Best Chocolate Pie Recipe

This chocolate pie, aka Minny’s Chocolate Pie, is the one featured in the movie The Help. Indeed, Lee Ann Flemming made a whopping 53 pies during the movie’s filming. It’s a simple, cozy recipe that can be dressed up depending on the occasion. You may not bake this as many times as Flemming did, but once you try her chocolate pie recipe, you’re definitely going to want to make it again.

What is chocolate pie made of?

One of the virtues of chocolate pie is that it’s made from only a handful of ingredients — and pantry staples for bakers, at that. You’ll need a can of evaporated milk and your favorite unsweetened cocoa powder, along with sugar, butter, eggs, salt, and vanilla extract, plus a premade pie crust if you’re not preparing a pie crust from scratch. Don’t forget to have some whipped cream on hand for serving.

How to thicken chocolate pie filling

This recipe depends on eggs rather than starch to give the filling body. They’re combined with evaporated milk, which is creamier and more viscous than fresh milk because half of the water content has been removed. The pie bakes until the edges appear set and the middle is still jiggly; the filling will continue to thicken as it cools.

Notes from the Food & Wine Test Kitchen

• You can prepare your own crust, but Flemming uses packaged to make this recipe for chocolate pie even easier and faster.
• When you mix the filling, it’s vital to combine everything until it’s completely smooth and homogenous. It may help to mix the wet and dry ingredients separately before whisking them together, especially since cocoa powder tends to clump. The goal is not to incorporate air, but to be thorough to avoid eggy bits in your finished pie.
• Be sure to make this dessert a few hours in advance of when you want to serve it so the chocolate pie has time to cool to a rich, fudgy texture — don’t be tempted to cut into it sooner.