This easy chocolate chess pie is an intensely chocolate variation of the southern chess pie, which has a touch of cornmeal to give it texture.
Right out of college I worked at a small art museum with tight knit group of employees. We were a nonprofit, working for very little money, but dedicated to the cause of bring contemporary art to the mid-sized Midwest city I grew up in. My co-work Deb was a self-proclaimed “foodie” (a relatively new term back in the mid-90s) and for our company picnic assigned all of us different dishes to bring.
My dish, a chess pie, was something I wasn’t familiar with, but I took to the recipe she provided with aplomb, making the classic chess pie, along with a lemon chess pie, and a chocolate one. All three of them disappeared nearly immediately at the picnic, but the chocolate chess pie with its rich intensely chocolatey flavor, with a filling almost like a fudge brownie, was one that subsequently made it into my rotating repertoire. I can’t believe it has taken me this long to share it.
What is a Chess Pie?
If you’re from the deep south you may already know what a chess pie is but otherwise, when it comes up in conversation (especially here in San Francisco where I live) most folks look at me confused. Chess pie is part of a group of pies often called “pantry pies” or “desperation pies” because they can be made using basic pantry ingredients like butter, flour, sugar and eggs. Other pantry/desperation pies include vinegar pie, water pie, mock apple pie, sugar cream pie, buttermilk pie, and shoofly pie.
Chess pie’s specific signature (and what sets it apart from other pantry/desperation pies) is the addition of cornmeal in the filling. The cornmeal not only helps thicken the pie a bit but gives it a bit of texture, making it stand out amongst all the other sibling pies. I’ve made other chess pies here on the blog, including my pumpkin chess pie and my award winning blackberry lemon chess pie, which was one of my very first recipes I shared on my blog (excuse the rambling post and old photos on the post).
Though there’s no definitive answer to why it’s called chess pie, there are many theories on how the name came about. One suggests chess is a bastardization of cheese, which the traditional chess pie looks a bit like. Another is because southern kitchens often had cabinets that you could put your pie into to cool, called “pie chests” and chess pie came about because it was so common a pie to make and store in the pie chests, with the word chest turning into chess. But my favorite theory is that kids and spouses would often ask what sort of pie was being made, and the response was always “It’s just pie” which, with a southern drawl, morphed into “it’s chess pie.”
How Do You Make This Chocolate Chess Pie?
Like all pantry and desperation pies, this chocolate chess pie is made with fairly common ingredients and is easy to make. The only specialty ingredient I’ve included in my recipe is instant espresso powder/coffee which is used to boost the chocolate flavor. But this can be left out if you don’t have it or don’t want to add it in.
First make the pie crust by placing flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut up butter into cubes and toss them in the flour to coat. Then smash and break up the butter with your fingers. Drizzle ice cold water over the ingredients, tossing with a fork until a dough forms. Pat and form a round disk, about 1-inch thick, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the refrigerator for an hour or overnight.
Once the dough has chilled, roll it out and place it in a pie pan. Trim and crimp the edges, then line with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Blind bake the pie crust for 15 minutes, remove the weights, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Remove and cool while you make the filling.
Melt dark chocolate and butter in a medium-sized bowl. Stir in white sugar, brown sugar, cocoa powder, instant espresso, and cornmeal to the chocolate to form a paste. Then stir in eggs, heavy cream and vanilla until smooth. Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake in the oven until the center of the pie doesn’t jiggle any more. Cool and serve.
What is Blind Baking?
Blind baking a pie crust is just baking the crust by itself, without a filling. This is a great way to bake or par-bake the crust, preventing it from becoming soggy. It’s a technique that is often used with single crust pies where the pie filling is liquid or custard based, like most pantry/desperation pies or other common pies like lemon meringue, pecan pie or pumpkin pie.
To do this, place the crust in a pie pan, then “dock” the crust by using a fork and pricking holes all over the bottom of the crust. This helps prevents the crust from rising too much. Line the bottom and sides of the crust with parchment paper (making sure there’s some paper overhanging the pie pan) and fill it with pie weights, dry beans, uncooked rice or white sugar.
Bake at 375°F for 15 minutes, then carefully remove the paper with the weights. Return the pie to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool. This par-bakes the pie crust slightly. If you want to bake the crust more fully, extend the bake time to 20 minutes with the weights, and an additional 10 to 15 minutes without the weights.
I move the whole parchment paper to a heatproof bowl, where I can let the weights cool down. If you opt to use white sugar, be sure to save the sugar. You can either use the sugar the next time you bake, or you can reuse it as a weight for the blind baking. Once the sugar has turned a tan color (typically three or four blind bakes) you will have toasted sugar, which has a more complex and slightly caramelized flavor, which is excellent and can be used in any recipe that regular white sugar is used.
What Sort of Cocoa Powder Should You Use In This Recipe?
Because this recipe uses cocoa powder as part of the flavoring and there is no leavening (like baking soda or baking powder) needed, you can use whatever cocoa powder you have on hand. Natural cocoa powder is sharper and more acidic in flavor, while Dutch-processed cocoa is more mellow and darker in color. Both will work in the recipe, though each will lend a slightly different flavor and color to the pie.
How Do You Store This Chess Pie?
The great things about this chess pie is that it stores fairly well! I make it for Thanksgiving often (along with my pumpkin cheesecake) and I always make it a day or two ahead of time. You can store the chocolate chess pie at room temperature, on the countertop, under a cake dome or gently wrapped on top with foil or plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.
If You Like This Chocolate Chess Pie, Here Are Some Other Chocolate Recipes You Might Like:
Chocolate Chess Pie
This variant on the classic southern chess pie has a rich chocolatey filling with an interior texture almost like a fudge brownie and a crackly top. Instant espresso or coffee has a bitterness that brings out the chocolate flavor even more, but if you don’t have it on hand, feel free to skip it. The addition of cornmeal, a signature part of chess pie, lends a little bit of texture to the pie filling. Feel free to “cheat” and use a store-bought pie crust if you don’t feel like making your own.
Servings 8
Calories 757kcal
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 245 g
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 10 tablespoons cold unsalted butter 1 1/4 sticks or 145 g
- 6 to 8 tablespoons cold water plus more if necessary
Filling
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter 1/2 stick or 57 g
- 3 ounces chopped dark chocolate
- 3/4 cup white sugar 150 g
- 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar 55 g
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder natural or Dutch-process
- 2 tablespoon cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon instant espresso powder or coffee optional but recommended
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup heavy cream 70 g
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
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Make the pie crust by placing the flour and salt in a medium-sized bowl. Cut the butter into 1/2-inch cubes and sprinkle them over the dry ingredients. Using your fingers, first toss the butter cubes in the dry ingredients to coat them, then smash each of them flat and breaking them into smaller bits, roughly the size of a pea. If the butter starts to stick to your fingers, dip your hand and the butter cubes into the flour and continue. The flour should prevent too much sticking.
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Once the butter is smashed flat, Drizzle 6 tablespoons of water over the ingredients. Toss until the water has been absorbed and a shaggy dough has formed. If there is still flour at the bottom of the bowl, add more water, tossing until everything is incorporated. Massage the dough until it is cohesive, gather it together and press it into a 1-inch thick disk. Wrap with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator for an hour, or overnight.
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Once the dough is chilled, preheat an oven to 375°F. Dust a clean surface with flour and roll the dough out to a 12-inch round. Move it to pie dish and trim the edges of the dough. Decoratively crimp the edges and prick the bottom of the crust with a fork all over. Line the pie dough with parchment paper and fill it with pie weights, dry beans, uncooked rice, or white sugar (see note above). Blind bake the crust for 15 minutes. Then carefully remove the parchment paper with the weights to a heatproof bowl and return the pie crust to the oven, baking an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven, reduce the temperature to 325°F and let the pie crust cool on a wire rack as you make the filling.
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Make the filling by placing the butter and chocolate in a large microwave safe bowl. Heat the two ingredients together in 30 second bursts, stirring between each cook time, until all of the chocolate has melted. Add the white sugar, brown sugar, cornmeal, cocoa powder, espresso powder (if using), and kosher salt. Stir to form a paste.
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Add eggs, heavy cream, and vanilla, stirring until a smooth filling forms.
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Pour the pie filling into the pie crust and return it to the oven (making sure it’s been reduced down to 325°F). Bake pie for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the middle of the pie no longer jiggles. Let the pie cool to room temperature (about 2 hours) before serving.
Nutrition
Calories: 757kcal | Carbohydrates: 84.5g | Protein: 13g | Fat: 40.2g | Saturated Fat: 23.7g | Cholesterol: 198mg | Sodium: 7340mg | Potassium: 319mg | Fiber: 4.3g | Sugar: 40.9g | Calcium: 48mg | Iron: 5mg
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