This easy chocolate pudding pie with a graham cracker crust is just like the diner classic but made from scratch! I've topped this chocolate pie with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Plus, it only takes 20 minutes to prep the pudding filling, and you can let it chill overnight.
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As much as I love a fruit pie, there is nothing better to me than a chocolatey slice of pie! If you're looking for a peanut butter version of this pie, check out my peanut butter cup pie. Chocolate pie has to be one of my favorite desserts!
The chocolate pudding filling is made on the stove and then poured into a baked graham cracker crust. I topped this delicious chocolate pudding pie with lightly sweetened whipped cream, but if you wanted s'mores vibes, you could swap it out for a torched marshmallow meringue topping (brb, going to go make this now!)
What I love about this pie is that you can make it ahead of time, since the pudding needs to set overnight, so it's perfect as a make-ahead dessert. I've used a homemade graham cracker crust, but you could just use a ready-made graham cracker pie crust (I won't tell!!)
Simple Ingredients
- Graham Crackers: I get this question a lot, but if you're in the UK, you might have to use digestive biscuits. When testing a digestive biscuit crust, I found there weren't enough crumbs to butter. I recommend slightly increasing the digestive biscuits to 200 grams!
- Egg Yolks: We'll be using egg yolks for the pudding filling!
- Cornstarch: Also called cornflour, this is going to help thicken up the pudding.
- Milk: Make sure you're using whole milk, it makes all the difference!
Super Creamy Chocolate Pudding Pie
Step One: Start off by making the graham cracker crust. Crush the crackers in a food processor or blender until you have fine crumbs. Pour the melted butter, salt and sugar over the graham cracker crumbs. Combine everything until the crumbs are evenly moistened.
Step Two: Pour the crumbs into a 9-inch deep dish pie pan. Use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crumbs into the bottom and the sides. Bake at 350°Fahrenheit/175°Celsius for 6-8 minutes. Let it cool.
Step Three: In a large jug, whisk together the egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, and salt until smooth. It will be quite thick! Set aside. In a medium saucepan, pour in the heavy cream and milk. Heat it on medium heat until it begins to simmer.
Step Four: Once the milk mixture is simmering, add your chopped chocolate. Stir with a rubber spatula until the chocolate has completely melted.
Step Five: Take out about 1 cup of the hot milk mixture and slowly pour it into your egg yolk mixture, while whisking the yolk mixture constantly. This is called tempering the eggs. Pour this mixture now back into the saucepan, while stirring with your rubber spatula. Keep stirring over medium-low heat until it thickens and you have large bubbles in the centre. This takes about 3-4 minutes.
Step Six: Take the pan off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and butter. Once combined, place a sieve over a large bowl. Pour the pudding mixture into the sieve to strain the pudding and make sure it is perfectly smooth! Let the pudding mixture cool completely in the bowl, making sure you cover the top with plastic wrap to stop a skin from forming. Once cool, pour into your graham cracker crust. Cover the top of the pudding again with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight so it can set.
Cover the top of the pie with whipped cream and chocolate curls! This pie is sure to be a huge hit for the whole family.
Letting the Pie Set
I know, I know, we all want to dig into this pudding pie asap. But you'll have to wait! Make sure the pie chills in the fridge overnight. Giving it enough time to set will also mean you'll get those nice, clean, diner-style pie slices.
To get extra clean slices, I like to clean my knife after every slice I make. I also like to only top my pie with whipped cream just before serving.
Try these pie recipes next!
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Thank you!
Ella
Recipe
Easy Chocolate Pudding Pie with a Graham Cracker Crust
Equipment
- 9 inch deep dish pie plate
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1 ½ cup (150 grams) graham cracker crumbs
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- pinch kosher salt
- 6 tablespoons (85 grams) unsalted butter melted
Chocolate Pudding
- 7 oz (200 grams) semisweet dark chocolate chopped
- 1 ½ cups (340 grams) whole milk
- ½ cup (118 grams) heavy cream
- 6 tablespoons (86 hrams) sugar
- 4 egg yolks room temperature
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons (28 grams) unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup (227 grams) heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon sugar
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat the oven to 350°Fahrenheit/175° Celsius.
- Combine the graham cracker crumbs with the salt, sugar and melted butter until the crumbs are evenly moistened.
- Pour the mixture into your 9 inch deep dish pie plate and use the bottom of a measuring cup to evenly press the crumbs into the bottom and sides of the pan.
- Bake for 6-8 minutes. Take out of the oven and let it cool to room temperature.
Chocolate Pudding
- In a large jug, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch. It will be quite thick!
- Take a medium saucepan and pour in the milk and heavy cream. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Once it is simmering, add your chocolate. Stir using a rubber spatula until the chocolate has completely melted.
- Scoop out about 1 cup of the hot chocolate mixture and slowly pour it into the yolk mixture, whisking the yolks constantly to temper the eggs. Once completely added, pour this mixture back into the saucepan, stirring with a rubber spatula.
- Heat over medium-low, constantly stirring and making sure you scrape the bottom and the sides, until it becomes very thick and there are large bubbles in the middle.
- Take the pudding off the heat. Add in the vanilla and butter, stirring until it is all combined. Place a fine meshed sieve over a large bowl and strain the pudding to get rid of any lumps. Once strained, place plastic wrap on the surface on the pudding and let it come to room temperature.
- Once at room temperature, pour the pudding into the graham cracker crust. Again place plastic wrap on the surface of the pudding so it doesn't form a skin and place in the fridge to chill for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight!
Whipped Cream
- In a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, or in a bowl with a hand mixer, whisk the heavy cream and sugar together until you have stiff peaks.
Assembly
- Take the chilled pie out of the fridge and remove the plastic wrap. Topped with homemade whipped cream and if you wish, chocolate curls!
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Liz says
I followed this recipe pretty much exactly as indicated. For the chocolate, I used Guittard Akoma Extra Semisweet Chips (55% cacao). Once I was cooking the pudding atop the stove, I added in a bit of ground cardamom. While I am very experienced in how to properly temper egg yolks (for a pudding recipe, such as this one), I noticed that at a certain point in the cooking process, the mixture was suddenly looking lumpy - as if something was happening with the egg yolks...even though I'd already mixed in half the pudding with the yolks, OUTSIDE of the saucepan...OFF of the stovetop... Regardless, I'd never had this happen before when making a pudding, so I immediately began to whisk the mixture, feverishly. I then decided to take the pudding OFF of the stove, and since it did seem to be more or less thick enough. Thankfully, it all worked out in the end, and once I pressed all the pudding through a fine metal sieve, there wasn't all that much 'curdled' pudding leftover, after all. The pudding came out excellent (and the cardamom almost added a bit of 'butterscotch' flavor, to the chocolate). So I'm not sure what was going on when the pudding appeared to curdle, but again, it all was fine, in the end. This pie was such a big hit that some people asked for 'seconds'. 😉
Lisa says
Love this recipe! I actually used 3oz Ghirardelli60% cocoa and 4oz Ghirardelli’s semi sweet chocolate. It’s not as sweet which is what I like! Thank you for sharing your recipe, it was a hit!!!!