Gluten-Free Chocolate Chess Pie (Ugly But Delicious)

Today I am sharing this ugly but delicious Gluten-Free Chocolate Chess Pie recipe. Get past the crackly top and make this yummy pie. Especially if you love chess pies.

Chess pies are Southern pies made from basic ingredients: flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and milk. Some chess pie recipes also include cornmeal.

Some individuals say “chess” in the title comes from your chest, aka your pantry, because this pie recipe uses everything in your chest. Others say chess came from calling these basic pies “just pie.” “Just” morphed into “chess” and that name stuck.

Chess pie flavors include basic chess pie, lemon chess pie, and chocolate chess pie. I’ve also seen ones made with dark chocolate, bourbon, and buttermilk. Although buttermilk pie is really its own thing.

For many years, my sister made a gluten-full Chocolate Chess Pie for Thanksgiving. To go with all the other pies on the holiday table. Of which there is never a shortage with our family. And we are all quite happy about that actually.

We usually have about six pies for sampling (including my Crustless Best Ever Pumpkin Pie, Crustless Coconut Pie, and Crustless Pecan Pie) plus, my gluten-free Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Cookies and sometimes Forgotten Cookies.

Not everyone in the family likes the same flavors of pie so we think it is important to have choices and we also appreciate being able to enjoy pie with leftovers for a few days after Thanksgiving.

Today’s gluten-free Chocolate Chess Pie is my gluten-free adaptation from another trusted church cookbook. This particular cookbook has no publication date but it does state that some of the recipes included are from the earlier 1980 version.

As church cookbooks are pretty big undertakings and usually don’t happen more than once per decade in my observations., I think this edition is probably from the early 1990s. My sister has been making this pie since she got her copy, which may have been a Christmas gift from me at the time.

I tried to make a crustless gluten-free version of this same recipe last year but got distracted and thought I had messed up one of the ingredient measurements because although the pie mostly worked as a crustless one, it was simply not pretty.

We still ate the pie and enjoyed it but this year I wanted the pie to be perfect in looks and taste.

So, I abandoned my effort to make this a crustless pie and simply added the filling to my Never-Fail No-Roll Press-In Pie Crust. The results were delicious but honestly, this pie is kind of ugly, right? Sigh.

Once again, the pie had a shell on top and that shell cracked during baking. It cracked even more when you cut it into slices. So disappointing when you’re going for an attractive pie!

I would think that it was all my fault but I discovered that there are lots of Chocolate Chess Pie recipes online that show similar results although I don’t remember my sister’s gluten-full versions ever looking like that. Hmmm.

Anyway, I’m still sharing the recipe because yummy pies are meant to be shared. Plus, perhaps one of you reading knows the secret to making a Chocolate Chess Pie that does not form a crackly shell on top. Please tell me the secret if you do!

I tried another Chocolate Chess Pie recipe today (shown below) and as you can see, it looked slightly more attractive. However, it didn’t taste quite as delicious as the cracked Chocolate Chess Pie. So, my search for the perfect version that will both taste and look good continues. I’ll keep you posted.

This pie can serve a crowd on its own as it’s decadently rich and only a sliver is needed—in my opinion anyway.

More Gluten-Free Chocolate Pie Recipes That Would Be Great For Your Holiday Table!

~ Chocolate Silk Pie

~ Crustless Fudge Pie

~ French Silk Pie

~ No-Bake Chocolate Pie with Raw “Graham Cracker” Crust (Paleo)

~ No-Bake Chocolate Cream Pie

Yield: 8 slices

Gluten-Free Chocolate Chess Pie (Ugly But Delicious)

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This gluten-free Chocolate Chess Pie is simply delicious so, ignore the cracked top!

Prep Time 10 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Additional Time 20 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 large eggs
• ¼ cup butter (dairy or non-dairy), melted
• ½ cup milk (dairy or non-dairy)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 ½ Tbsp cocoa powder (or raw cacao powder)
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 ½ Tbsp gluten-free flour mix (I used my Two-Ingredient Gluten-Free Flour Mix; see link in Notes section)
• Unbaked pie shell (links to my recipe are in the Notes below)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350F if using a glass pie plate (or 375F if using a metal pie plate).
2. In large mixing bowl, mix together eggs, butter, milk, and vanilla extract.
3. Stir in cocoa powder and granulated sugar.
4. Sift gluten-free flour mix over mixture and stir in until fully incorporated. 
5. Pour filling into unbaked pie shell and bake for 45 minutes. Pie is done when it is barely set.
6. Serve warm or chilled.
7. Refrigerate pie after serving.

Notes

I used my Two-Ingredient Gluten-Free Flour Mix.

Use my Never-Fail No-Roll Press-In Pie Crust or my new and improved version.

Did you make this recipe?

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