Chocolate Custard Pie
I love custard pies! Well, honestly I don’t think I have ever met a pie that I didn’t love, but custard-based pies are my first love. I first shared my love of custard pies here on the blog with a classic Egg Custard Pie.
The Egg Custard is a creamy vanilla custard pie that is a great memory I have of my dad, That basic custard pie it started my love affair with custard pies.
If you’re not familiar with this type of pie, let me share a little about the base. Custard pies are pies that start with a custard made with milk or cream, eggs, sugar, and flavorings.
Custard pie fillings are uncooked when you and add them to a raw pie crust before baking it.
This process of uncooked components being cooked at the same time is where they differ from cream pies, which have a fully cooked filling that you add to a cooked and cooled crust.
Making the Pie
With this Chocolate Custard Pie, you will have two basic parts of the recipe, making your crust and prepping the filling. Neither step is hard, but the filling does need a little patience when working with your cream and egg mixture.
With any custard pie, the cream needs scalding before you add it to the egg mixture. Scalding cream just means adding your cream to a saucepan and heating it to the point of almost boiling.
Did you catch that I said “almost boiling” there? Good, that’s important. You don’t want your cream to boil, just look for those little bubbles that start to form around the edges of the pot and your cream is ready.
Keep a close eye on your cream when it is working its way up to a scald, you don’t want it to boil or scorch. That would not make a tasty pie!
For the crust, I just used my basic pie crust that you can find here. As with any traditional crust, you will need “flour”, cold water, and really cold cubes of butter. I like to keep some cubed butter in the freezer so I can just pull it out when I am making a pie crust.
The colder the butter the better texture it will give to your pie crust, so I recommend you cube the butter in this recipe and let it sit in the freezer until you are ready to make your pie crust.
It shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes or so to get cold enough to use. You can find all the steps to making this great crust and filling below in the recipe card.
I promise that these few steps will yield an amazing pie. A dessert that you and your family will not believe is diet-friendly. I don’t know about you but I love being able to convert my favorite recipes with having them taste like diet food!
Nobody likes to feel deprived or be reminded daily of being on a diet right? Thankfully, with this type of food freedom, we don’t have to feel like we are on a diet at all.
Recipe Tips
- Temper the eggs: when preparing the filling, you will need to pour 1/4 cup of the hot cream mixture into the beaten eggs at a time mixing as you do. This will prevent scrambled eggs.
- Stir in the cream slowly trying to avoid lots of little bubbles or a “foam” on top of the mixture. These bubbles will not take away from the taste of the pie but it can affect the appearance and texture of your pie much smoother.
- Freezing the crust before adding the filling and baking will keep your crust nice and golden brown. Otherwise, the crust could get a little overcooked.
- Chill this pie completely before serving for the best results, although it does taste amazing after just cooling on the counter.
- Use a good quality cocoa powder for a much richer flavor.
- For a dark chocolate, pie add an additional tablespoon of cocoa powder. Just not that some extra sweetener may be needed to avoid bitterness.
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Chocolate Custard Pie, Low Carb
A chocolate twist on a egg custard pie. A rich sugar free chocolate pie filling nestled into a butter gluten and grain-free crust.
Ingredients
Custard Filling
- 4 large eggs, beaten
- 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
- 2 cups of heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cups of Pyure Brand Sweetener
- 3 tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder
- pinch of salt
Pie Crust
- 1/4 cup of whey protein
- 1 cup of Trim Healhy Mama Baking Blend
- 2 Tablespoons of Pyure Brand Sweetener
- 1 stick of very cold or frozen butter, cubed
- 5-6 tablespoons of ice-cold water
Instructions
- Add your dry ingredients into your food processor or blender.
Pulse a few times to mix. - Next on low-speed dropped in your very cold cubed butter.
- Once you have mixed in all your butter start adding in your cold water one tablespoon at a time until the crust mixture starts to come together. Don’t add too much as your mixture will become very wet and will be sticky and hard to roll out.
- Carefully transfer the pie crust to a pie plate and gently press it into the plate. If it tears, simply patch it up. Trim any excess crust off.
- I suggest freezing the crust for 15 minutes before filling it with your egg mixture. This helps your pie crust bake evenly without burning or getting soggy
- To make the filling, beat the 4 large eggs, add in the pinch of salt, vanilla. Set the eggs aside.
- Next, add the heavy cream, cocoa powder, and sweetener to your pan over medium heat to “scald it”. Remember scalding is not boiling so be sure you do NOT take your cream all the way up to a boil.
- After you have pulled your cream off the heat next you will add 1/4 cup to the eggs slowly while you whisk them to temper the eggs. This will prevent the eggs from scrambling.
- Add the rest of the cream mixture to your beaten eggs whisking as you pour. It is very important to do this step slowly so you avoid scrambling your eggs or getting lots of foam/bubbles in your egg mixture.
- Pour the chocolate custard filling into the frozen crust and bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 35-40 minutes, or until the pie is set with just a slight wobble in the center.
- Let the pie cool completely then chill the pie in the refriderator for at least an hour or two before slicing.
Nutrition Information
Yield
10Serving Size
1Amount Per ServingCalories 297Total Fat 28gSodium 132mgCarbohydrates 6gNet Carbohydrates 4gFiber 2gSugar 4gProtein 6g
I am not a nutritionist. If you have strict dietary needs I always recommend using an online nutrition calculator to calculate your totals using your exact brands you're using in this recipe as values may vary per brand.
I am a southern girl through and through that loves to laugh, cook, read and spend time with family. My passions outside of home schooling my son are ministering to those in need and creating art in the kitchen! Every day is an adventure in our little house and I wouldn’t trade it or the chance to share here with you for anything!
Wendy says
This looks good and I hope mine comes out alright, but my custard didn’t thicken at all with the addition of the eggs. I’ve never seen a custard recipe that called for whole eggs – usually just the yolks (which thicken it)? It’s in the oven now, so I have no idea if it will bake properly.
Keri Bucci says
Hi Wendy, I never have an issue with the whole eggs and my pie not thickening up. My family has always used whole eggs in our basic custards. It just stems back to my grandmother’s recipes. She thought it wasteful to just use the yolks and to use them up she used the whole egg. I know it is different than most custards, but I just do it this way because it has been passed down to me that way. ๐
Wendy says
Thanks, Keri. I totally get why your grandmother did it that way; waste not, want not, right? ๐ It did set, but I admit I was panicked when I mixed it up so I added about a 1/2 tsp of xantham gum. I was hoping it would have a richer chocolate taste, so wondering if I can increase the 2 tbsp to 4 or add in some melted chocolate? Would the melted chocolate make the pie too thin? Thank you for your recipes. I can’t imagine the time and effort put into all of this! ๐
Keri Bucci says
Yes, you could for sure increase the amount. The melted chocolate wouldn’t make it too thin. You may need to add a bit more sweetener too if you add more cocoa powder. I would set up once it cooled again and make it thicker more like a fudge pie I believe, but I bet it would be delicious!
WENDY says
The recipe says 2 1/2 TSP of cocoa powder. Wouldn’t it be TBSP? ๐ That might account for one person saying it was a bit bland. I can’t imagine that small of an amount would yield much chocolate flavor? Your recipes sound awesome! Can’t wait to try them out! Thank you.
Keri Bucci says
Oops Wendy, so sorry. You are correct it should be TBSP. I have gotten that correct. I appreciate you bringing that to my attention.
Ladonna says
Canโt wait for this to cool off…
Keri Bucci says
Hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Thanks for giving it a try!
Ladonna says
I donโt know what I did wrong but my Pie was really bland โน๏ธโน๏ธ And we were so looking forward to a nice creamy chocolate pie
Keri Bucci says
Oh no, I am sorry you didn’t enjoy it. I can’t imagine what happened :(.
Jacki says
I’m not a fan of pie crust.Could this be baked with out it?
Keri Bucci says
Hi Jacki. You can totally bake the custard without the crust. I would suggest though that you use a water bath, so it cooks evenly. I would bake them at 350 for about 20-30 or until they are just set with a little wobble in the very center. Let them cool completely and chill them before serving.