Chocolate Chess Pie
Chocolate Chess Pie is a classic Southern dessert that’s rich, creamy, and deeply chocolatey. This classic pie is a perfect treat for chocolate lovers and makes an excellent addition to any dessert table.
This pie features a simple yet decadent filling made with cocoa powder, sugar, butter, and eggs, creating a fudgy, custard-like texture. The filling is poured into a buttery, flaky pie crust and baked until set. It’s often enjoyed with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
What is A Chess Pie Anyway??
Chess pie is a classic Southern dish known for its simple ingredients and rich, sweet filling. It’s typically made with sugar, eggs, butter, milk/half n half, and a small amount of flour or cornmeal, which helps thicken the filling.
The result is a custard-like pie with a slightly crisp top and a creamy, sugary interior. You know my Corn Syrup Free Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie? Essentially, it’s a chess pie with pecans! Other quasi-famous chess pies are buttermilk pie and vinegar pie.
Typically the difference between a custard pie and a chess pie is that chess pies typically have flour or cornmeal, while custard pies don’t. Custard pies usually rely on the thickening of eggs being cooked to make them thick, while chess pies have flour or cornmeal to make them thick.
What You Need For A Chocolate Chess Pie
This old-fashioned pie is like a lot of classic recipes; it doesn’t need a lot of special ingredients.
- one pie crust
- eggs (Baking without eggs? These replacements will do the trick)
- brown sugar (Out of sugar? Check these swaps)
- unsweetened cocoa powder
- cornmeal
- salt
- half and half
- melted butter
- vanilla
How to Store This Pie
Chocolate Chess Pie can be stored at room temperature for 24 hours. After that, it should be stored in the refrigerator and covered. You guys know I use and love that sticky plastic wrap, and I recommend it all the time. But you can use whatever kind of cover you like and prefer, plastic, foil or whatever else you have.
Chocolate Chess Pie
Equipment
- 9-inch pie pan
Ingredients
- 1 9 inch pie crust
- 3 eggs
- 1 ½ cups brown sugar
- ½ cup cocoa
- 1 Tablespoon cornmeal
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup half and half
- 1/4 cup butter melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
Instructions
- preheat the oven to 350°
- whisk eggs in a large bowl
- add brown sugar, cocoa, cornmeal, and salt, whisk until the sugar starts to dissolve, it will be the consistency of brownie batter
- whisk in the half n half, butter, and vanilla
- bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, or until the center of the pie is no longer jiggly
- cool completely before cutting and serving
- serve with whipped cream or ice cream
Notes
If you look at a lot of chocolate chess pie recipes, you’ll probably see that they use cornstarch or flour in the batter. I wanted to stick with the traditional chess pie method and use cornmeal though, so that’s why this one is a little different. I also much prefer the rich, creamy texture that using half and half rather than evaporated milk gives.
