Easy German Chocolate Pie
This easy German chocolate pie with pecans and coconut topping is a shortcut recipe made with chocolate pudding mix and German's sweet chocolate. It can be a no-bake chocolate pie with a graham cracker crust or made with a simple pie crust.
Servings: 8 servings
Calories: 1slice
Equipment
- 9 inch pie plate (optional)
Ingredients
- 9 inch prepared pie crust Graham cracker pie crust, a baked pastry crust, or my Pecan Pie Crust
Chocolate Filling:
- 2 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted)
- 1 ⅔ cups whole milk*
- 1 3.4 ounce package Cook & Serve Jello chocolate pudding (NOT instant pudding mix) (See NOTES to substitute instant pudding)
- 3 ounces German’s sweet chocolate bar or ⅓ cup semi sweet chocolate chips
Pecan Coconut Topping:
- 1 large egg yolk
- 1 5 ounce can evaporated milk (⅔ cup)
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ cup butter cut into 4 pieces
- 1 cup chopped toasted pecans
- 1 cup sweetened shredded coconut
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Get your pie crust ready. If using a purchased graham cracker crust, remove the plastic lid. If baking a purchased, unbaked pie crust or making a homemade one, go ahead and bake it and let it be cooling while you prepare the filling and topping.
- Chocolate Filling:
- Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a medium saucepan. Stir in cold milk. Whisk in the Cook & Serve chocolate pudding mix. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is thickened. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Break the German’s chocolate into bars and add to the pudding. Push the chocolate pieces into the hot pudding and wait a couple of minutes for the chocolate to melt, then stir in the melted chocolate.
- Pour the chocolate filling into the prepared pie crust and cover with plastic wrap, touching the pudding so it won’t form a “skin” on the top. Let cool while making the topping.
- Pecan and Coconut Topping:
- Whisk the egg yolk in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Wash that same saucepan and add evaporated milk, sugar, and ¼ cup butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until mixture starts to bubble. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Important step!
- Pour a small amount of the hot mixture (about ½ cup) into the beaten egg yolk, while whisking the egg yolk. THEN, slowly pour that egg yolk mixture back into the hot mixture in the saucepan, whisking briskly.
- This is called tempering the egg yolk and it prevents you from scrambling the egg, resulting in a smooth, creamy mixture.
- Bring the mixture back up to a simmer, stirring constantly, and simmer about 2 minutes or until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in pecans and coconut until everything is coated with the creamy mixture. Let cool 5 minutes.
- Yield: almost 2 cups Pecan Coconut Topping
- Spoon the pecan-coconut topping onto the chocolate pie filling and gently spread to the edges. Cool completely. Cover and chill at least 4 hours or until firm enough to slice.
Notes
*Whole milk- While I recommend whole milk in the pudding filling for richness, most any milk, including oat and almond milk can be used.
Use instant chocolate pudding - Make this German chocolate pie easy-er! You can use instant chocolate pudding mix instead of the Cook & Serve package. Just remember to reduce the milk by about ⅓ cup so the pie will slice nicely. You can melt the German chocolate bars in the microwave about 45 seconds on high, then stir it into the finished pudding.
