Chocolate Buttermilk Pie is an easy yet delicious traditional South American dessert. It’s a rich dark chocolate custard, with its sweet bitterness complimented with just the right amount of buttermilk, vanilla extract and pipes of whipped cream.
The result is a mild sweet, slightly tangy, rich chocolate dessert. Are you ready to add this to your list of favourite pies?
Need more pie recipes, check Galaktoboureko - Greek Custard Pie and Old Fashioned Peanut Butter Pie (No Bake).
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What is Chocolate Buttermilk Pie?
Chocolate Butter Milk Pie is a warm South American dessert, made with love and lots of sweet stuff. It’s filled with all things straight from dessert heaven, starting right from pie crust, sugar, and cocoa powder, and going all the way to chocolate chips, whipped cream, vanilla, and butter!
It’s made like a traditional pie, wrapped up in pie crust and plopped in the oven. Later, it’s adorned with a beautiful chocolate ganache before it’s chomped down to the last bite.
What is the difference between chess and buttermilk pie?
Since both are classic southern desserts, it’s easy to confuse the two. Nonetheless, they’re both made with two different main ingredients, which give them a strikingly different taste as well.
Chess pie is filled with sugar, butter, eggs, and, most importantly, cornmeal. Yes, cornmeal is the main thickening ingredient in the pie. Alternatively, a little flour may also be added. In both cases, the result is a pie that is intense in sweetness.
Buttermilk pie, on the other hand, is made from the same sugar, butter, eggs, and most importantly, buttermilk and flour that fills the pie up. The result is a pie that’s slightly tangy and mildly sweet. Lemon zest or juice is often added to add extra flavor.
Chocolate Buttermilk Pie Ingredients
Pie crust: Store-bought or made at home
Butter: Preferably unsalted
Granulated Sugar: powder sugar would also work fine
Cocoa powder: A quality product you can trust
All-purpose flour: Just what you have at home
Eggs: Kept at room temperature before starting the prep
Buttermilk: Just the tastiest quality you can find
Lemon juice: The acidic nature helps pies rise
Vanilla extract: or essence will also work
Semi-sweet chocolate chunks: For sweet surprises in the mouth
Heavy whipping cream: For the Ganache
Fresh whipped cream for garnish: Completely optional
How to Make Chocolate Buttermilk Pie - Step by Step
Make the chocolate buttermilk pudding
One: Before starting the prep, preheat the oven to 176 C. That way as your preparing the pie, the oven will warm up.
Two: Roll out the pie crust, and place it in a pie dish. Press on the sides, and cut any excess that may be poking out of the pie dish. Once you’ve got the pie dish neatly lined with the pie crust, you can move on to the next step.
Three: In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until they are nice and fluffy.
Four: Add in the all-purpose flour, cocoa powder, salt, and lemon, and beat it until it’s all mixed.
Five: Once all the ingredients that have been added are of a smooth consistency, only then proceed to add in the buttermilk, eggs, and vanilla extract. Continue to beat this mixture until it is nice and smooth.
Six: Pour this custard you just whipped up inside the pie dish that sits lined with the pie crust.
Seven: Plop this pie dish in the preheated oven and let it bake for 30 minutes. Take out the pie dish after 30 minutes and allow it to cool completely.
Eight: Whilst you wait for the pie to bake and then cool, you can start making the chocolate ganache to garnish the pie.
In a saucepan, pour in the heavy cream and wait for it to boil. Once it starts to boil, turn off the heat and add in the chocolate chunks. Stir consistently and allow the chocolate chips to melt completely.
Nine: Once the ganache has cooled, you can evenly spread it on top of the buttermilk milk pie that has probably baked and cooled down by now.
Ta-duh! A traditional recipe of scrumptious pie is now ready.
If you’d like to take it a notch further, however, you can add one more step.
Ten: Pipe blobs of the whipped cream onto the edge and finish it off with a sprinkles of cocoa powder on top.
Cut into pieces and enjoy!
Top Tips!
- For best results, make sure to use full-fat buttermilk instead low-fat options that are available in the market.
- If you accidentally made any cracks or holes in the pie crust, you can always use regular dough to fill in the cracks. Just roll up small balls of the dough and firmly press them into the holes to fill them up.
Recipe Variations
Feel free to make this recipe your very own by adding your choice of additional ingredients or toppings, here are some suggestions:
- If you have a love for Oreos, feel free to crush some Oreos and make a layer before you pour in the custard at the bottom of the pie dish.
- White chocolate chips combined with darker chocolate chips taste great.
- You can add in your choice of nuts for that extra crunch. Walnuts are our personal favourite!
- You can place your choice of fresh fruit on top of the pie that compliments the whipped cream and chocolate in the pie. We think strawberries, cherries, and bananas would be perfect companions to this pie.
Serving Suggestions
Although the rich and dark slices of pie taste perfectly delicious on their own, we like them best with friends and family to bond over!
Some fresh fruit, a cup of tea, or coffee go great with this dessert as well.
Storage
Make ahead of time: It’s best to combine all the ingredients and make the pie custard before it is about to be placed in the oven. This is because the rising agents like the egg and the lemon juice need to be active for the pie to rise properly. You can, however, prepare the chocolate ganache ahead of time.
Store: You can store this pie in the fridge, and it’ll last good for up to 3 days.
Freeze: On the other hand, If you freeze this pie, you can preserve it for up to 2 months. The taste and consistency may change a little though.
To reheat: Leave the pie to thaw at room temperature for a bit, before you place it in the oven, and warm up the pie’s a little before you dig in.
Recipe FAQ
If your buttermilk pie is still runny, there’s a good chance that you have underbaked it. If your pie is still jiggling when taken out of the oven, it could stay in the oven for a bit longer. The absolute center of the pie can jiggle a little bit. However, the edges of the pie should stay put.
Place your pie back into the oven and wait for it to solidify and settle into the pie dish.
This one is easy. Your pie crust or pastry is soggy because the crust may take longer to become crispy, but the buttermilk custard sets easily. Want the pastry to be crisp, without overdoing the custard in the middle? Simply pre-bake the pastry for 20-30 minutes before pouring in the custard and baking the entire dish again.
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Recipe Card
Chocolate Buttermilk Pie
Equipment
- Pie tin
Ingredients
- 1 Pie crust store bought
- ½ cup butter , softened
- 1 ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 3 tablespoon plain flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
- 1 cup milk chocolate chunks
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- whipped cream for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 176 C.
- Roll out the pie crust, then place it in a pie dish, press on the sides and then trim the excess.
- In a mixing bowl, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.
- Add in flour, cocoa powder, salt, and lemon and beat until smooth. Whisk in buttermilk, eggs and vanilla extract until combined.
- Pour the mixture on top of the pie crust. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Allow to cool completely.
- In a saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil, turn off the heat and add in the chocolate chips; stir until melted.
- Now, spread the ganache evenly onto the top of the buttermilk pie.
- Your pie is ready now. However, if you want to add one more step, Pipe blobs of the whipped cream onto the edge and sprinkle the top with chocolate chips. Seve and enjoy.
Notes
- For best results, make sure to use full-fat buttermilk instead low-fat options that are available in the market.
- If you accidentally made any cracks or holes in the pie crust, you can always use regular dough to fill in the cracks. Just roll up small balls of the dough and firmly press them into the holes to fill them up.
Variations
- If you have a love for Oreos, feel free to crush some Oreos and make a layer before you pour in the custard at the bottom of the pie dish.
- White chocolate chips combined with darker chocolate chips taste great.
- You can add in your choice of nuts for that extra crunch. Walnuts are our personal favourite!
- You can place your choice of fresh fruit on top of the pie that compliments the whipped cream and chocolate in the pie. We think strawberries, cherries, and bananas would be perfect companions to this pie.
Lucy
Can I use homemade buttermilk in this recipe?
Radwa
Yes, you can.
Sophia
Perfect for Thanksgiving! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Cecilia
This pie has a delicious sweet and sour taste. I love it.