German Chocolate Pie

 German Chocolate Pie

375°F

1 Hour

• 1 4oz package German chocolate
• 1-2/3 cup (14.5oz) canned milk
• 3 tbsp corn starch
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1-1/2 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1-1/3 cup coconut flakes
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• Unbaked 9 or 10” pie shell

1- Melt chocolate with butter over low heat, stirring until blended

2- Remove from heat, gradually blend in milk

3- Mix in sugar, corn starch, and salt in separate bowl

4- Beat eggs and vanilla into corn starch mixture

5- Gradually blend in chocolate mixture into corn starch and egg mixture

6- Pour into pie shell

7- Combine pecans and coconut, sprinkle over chocolate pie filling

8- Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes

9- Cover with aluminum foil and bake for an additional 20 minutes

10- Cool at least 2-3 hours before serving 

Here we are again! This time with a pie recipe. We’re driving up to my husband’s hometown tomorrow, and I was itching to bake something, so I took a look through the family recipes I have compiled so far and this one was calling me. 

I got this recipe from my Nan (my mom’s mom), I called her to ask her a few questions about it this morning and she said she doesn’t think she’s ever made this particular recipe but she has had German chocolate pie before a loved it. This is probably a recipe she found online and saved, and never got around to actually trying so here we are! Just a disclaimer, I don’t know exactly where this recipe came from. She had handwritten it, but it was probably off of the internet sometime in the 2000’s. 

Let’s start off by talking about the most important ingredient ever: chocolate. 

German chocolate is different than milk chocolate you’d find at any checkout in the US. German chocolate has extra sugar added, and it was invented to sell to bakers to cut out a step of adding more sugar into baking when you’re already adding in chocolate. Because of this, it’s sweeter and can have a more mild flavor. 

I live in a small town in Ohio, so our grocery store options are limited. I did try to google where you could buy German chocolate, but google just kept throwing German Chocolate Cake recipes at me (even though I didn’t ask for it). I found a website that said Aldi carries two specific brands of chocolate that are German, so I took a trip down the street to our local Aldi to see what they had. They did have both brands mentioned, but nether one said anything about being German. One said “European chocolate,” but I was too lazy to go down another rabbit hole of types of chocolate. The brand I ended up settling for a brand called Schogetten, which said it was “German quality.” The first ingredient listed on the package was sugar, where the other two brands weren’t, so I figured this was about as close as I could get. 

I needed 4oz of chocolate for this recipe, and the bars were 3.5oz, I decided to get a package of milk chocolate and dark chocolate and use 2oz of each. 

The chocolate came in these cute little squares, and naturally I called my husband in to try a piece with me. He’s plain milk chocolate fan, and I’m a dark chocolate connoisseur. We each tried a bite excitedly (a task he was far more willing to do versus trying dates). The chocolate was less melt-in-your-mouth versus a regular candy bar, and more hard. Instead of it melting as you chewed, it broke up into more crunchy pieces, almost like a frozen Hershey bar would. My husband said it tasted sweeter than normal chocolate and I agree. It’s no Dove dark chocolate (my personal fave), but if I was gifted a bar of this I’d happily sit down and snack on it with a nice glass of wine.

I mise en place’d my ingredients and prepared my premade pie crust in a 9” pan. Then I did the double boiler method with a metal bowl over boiling water, the chocolate melted quickly with the butter. I used a rubber spatula to scrape the sides, and once everything started to melt I dropped the burner from about 8 to 5 to make sure I didn’t burn it. One important thing to note, if you’ve never melted chocolate on the stove at home, make sure your bowl and spatula are completely dry. Adding any water into chocolate as it’s melting will cause it to seize up and turn into a clumpy hard mess. For this reason, make sure whatever bowl you’re using on top of your boiling water fits with no gaps and won’t fall into the water.

While the water was boiling and the chocolate was melting, I added the eggs and vanilla paste to the mixer and beat until combined. I opted to use vanilla bean paste here, just because I have a jar, but vanilla extract is perfectly fine. In another bowl I added the sugar, corn starch, and salt and mixed with a whisk to break up any clumps. 

Then I slowly incorporated the sugar mixture into the egg and vanilla until fully combined, making sure to scrape the bowl to avoid any clumps that will come back to haunt me later. 

The next step was carefully pouring the evaporated milk into the chocolate mixture. I did this slowly, but the beautiful thing about using evaporated milk is that it’s already room temperature, so the risk of seizing up the chocolate was low. They whisked together perfectly. After the milk was poured in, whisking the entire time, I used a rubber spatula to scrape the bowl and gave it another good mix with the whisk. 

The next step was to slowly pour the chocolate mixture into the sugar and egg mixture. I turned the Kitchenaid on medium speed and began drizzling the chocolate in. At first I was not confident they were going to combine, but after a minute or two of mixing once all of the chocolate was in, they combined just fine.  

There was some chocolate sediment at the bottom of the cup of chocolate, I avoided pouring this into the mix.

Next came the nerve wrecking part: pouring the filling into the crust. Behold my husband’s camera work! 

As I mentioned before, this is 9” pan. I did NOT use all of the filling, if I did this pie would have overflowed on to the counters. I ended up filling two glass ramekins with the left over filling, and I topped both with the coconut and pecans mixed together. At first, the coconut and pecans were sinking into the filling and I was afraid it was going to overflow, but it didn’t! I was left with such a beautiful unbaked pie. 

Also, my dear reader, if you were thinking that I wouldn’t misread this recipe, you were WRONG. I read this recipe probably 8 times to ensure I didn’t screw anything up this time. No extra cherries, no missing sugar, not this time! I thought I had this. Turns out I read the recipe as you were supposed to cover the pie in foil and bake it for 40 minutes. So that’s what I did. When I went to take the pie out after 40 minutes and uncovered it, the pie was pale and liquid in the middle  

I put the pie uncovered back in the oven for 15 minutes, and then removed it, covered it in a new piece of foil and shut the oven off. I then let it set in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes. When I went back to check on it the color evened out and the pie seemed to have set nicely. It still did jiggle a bit, but I thought once it cooled in the fridge overnight it would set up just fine. 

This was the finished product according to the recipe. While I think it smelled delicious, it looked unfinished to me. I sat down while it cooled and brainstormed some ideas on how to make it look slightly better. I found a recipe online for some homemade caramel sauce that uses evaporated milk (I had around 10oz left over from this recipe that I would otherwise probably not use- you can find the recipe here: https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/caramel-sauce/ )

I also decided to toast some of the leftover shredded coconut in a dry skillet, grate some of the left over chocolate, and top it with two pinches of fleur de sel. What can I say? I may not be able to read a recipe, but the culinary rat in my brain never stops working. 

The caramel sauce was easy enough to make, although it smells sickeningly sweet, so I opted to drizzle it on top of the pie rather than coating the entire top. I could have cut the caramel recipe into 1/4 and still had plenty left over. But I’m thinking the left over sauce just may be delicious in iced coffee…

Here is the finished pie with the caramel sauce, toasted coconut, chocolate shavings, and fleur de sel. It’s sitting in the fridge now and I cannot wait to try it tomorrow. 

And if you’re wondering, the ramekins turned out great too (minus the pie crust) I’ll be taking one to my nan as a thank-you for the recipe, and one to my parents because they’ll always be honest with me if my food sucks ;) 

Here it is! The pie set perfectly and was firm enough to cut without turning into soup. I was afraid if it was underbaked it would be a pudding consistency and not hold its shape when sliced. 

The overall flavor of the pie was rich, but not too sweet. I think it would have been just as good with all milk chocolate and not half and half of dark and milk. The caramel sauce added a touch of sweetness, but it did not overpower the German chocolate taste. The pecans added their hallmark soft crunch and did not get soggy, but the coconut became rather chewy. I think the finish of fleur de sel was the best choice, adding just a touch of sea salt flavor that complimented the finished pie so nicely. 

Everyone so far who has tried the pie said it was good, but not going into much depth other than that. My nan and father-in-law seemed to enjoy it the most, one even joking that they’d “keep me around another year.” 

My husband said he loved the chocolate part of the pie, but was not a fan of the chewy texture of the coconut. I think this recipe would be fabulous converted into a regular chocolate pie, without the pecans and coconut, and topped with whipped cream. 

Overall, I think the pie was a success and I am very glad we tried it. The recipe was easy, and pies are always so fun and rewarding to make. For me, it’s a recipe I’d gladly make again if someone asked for it, but I don’t think I’d go out of the way to make it just for myself.