Impossible Hot Chocolate Pie

This hot chocolate pie with its smooth pudding filling is the perfect finish for your holiday meal. It’s your classic, everyone wants another slice type of pie. It is super easy to make even on a busy weeknight. Just one bite and you’ll be on cloud nine with this Impossible Hot Chocolate Pie. So good, they won’t believe you made it yourself. With only eight ingredients, it’s nearly impossible to mess up. Topped with a dollop of whipped cream it tastes just like a delicious cup of hot cocoa.

Pie Ingredients:

1 baked and cooled pie crust 
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 cups whole milk
4 egg yolks
6 1/2 ounces bittersweet chocolate (finely chopped)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
whipped cream for garnish

Homemade Whipped Cream Ingredients:
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pie Crust Directions:

You can make one of our easy homemade crusts or use a store-bought pie crust. Prepare crust as directed in recipe. Place in pie pan and crimp as desired. Chill the unbaked pie crust in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or freeze for at least 30 minutes before blind baking to prevent the sides from shrinking down.

To blind bake your crust:  Preheat oven to 425°F. Once the oven is preheated, carefully line the pie crust dough with parchment paper and add some weight. You can purchase special pie weights or you can use dry beans or uncooked rice. Note, you will not be able to cook with them after you’ve used them for pre-baking your pie crust. 

Put the pie crust on a cookie sheet and place in the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the edges of the crust are starting to brown.

Remove the crust from the oven. Carefully remove the parchment and pie weights. To prevent the crust from puffing up, I use a fork to prick holes in it. Return the empty pie crust to the oven and bake for an additional 15 minutes, or until the crust is browned and cooked through. Cool before filling.

TIP: For even more chocolate flavor you can also use an unbaked Oreo or Chocolate Graham Cracker pie crust. We recently made an awesome one for a caramel cheesecake with Chocolate Graham crackers.

Pie Filling Directions:

• Start by finely chopping the chocolate and separating the four eggs, set aside. 
• Next, put the sugar, salt, and cornstarch into a saucepan. Stir together gently.
• Then, pour the milk and add the yolks to the dry mixture. And, stir together.
• Heat over medium heat, stirring gently but constantly with a wire whisk. At first, there will be a lot of bubbles but they will subside as the mixture starts to heat up and thicken. 
• Once the mixture starts to boil and thickens enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, remove the pan from the heat.
• Immediately add chopped chocolate and vanilla. Stir until completely melted.
• Add butter and stir until it melts.
• Pour pie filling into prepared pie shell. Use a spatula to spread evenly.
• Press plastic wrap onto the filling and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Make sure that the wrap is pressed against the surface of the chocolate to prevent a skin from forming.

TIPS:

Make sure to use quality chocolate that is between 50%-80% cocoa. Because the chocolate provides most of the flavor in this pie it’s important to use one that doesn’t taste waxy or overly sweet.

Do not use chocolate chips. Chocolate chips are made with stabilizers to prevent them from melting. Your pie may become lumpy instead of smooth.

For a smoother cut, dip your knife in hot water and then dry it off before cutting into the pie. 

Homemade Whipped Cream Directions:

Prepare whipped just before serving by combining 3/4 cup heavy cream, 1/4 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Mix on low speed and gradually increase speed to high. Beat until stiff peaks form.

Pipe or scoop whipped cream topping over pie and serve.

Hot Chocolate and Marshmallow Dessert

Since I used an 8″ (instead of a 9″) pie pan there was some filling that wouldn’t fit into the pie. So I made a mini hot chocolate and marshmallow dessert by mixing some miniature marshmallows into the leftover filling and spooning the mixture into the 4″ springform pan that came with my Instant Pot Accessory Set. I refrigerated it along with the pie and am loving this cute mini dessert for one. As you can see when I released the form the pie held its shape nicely.

I think next time I want a special dessert for hubby and myself, I’ll put a graham cracker crust into the bottom of a couple of these the springform pans and make this yummy treat for us.