Chocolate-Caramel Cream Pie
I am not going to lie to you. This is an involved chocolate custard pie. Sure, you could make a good old fashioned version (pie crust, chocolate pudding mix, and whipped cream) and it would still be delicious. If you want to really take it up a notch (or 10), however, then make this version. You start with your pie dough, you blind bake it, then you make chocolate custard from scratch, and don’t forget about the caramel whipped cream over top. Finally, you finish with a sprinkling of crushed caramel. It is worth every step.
What I really love about this recipe are the baking lessons it offers. Here are a few things you get to practice when making chocolate-caramel cream pie:
- You learn how to make caramel in a cream form and as a candy. Caramel is cooked sugar that has reached about 325 degrees F. It you have never made caramel before I would recommend using a candy thermometer. Oh, and always have a bowl of ice water near by. Caramel is very hot, and caramel burns aren’t pretty.
- You learn how to temper egg yolks. Tempering means to add a bit of hot liquid to eggs or other foods to slowly raise their temperature and prevent curdling.
- You get to witness the miraculous transformation of when a chocolate cream becomes a chocolate custard. Okay, it may not be that exciting to you, but my heart skipped a beat when the pudding thickened suddenly.
Hey, scroll on down and enjoy the process through photos.
Bring 1/2 cup of sugar and a tablespoon of water to a boil.
Keep cooking it until it reaches a lovely amber color (about 325 degrees F).
Slowly whisk in your heavy cream and dunk the sauce pan in a ice bath to cool down mixture. Set aside.
This caramel cream will be whipped into the whipped cream right before serving. I also would advise using caramel cream in coffee,if you’re so inclined. Now let us make the chocolate custard filling.
Coarsely chop 4 oz. bittersweet chocolate.
Heat the milk and chocolate in a saucepan until chocolate has melted.
Voila!
Whisk in a cup of the chocolate milk into the sugar, cornstarch and salt until the dry ingredients have dissolved. Then pour mixture back into saucepan. Dissolving the cornstarch in some liquid before adding to the rest of the mixture helps the custard gelatinize properly.
Temper the egg yolks with a cup of the hot chocolate mixture. Then pour egg mixture into the saucepan.
Whisk mixture over medium heat until it thickens. I found that it thickened rather suddenly.
Pour pudding into blind-baked pie shell.
Cover with plastic wrap so that the wrap is touching the pudding. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
Okay, now we are going to make the whipped cream. Are you still with me?
Pour in the chilled caramel cream into the whipped cream. Whip up until you get stiff peaks.
Smooth the caramel whipped cream on top of the chilled custard.
Like this!
Okay, the next thing I did was make a hard caramel, crushed it up with a wooden spoon, and sprinkled it on top of the whipped cream. YOU DON’T HAVE TO DO THIS. Chocolate shavings would work just as well. But if you want to go for the gold…
Again, bring 1/2 cup of sugar, a pinch of salt and 1 tablespoon of water to a boil. Cook until it becomes a nice amber color (325 degrees F).
Pour the bubbling, golden goodness over parchment paper and set aside. Do not touch!
Once cooled it will harden.
Now smash it into a thousand tiny little pieces.
We are on the home stretch here. I bet you never thought that a chocolate cream pie would be this much work.
Sprinkle the broken caramel over the whipped cream. I used the second tiniest human who lives in my home for the job.
Now cut a slice for yourself and savor every bite.
- 1 Pie Crust, blind baked
- 1/2 cup (103 g) Sugar
- 1/4 cup (34 g) Cornstarch
- 3/4 tsp. (4 g) Salt
- 2 1/2 cups (650 ml) Whole Milk
- 4 ounces (113 g) Bittersweet Chocolate
- 4 large Egg Yolks, whisked until combined
- 1 tsp. Vanilla extract
- Caramel Whipped Cream (recipe below)
- Caramel Candies, crushed (recipe below)
- Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a small bowl. Heat milk and chocolate in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until chocolate melts.
- Whisk 1 cup of hot milk mixture into sugar mixture until smooth. Whisk milk-sugar mixture into the remaining milk mixture in the saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until bubbling and thick, about 5 to 6 minutes (2 minutes after it comes to a boil).
- Whisk 1/2 cup of hot milk/chocolate mixture into egg yolks. This is called tempering. Once you've combined egg yolks and hot milk/chocolate mixture then pour it all back into the saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it just begins to bubble, 1 to 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
- Let custard cool in saucepan on a wire rack, whisking occasionally, for about 10 minutes.
- Pour custard into pie crust. Press plastic wrap directly on surface of custard. Refrigerate until custard filling is chilled and firm, at least 4 hours (or overnight).
- Spread caramel whipped cream over pie. Sprinkle with crushed caramel pieces. Serve immediately, or refrigerate and serve within 2 hours.
- 1/4 cup (50 g) Sugar
- 1 TBS Water
- Pinch of Salt
- 1 1/4 cups (264 ml) Heavy Cream, cold
- Prepare an ice-water bath. Heat sugar, water, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves.
- Cook, without stirring, until mixture is amber (about 325 degrees F).
- Carefully pour in 1/2 cup (125 ml) of cream in a slow, steady stream down the side of the saucepan, whisking constantly, until smooth (caramel will bubble).
- Remove from heat, and place saucepan in ice-water bath. Let caramel mixture cool, stirring occasionally, until cold, about 20 minutes.
- Whisk remaining 3/4 cup cream in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gently fold caramel mixture into whipped cream, and whisk until stiff peaks form. Use immediately.
- I recommend making the caramel cream first and then chilling it in the refrigerator until ready to use.
- candy thermometer
- saucepan
- ice-water bath
- 1/4 cup (50 g) Sugar
- 1 TBS Water
- A pinch of Salt
- Line a baking sheet with parchment.
- Heat sugar, water, and a pinch of salt in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved.
- Cook, without stirring, until mixture is amber in color (325 degrees F).
- Carefully pour caramel onto parchment-lined baking sheet. Set aside and let cool.
- Once cooled and hardened, smash the caramel into tiny pieces.
- The saucepan will have bits of hardened caramel in it after use. Fill saucepan with water and bring to a boil. This will melt the caramel and make cleaning easier.
- candy thermometer
- bowl of ice water (just in case you burn yourself)
- parchment
- baking sheet
