Chocolate Chess Pie Recipe - My Frugal Adventures (2024)

Here is a simple and delicious chocolate pie that would be perfect to serve for the holidays. This pie is incredibly simple to make and has a fudgey- almost brownie like texture to it.

In our family, we aren’t big on pies. The occasional fruit pie or pecan pie might make an appearance but I actually make pumpkin pie ice cream and pecan pie bars for Thanksgiving. Not pies. This pie is an exception for sure. It isn’t a cream pie but is a chocolatey, gooey pie that is just heavenly with a little fresh whipped cream.

Since I don’t normally bake pies, I made this one over and over and over again until I think I worked out all the kinks so that you can make a perfect pie the first time.

There are just a few things that equal success with this pie- the first is blind baking the crust and the second is adding the ingredients in the correct order and the third is properly cooling the pie. I had a few pies that I baked that separated on me and I discovered the order you add the ingredients makes a huge difference.

As long as you follow those three little steps, you won’t have any issues at all making this quick and easy chocolate chess pie. And I bet all your guests love this one! It is delicious!

I don’t make my own pie crust, but rather purchase a premade frozen variety from the grocery store. If you would like to make pie crust, here is a delicious recipe to try.

Here is the recipe:

These steps will help ensure a perfect pie:

*To blind bake the crust, you just want to cook a frozen pie crust for 20 minutes at 350 degrees. To do this, remove the pie crust from packaging and carefully poke holes in the bottom of the crust with a fork. This will prevent the pie crust from bubbling up as it bakes.

Next place either foil or parchment paper over the entire surface of the pie and add pie weights (pick them up here), dried beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes, remove from oven and pull the parchment/pie weights off and place the crust back in the oven for another 5 minutes. This is important to ensure your crust is perfectly cooked.

*Next mix up the filling in the order of ingredients listed above. Whisk well to remove as many bumps as possible.

*Pour the filling into the pie crust and bake for 40 minutes. I prefer to cover the entire crust with foil before baking, That will ensure your crust is not too brown or burned. Some people only add foil halfway through baking but I like to do it for the entire 40 minutes and my crust has been perfect over and over again. You can also use a pie crust shield which is designed for this exact purpose instead of foil- pick one up here. When I immediately remove the pie from the oven, I have issues with the pie cracking and sometimes bubbling up and then sinking down into the crust. The pie will still taste delicious but please note if you turn off the oven after baking and leave the pie in the oven for 10 minutes and then open the oven door and keep the pie in the oven for another 10 minutes after that, it will gently cool and the pie is less likely to crack or bubble up.

And that is it! A perfect chocolate chess pie that everyone is going to love.

And now I am going to let you in on a little secret about this recipe. A few years ago, my girls and I watched The Help. We loved that movie (and the book!) and of course we simply had to try Minnie’s Chocolate Pie recipe (sans the extra special ingredient just for Hilly.) There is an actual recipe and a baker/food stylist called Lee Ann Flemming made 53 versions during the filming process. We loved this pie and I only made two slight changes to her recipe.

Her recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of sugar which was way too sweet for our taste so I have reduced that to 1 cup. Please feel free to increase the sugar if you prefer. The second note is that in the movie, Minnie references her special ingredient, Mexican vanilla. If you haven’t tried pure Mexican vanilla it is absolutely spectacular in just about every baked good. We usually buy it in Mexico but you can also pick it up from specialty stores and on Amazon by clicking here. Regular vanilla works just fine in this recipe but Mexican vanilla is fantastic if you have it.

Minnie tops her pie with a bit of whipped cream in the center and some shaved chocolate. You can serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream would be delicious.

I hope you love this recipe as much as we do. I make it frequently and it always gives us a little giggle to remember Minnie in the movie. This would be such a fun treat to make for a family movie night.

And here are a few other recipes you might enjoy:

Pecan Pie Squares– these are amazing!!

Homemade Smores Ice Cream– absolutely fantastic homemade gift idea