I've used the recipe below to make chocolate pie a few times recently:
- 1 c heavy cream
- 1/2 milk
- 8-10 oz chocolate
- 2 tbsp sugar
- pinch salt
- 2 eggs
Heat the milk/cream over low heat until it just starts to simmer.
Remove from heat, add chocolate, sugar, and salt and stir until
smooth. Lightly beat the eggs and temper in with the chocolate
mixture. Pour into crust (usually graham cracker) and bake 20-30
minutes at 325 degrees until set.
It tastes great, but after the pie cools the filling becomes very dense almost like a fudge. Sometimes this is fine, but sometimes I'd like it to have a lighter texture almost like a pudding. How should I modify the recipe to do this?
Best Answer
This is a basic chocolate custard filling.
The one thing I would suggest is changing out the whole eggs for egg yolks only, at a ratio of about 2-3 yolks per cup of dairy, so 3-4 egg yolks in this recipe. This should yield a more tender and silky custard, as the whites tend to contribute a more rubbery or resilient texture.
Even so, the original proportions do not look that far off. A custard pie like this one should be able to be sliced when cool, and the slices should hold their shape without slumping. That does require a certain amount of strength in the custard.
You might wish to look for recipes based on a mousse filling, which is not baked in the shell, such as this one from Epicurious.