If your pandemic-baking ambitions have outpaced your achievements, it’s not to late to add a showstopper dessert to your repertoire: the “perfect chocolate custard pie,” which comes to us courtesy of Angela Pinkerton and Pie Society, her pie-centric Berkeley dessert-erie.
Pie Society offers pie for pick-up in San Francisco and Oakland in case you don’t feel like baking, with April selections including Strawberry Rhubarb Brown Betty, Passionfruit Bay Leaf Meringue Pie and Coconut Cream Pie, plus savory options like a chicken pot pie.
If you do, though, some words of wisdom from Pinkerton herself: “I use Valrhona Chocolate 70% guanaja and cocoa powder for this recipe — Guittard also works great,” she says. “This pie is rich and smooth, and perfect in its simplicity. It is intensely chocolate-y but also popular with even non chocolate fans, as it’s also not overly sweet.”
Pie Society’s Perfect Chocolate Custard Pie
Chocolate Pie Crust
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 2½ tsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter, cut into ½”-cubes and frozen
- 2 tbsp + 1 tsp water, very cold
- ⅛ tsp apple cider vinegar
Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Add frozen butter and pulse into a coarse meal. Drizzle in ice cold water slowly until just comes together. Round into a ball and flatten into a disc. Chill overnight, or a minimum of two hours. Roll on a lightly floured surface to 12-inch circle, mold into 9-inch pie tin and fork or flute edges. Freeze, or chill at minimum one hour. Place a coffee filter or parchment paper inside of the frozen pie shell, fully fill with dried beans, taking care to spread evenly within the shell and bake at 350F until fully baked. The dough’s surface will dull in appearance, about 15-20 min. Cool for 5 minutes at room temp, remove bean filled filter, paper. If the paper sticks, leave to cool longer, it will release easily. Cool shell completely.
Chocolate Custard Filling
- 1½ cup heavy cream
- 1 cup whole milk
- 8 oz 70% chocolate, chopped
- 4 tbsp glucose syrup (can substitute with corn syrup or other inverted sugar syrup)
- ⅓ cup light brown Sugar
- 2 eggs
- ¾ tsp kosher salt
- ½ vanilla bean
Heat cream, milk, and glucose syrup to just under a boil. Pour over chocolate and brown sugar, let sit one minute to melt chocolate, then whisk to emulsify. Add vanilla bean and salt. Slowly add chocolate mixture into eggs. Strain. Pour filling into fully baked shell. Bake in oven at 325F for 45-60 min until set and does not ripple when shaken gently. Cool pie at room temperature for 2 hour and refrigerate for 4 hour to overnight to serve cold, or cool for a minimum of 4 hours, and serve at room temperature.
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