.
This pie was the only dessert I made for our Thanksgiving this year. Chocolate pudding pie has long been a family favorite, and this version, adapted from Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery cookbook, elevates that nostalgia with a more sophisticated, deeply chocolatey filling and a delicate pate sucree crust.
The Flour Bakery version is famous for being piled high with whipped cream and finished with chocolate shavings, and for good reason: the combination of textures and flavors is exactly what dessert dreams are made of.
The crust for this pie is a pate sucree, more like a cookie than a traditional flaky pie crust. The extra sugar and an egg yolk make the dough a bit more fragile, so it can crack while rolling. Unlike typical pie dough, it’s not essential to keep it rock cold while working, which makes it easier to patch tears by pressing the dough gently back together. The crust is pre-baked, then coated with a thin layer of melted chocolate to protect it from the moist chocolate filling.
The chocolate filling sits between a pudding and a ganache in texture: richer than pudding, lighter than ganache. Use a good-quality bittersweet chocolate (at least 62% cocoa) so the chocolate flavor stands out. This filling needs time to set, so plan to chill the pie for several hours or overnight.
Before serving, top the pie with homemade whipped cream. The whipped cream here is stabilized with a touch of cornstarch so it holds its shape in the fridge, but you can omit the cornstarch if you plan to serve the pie immediately.
- For the pate sucree
- 1/2 cup (114 g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 cup (140 g) all purpose flour
- 1 egg yolk
- For the pie
- 6 oz (168 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped
- 3/4 cup (180 g) half and half
- 2 1/2 cups (600 g) heavy cream
- 4 egg yolks
- 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 3 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- slab milk chocolate, for decorating
- Combine the butter, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Cream together for 2–3 minutes on medium-high speed. Scrape down the bowl, add the flour, and mix on low for 30 seconds or until combined. Add the egg yolk and mix another 30 seconds until the dough comes together.
- Pat the dough into a disc, wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Allow the dough to soften at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Roll it between two sheets of parchment into a 10–11 inch circle and fit into a 9 inch pie pan. Patch any tears by pressing dough from the edges together. Trim the dough even with the rim of the pan.
- Freeze the lined pan for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
- Bake the chilled pie crust for 30–35 minutes, until golden. While still warm, sprinkle 1 oz (25 g) of the bittersweet chocolate over the bottom. Return to the oven for 30 seconds, then remove and brush the melted chocolate over the bottom and up the sides of the shell. Let cool.
- In a medium saucepan, combine the half and half and 1 cup (240 g) of the heavy cream. Heat over medium-high until small bubbles form at the edges (scalding).
- Place the remaining 5 oz (140 g) chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl and melt. Pour the hot cream mixture over the melted chocolate and whisk until smooth and combined.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a medium bowl. Slowly stream the hot chocolate-cream into the eggs, whisking constantly to temper them. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium-low, stirring constantly, for 6–7 minutes until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon.
- Stir in the vanilla and salt, then pour the filling into the prepared crust. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 8 hours or overnight to set.
- To make the whipped cream, whip the remaining 1 1/2 cups (360 g) heavy cream with the powdered sugar and cornstarch in a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form.
- Spoon or pipe the whipped cream onto the chilled chocolate filling and shave pieces of milk chocolate over the top to decorate. Slice and serve.
Enjoy a slice that balances a crisp, cookie-like crust, a luxuriously dark chocolate filling, and light, stabilized whipped cream — a dessert that’s elegant enough for special occasions yet simple enough to make any time you want something truly satisfying.