Mississippi Mud Pie Recipe

If you’ve ever looked at a chocolate tart and thought, “I wish that had more chocolate”, then Mississippi Mud Pie is for you. Each of its three mouth-watering layers – a crispy chocolate cookie crust, a fudgy brownie center and a creamy pudding top – contains a dollop of chocolate. And while the individual layers of this intense chocolate pie are Said to get its name from the silt bottom of the Mississippi River, there’s nothing muddy about its flavor or texture.

To create this powerful chocolate experience, Elizabeth Mervosh, our Birmingham, Alabama-based test kitchen colleague, whipped up pie after pie before landing on this chocolate-laden recipe below. Here’s how to perfect each layer of this deliciously indulgent chocolate dessert.

The Perfect Crispy Chocolate Crust Only Requires Three Ingredients

This effortless chocolate cookie crust relies on just three ingredients: cookie crumbs made from chocolate sandwich cookies (like Oreos), melted butter, and salt – to deliver a pleasantly sweet, flavor-rich crust. Simply blend the chocolate cookies in a food processor, then combine the bread crumbs, butter and a little salt in a bowl, and finally press the mixture evenly into a pie plate.

We like to use store-bought or homemade Oreo cookies. In our testing, we found it was better (and easier) to keep the filling with the cookies: The filling enhances the creamy texture of the crust, making it easier to press and mold into the pie plate. Or if you prefer, you can use the same weight of unfilled chocolate wafers, like the Nabisco brand, although the crust will be slightly less rich and sweet.

A brownie layer with rich flavor but light texture

We wanted a brownie layer that was rich and fudgy, but also light enough in texture that it was easy to break off bites with a fork once baked—after all, you don’t want to have to slice each bite of pie with a knife. The trick to getting that lighter texture with our brownies is to whisk the eggs until they triple in volume and have the texture of runny marshmallows before incorporating them into the batter. This whipped egg mixture rises the brownie layer and gives it an airy texture that pairs well with the other layers of the pie.

Even though we wanted our brownie batter to be light and fluffy, we still wanted it to have that signature brownie chew. Our testing revealed that the secret to the perfect chewy texture comes down to one thing: fats, specifically the ratio of saturated to unsaturated fats. By using both butter (a primarily saturated fat) and vegetable oil (an unsaturated fat) in a ratio of approximately one to one, we are able to produce a brownie layer with a satisfying chew that is still soft enough to run a fork through.

To intensify the chocolate punch of the brownie, in addition to using melted bittersweet chocolate in the brownie layer, we added cocoa powder to the mix: Ounce for ounce, cocoa powder contains more cocoa solids – and therefore more chocolate flavor – than any other type of chocolate, so just three tablespoons significantly enhances the flavor of the brownie layer without creating the denser texture that using additional melted chocolate would cause.

The creamiest chocolate pudding

On top of the fudgy brownie is a light and creamy chocolate pudding. Instead of whisking the pudding mixture on the stove, as most traditional pudding recipes do, here the pudding is pulsed and combined until smooth in a food processor. As the hot cream mixture is slowly poured into the chopped chocolate mixture in the processor, the sharp blade ensures that each piece of chocolate blends into the mixture for the smoothest pudding possible.

Pie filling gets its rich flavor from, you guessed it, even more chocolate, in the form of bittersweet chocolate. We recommend skipping the chips and instead using a high-quality chocolate bar with around 64-70% cocoa. Chocolate chips often contain stabilizers like soy lecithin that prevent them from melting completely. It’s great in chocolate chip cookies, but not so much in a pudding. So for a creamy, smooth chocolate pudding, it’s best to start with a bar and chop it yourself. And finally, to preserve the creamy texture of your pudding and make sure you don’t end up with scrambled eggs, consider tempering the egg yolks so they don’t curdle by slowly pouring the hot cream mixture into the food processor while it’s running.

Whipped Cream Makes Almost Everything Better

We love the juxtaposition of dense chocolate tart with a fluffy whipped cream filling. And for a decorative and truly Southern finish, we recommend sprinkling the pie with crunchy pecans. If you’re not a fan of nuts, top the pie with simple chocolate shavings, crushed chocolate cookies, or absolutely nothing at all.

November 2024