Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: A homemade silky smooth chocolate pudding becomes the filling for the most delicious chocolate pie. Forget pudding from a box. Once you’ve made your own chocolate pudding pie, no other will compare!
How long it takes: 35 minutes to prep, plus chilling time
Equipment you’ll need: saucepan, pie dish
Servings: 8
NOTE TO READERS: In the past, some of you tried this recipe which was originally written by a contributing blogger and had varying results. We want to make sure that our recipes are perfect so, as of February 2020, we have retested and completely rewritten the recipe. We apologize for any frustration you may have experienced with the original recipe. We’re sure you’ll be pleased with this homestyle chocolate pudding pie! It’s absolutely delightful.
Creamy, homestyle chocolate pudding pie is such a treat with crisp buttery crust, smooth chocolate pudding, with mounds of fluffy whipped cream, and sprinkled with chocolate shavings. You’ll take delight in every bite!
This pie is nothing like the chocolate cream pie you see in dessert cases in restaurants, or frozen pies that you thaw and eat. There is absolutely no comparison! Making pudding from scratch makes all the difference in this pie. If you’ve never tried homemade chocolate pudding pie, you are in a for a real treat.
About this chocolate pie
Homemade chocolate pudding is the centerpiece of this pie. Many of us default to using canned pudding or instant pudding mixes, which are fine in a pinch, especially if you’re in a hurry. But let me tell you, canned pudding or boxed mixes can’t hold a candle to homemade. There’s just no comparison! Once you’ve tried homemade, I can almost guarantee you won’t look back.
It’s not difficult to make. The ingredients are simple and wholesome: milk, eggs, sugar, cocoa, flour, butter, vanilla. No artificial anything and most likely, every ingredient can already be found in your kitchen. And by the way, you don’t have to make it into pie. Homemade chocolate pudding can easily stand alone as a great dessert.
Be prepared to do some stirring. I would have to say that the hardest part of making pudding is the stirring. To make creamy smooth pudding, plan on spending 15 minutes standing by the stove stirring. Stirring isn’t difficult, we’ve all mastered that, but it does take time for the pudding to heat and thicken. So be patient, put on some good music, stir, stir, stir, and anticipate the delight of chocolate pudding pie.
Use a purchased crust for convenience. You can make your own pie shell or use a frozen pie crust. A graham cracker or Oreo cookie crust is sensational, as well.
Dress it up. You’ll want to top your pie with lots of homemade whipped cream. Fancy up your pie with chocolate shavings. Use your vegetable peeler and a chocolate bar to make perfect curlicues of chocolate. Mini chocolate chips or chocolate sprinkles are great, too.
Chocolate pudding pie should be stored in the refrigerator. Cover it with plastic wrap or foil, or put it in an airtight container. It will keep for a couple of days. It doesn’t freeze well.
More Pie Recipes
Chocolate Pudding Pie
Ingredients
- 1 9 inch frozen deep dish pie crust (any type of pie crust can be used)
- ¾ cup sugar
- ½ cup cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 large eggs
- 3 cups milk (whole milk is best but 2% can also be used)
- 1½ tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for garnish
Instructions
- Bake the frozen pie crust according to package instructions. Allow to cool completely.1 9 inch frozen deep dish pie crust
- In a medium sized saucepan, mix sugar, cocoa, flour, salt, and eggs until well blended. Stir in milk slowly until ingredients are blended.¾ cup sugar, ½ cup cocoa powder, 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour, ⅛ teaspoon salt, 2 large eggs, 3 cups milk
- Over medium heat, stirring constantly, bring to boil. Continue to cook, stirring constantly, three to five minutes, or until pudding thickens slightly.
- Remove from heat; stir in butter and vanilla.1½ tablespoons unsalted butter, 1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- Pour into baked pie shell. If desired, cover with plastic wrap directly on surface of pudding to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate 4 hours, or up to 24 hours.
- Top with whipped cream, and chocolate shavings, if desired, and serve.Whipped cream and chocolate shavings, for garnish
Notes
- Nutrition information does not include whipped cream.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Used a frozen pie crust and baked it to the package directions. Then made this chocolate pie filling and followed instructions for cooling. Excellent result! The pudding was rich and not too sweet.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Have you ever substituted evaporated milk instead of whole milk. This was popular in the 1960’s. It makes it much richer.
I have not but I’m intrigued!
I do not like chocolate of any kind OK YOU WILL SAY I AM NUTS BUT TO MAKE IT WORST I DO NOT LIKE RED ROSES. OK that said I made the beautiful pudding for my loving husband and he had is share of something special he loved every bite. Thank you for making him happy and said for me to make it again.
You are Special in my book an THANK you.
Hahaha your comment made me smile. Red roses are definitely overrated. So glad your husband enjoyed the recipe; thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
I was skeptical about flour instead of cornstarch but so happy about being able to use everyday, in your cupboard ingredients. The pudding was amazing!! We used a chocolate cookie crust…oh and some chopped peanut butter cups on the bottom. So good!
So glad you liked it! The chocolate crust and chopped peanut butter cups are genius!!
Made this following directions carefully. The flavor is delicious BUT the pudding didn’t set firmly. It isn’t liquidy but it really is more like pudding so when cut doesn’t hold its shape very well. Suggestions?
Did you use whole milk? You want it to be pretty thick before you pour it into the pie crust, it could be that you didn’t cook it long enough on the stove?
The description of this pie says it was retested and rewritten after some folks had problems. The introductory description notes to stir for 15 to 20 minutes, yet the recipes itself states to bring to a boil and cook for only 3-5 minutes until thick. I think the actual recipe should be rewritten! Was looking for a recipe for chocolate pudding pie. Haven’t made it yet. Just wanted to comment to Rachel.
Hi Kathy! Thanks for the comment! You have to stir the mixture while it comes to a boil which takes some time (and varies depending on the pan used, the temperature of the stove, and the temperature of the milk). Once it comes to a boil, it takes 3-5 minutes to fully thicken, but all in all, you can plan to be stirring for 15-20 minutes. I hope that helps!
I just made this pie because I had exactly 3 cups of milk about to expire. It was easy and so far tastes great! (I just put it in the fridge to cool) The texture of mine came out smooth. I mixed the dry ingreadiants with the eggs very diligently and used a whisk while it was heating up alert adding milk. I added a few dark chocolate chips I had left over to the butler which i warmed up to melt the chocolate and then added it to the pudding after the boiling process. I used a Store bought chocolate crumb crust that I had laying around. Now comes the card part…waiting for it to cool so I can eat it!!
So glad you like the pudding! It’s definitely important to do a lot of whisking…glad it worked out for you! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
WOW!! I’ve never made homemade pudding but I will from now on! I love that it has no cornstarch and it was so easy! I used a regular depth pie crust because that’s what I had in the freezer. I put about 1/3 of the pudding in and cooled off the rest of the pudding. I then folded in homemade whipped cream into a 1/3 of the leftover pudding to make an airy layer on the pie. Topped it with more whipped cream. It is DELICIOUS! I still have about 1/3 of the pudding left so if you’re making a regular depth pie, you will have leftover pudding.
So glad to hear it! You might have had extra pudding since you added whipped cream to it. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
Why didn’t mine solidify?
Hmm…not sure! Did you cook it until it thickens? Sometimes it seems like it takes forever…but just keep stirring!