A magnificent Chocolate Cream Pie with a classic Oreo cookie base, a soft and creamy custard-like filling and topped with clouds of cream. It tastes like a cross between a rich choclate mousse and Chocolate Bavarian Pie!
When you see how easy this is to make, you won’t ever be tempted to use a shortcut version again. After all, if we’re going to make a chocolate pie, let’s do it right! 🙂
Chocolate Cream Pie
I have serious self control issues around homemade baked goods. I never buy cakes or bars or even muffins in my normal day to day life. I never have. I just never feel the urge.
But put any homemade baked good in front of me and it’s all over.
Thus, this Chocolate Cream Pie.
It was an urgent situation to get it OUT of the house asap, so I did the ring around to find someone to take it off the my hands. It was too dangerous to have lying around in my house!!
This Chocolate Cream Pie tastes like the Chocolate Bavarian pies sold in the freezer section of Aussie supermarkets!
This slice you see in the photos? Inhaled in 2 seconds after the last shot was taken. Inhaled. There is no other way to describe how quickly it disappeared.
Forget Cool Whip
There are tons of shortcut recipes for chocolate pies around on the internet. Whether made with Cool Whip (Australia, we don’t have this and I hope we never do, it’s an artificial thickened “cream” filling), or marshmallows (too sweet for my taste), or a simple ganache filling (which is very dense and very rich), if you do a search you’ll find plenty of versions.
For me, I believe that there are some things that should be done right. And if you’re going to make a homemade Chocolate Cream Pie – let’s make the best one we can!
Custard-like Chocolate Filling
oThis pie is all about the filling. That soft, delicate, custard-like chocolate filling. If you want to get real fancy, in actual fact, it’s a creme patissiere. The fancy sounding yet surprisingly simple French custard that you see contestants in reality cooking shows frantically stressing about making silky smooth and thick, rather than gritty and runny.
I’m sorry, but I don’t get it. It’s not hard to make. Not if you follow the very few simple steps required to make it! And I’ve made a little video for you so you can see how easy it truly is. 🙂
Oops. I spy an unmelted bit of chocolate in the pour shot below. 😂 See, I’m just a normal person in the kitchen. Chubby little Baby Hands and making mistakes all the time! 🙂
Oreo Cookie pie base
I like making Chocolate Cream Pie with an Oreo Cookie pie crust. Made with crushed Oreo cookies, there’s terrific texture contrast with the creamy filling and an extra hit of chocolate!
The Oreo Cookie Crust holds together when sliced (see video and photos) but it crumbles a bit as you start eating it which makes the whole eating experience even better….
Because imagine this:
A big mouthful of rich, smooth, chocolatey filling with clouds of fluffy cream PLUS little bits of crumbled Oreo cookie…..
It’s just perfection! – Nagi xx
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
Chocolate Cream Pie recipe video! Nice close up of Baby Hands in this one – no laughing!
PS Base cooking time in video says 15 minutes, IGNORE this, follow recipe that says 10 minutes.
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Chocolate Cream Pie
Ingredients
Crust:
- 25 Oreo biscuits, whole with filling in tact (244g / 8.5 oz) (Note 1)
- 5 tbsp/ 60g butter, melted
Filling:
- 1/4 cup / 40g cornflour / cornstarch
- 2/3 cup / 145g white sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 2 cups / 500 ml milk (whole or reduced fat, not zero fat)
- 1 cup / 250 ml cream (pouring or thickened/heavy), or sub with milk (Note 2)
- 4 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp / 30g unsalted butter, melted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 150g/ 5 oz dark 70% cocoa or bittersweet chocolate, broken into pieces or chopped
- 75g/ 3 oz milk chocolate (if not buttons, chop or break into pieces)
Topping
- 1 1/2 cups / 375ml thickened / heavy cream for whipping
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- Chocolate for shaving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Cut a round piece of baking / parchment paper, the size of the pie dish (to cover filling).
Crust:
- Place biscuits in a food processor and whizz into crumbs. Or place in ziplock bag and bash with rolling pin or heavy cans. Pour into bowl, add butter and mix.
- Pour into a 23cm / 9" pie dish, spread crumbs out across base. Use wooden spoon to press into sides (see video) and something flat to press into base.
- Bake for 10 minutes, then allow to cool.
Filling (see video, it's helpful):
- Place cornflour, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Whisk to combine.
- Add milk, cream and yolks. Whisk to combine.
- Turn heat onto medium low (or low for strong gas stoves). As the mixture warms up, whisk regularly, but not constantly.
- After around 3 minutes, you'll feel the mixture thicken. Start to whisk constantly.
- When the mixture starts bubbling (around 4 min), whisk constantly for 45 seconds then take it off the stove.
- Whisk for a further 1 minute. Add butter, chocolate and vanilla. Whisk until chocolate melts and filling is smooth.
Assembling
- Pour filling into pie shell, smooth surface. Gently place round baking paper on surface. Refrigerate for 12+ hours.
- Remove paper. Poke to ensure it's set - should feel like a set custard.
- Whip cream. Spread cream over top of pie.
- Optional: Use a knife to make chocolate shavings or grate chocolate directly over the top of the pie.
- Serve, and feel like Martha Stewart!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
LIFE OF DOZER
Not just food photos that Dozer photobombs….. This is a magnificent sun rise we had earlier this week. Once a year thing. Pretty, isn’t it?
PS What’s with the word “magnificent” today?? I can’t stop.
Hi Nagi, thank you for this wonderful recipe
2 questions-
Did you use waxed paper to cover the pie? I used regular baking paper and it stuck, peeling off a lot of the choc cream at the end (I scraped with a knife and put it back on the pie)
The final product seems set but it really broke apart while serving out slices, so that there were a few formless brown blobs on the plates. What could have gone wrong?
Apart from these, it was perfect. I skipped the whipped cream.
I’m a beginner to baking, completely green, but the chocolate custard was so smooth, so rich, the texture was just perfect. A testament to the perfection of your recipe 🙂
I planned to make it for months and it finally happened today!
Sweet on the Lips not on the Hips😂
But worth it!
Absolutely delicious as always!
Very generous portions! I made it for 8 and it fed 6 adults and four children as well as leaving some spare for hubby tonight!
While it was being eaten I was already getting requests to make it again- as soon as possible 😂😂
This is one of the best pies I’ve ever made. I followed the directions explicitly and it turned out perfectly. For reference, I’m in the US and used Hershey special dark chocolate and milk chocolate bars and they melted beautifully. Not only did I learn how to make a delicious custard from scratch, but it’s the best chocolate cream pie I’ve ever had! Thank you Nagi!
Hey Nagi I made this cream pie yesterday..My oreo crust became so crunchy and chewy and cream filling was runny after I refrigerated for more than 12 hours..
That doesn’t sound right at all Ishara – could you have mis measured somewhere? N x
Incredibly good. Went together perfectly. Going in my long term recipe collection.
This was amazingly delicious! Rave reviews from everyone who ate it! I didn’t use an Oreo crust, just a pre-made, frozen, flaky crust. And turned out delicious! Your recipe will go in my regular rotation! Thank you!!
this was delicous!
will made again somday thanks!
I made this and it was a total hit! One question though – it took me about 45 minutes to make the custard… It turned out perfectly but I’m wondering why it took so long. I had the heat on medium-low (3 or 4 on an induction stovetop that goes to 9) but I ended up having to put it up to 6 to get the custard to thicken. Is this normal? Should I just have started higher?
Same with me! Took probably 12-15 minutes to thicken-I turned it up a bit but was afraid to go too high. Probably just a difference in stove tops. Such a wonderful recipe!!
What is an Oreo biscuit?
Hi Brad, they are a type of sandwich biscuit with cream in the middle – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreo 🙂 N x
I adore your recipes Nagi!
They’re all so delicious! 🤤
Hi Nagi, i love your recipes.
This one tasted delicious but after 12 hours in the fridge it still was not set properly. It was runny like soft custard and not moulded. What can I add to make it more thick, more eggs or more cornstarch?
Hi Claire, sorry you’re having issues – are you sure you measured everything correct as it should have set after 12 hours. N x
100 percent sure I used every ingredient to the tee! My ingredients are South African brands…maybe the brands are not the same strength…if I add more cornstarch would this help?
Hey there, I made this cake for my birthday today and the filling did not thicken, so I turned up the heat. Then the milk-mixture burned…. I transferred it to a new pot and continued heating it for 15min but it didn’t thicken. So I just filled it into the oreo-base and hoped it would thicken in the fridge. It did not. Its chocolate sauce 🙁 I used German starch – Speisestärke, otherwise followed the recipe exactly. Can I maybe save this cake by baking it for a little while?
Hi, not sure if this helps, but cornstarch based sauces won’t set or thicken properly if you take a taste test and some saliva gets back in the pot.. something with the enzymes in your mouth. Same with gelatin.
Can this be frozen after the 12 hours and the parchment paper taken off?
Hi John, this recipe isn’t suitable to be frozen sorry – freezing mixtures with cornflour in it changes the texture. N x