Chocolate Cream Pie Recipe Inspired by the Movie ‘Heartburn’

Think of an emboldened Rachel Samstat as you whip up this delicious dessert

Hannah Selinger

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Published May 27, 2022

a chocolate cream pie held over a table with measuring spoons, an old blender, white rose bouquet and photo album

Photos by Noah Fecks

Our Dinner and a Movie series features nostalgic essays on some of our favorite films from the '80s and '90s paired with recipes inspired from movie moments. Don't miss our essay on Heartburn.

Heartburn’s Rachel goes through all the trouble of making a decadent key lime pie for a dinner party, only to hit her husband Mark’s face with it after explaining how you can live with someone and not realize the marriage is over. “It’s possible, well, to love someone so much or to think that you want to love them so much that you just don’t even see anything,” she says. “And then when things do turn out to have been wrong, it’s not that you didn’t know all along, it was just that you were somewhere else. … And then the dream dies. And the dream breaks into a million tiny little pieces, which leaves you with a choice: You can either stick with it, which is unbearable, or you can just go off and dream another dream.”

In honor of Rachel’s newfound boldness, we’re sharing a recipe for chocolate cream pie — face-plant not required.

Serves 8

Make the filling

½ cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
¾ teaspoon Kosher salt
2 cups whole milk
1 cup heavy cream
6 large egg yolks
8 ounces semisweet bar chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

slice of chocolate cream pie with fork on a plate

Whisk together sugar, cornstarch, cocoa powder and salt in a heavy-bottomed pan, just to combine. Add about a quarter cup of the milk and cream and whisk together until a paste forms. Slowly add the remaining liquid, whisking constantly. Whisk in the egg yolks and cook over medium heat until the mixture has thickened and has reached a slow boil, about eight minutes.

Remove from heat and immediately fold in the chopped chocolate, butter and vanilla extract. Pour the completed custard through a fine-meshed sieve, pressing it through with a rubber spatula into a mixing bowl. Place plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard and refrigerate until the base of the bowl has cooled, for a minimum of three hours.

Make the crust

1 8.75-ounce package Archway soft Dutch Cocoa (or similar) chocolate cookies
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
½ teaspoon Kosher salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. In food processor, pulse the cookies and salt until fine crumbs are formed. With the motor running, add the butter in a slow stream until the mixture is completely combined. Using a ¼ measuring cup, pack the crumb mixture into a 9-inch pie pan, beginning at the center of the pan and working outward, pressing evenly up to the edges. Bake in the center of the oven for 10 minutes, until fragrant and just set (the bottom will feel soft and forgiving, like a brownie, but will firm up as it cools).

Make the topping

3 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 ½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ounces mascarpone cheese
1 ½ cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

The Main Course

Spaghetti Carbonara Recipe

Rachel and Mark ate their pasta dinner in bed, but you can eat it wherever you want.

bowl of spaghetti carbonara with four utensil handles sticking out

In a wide mixing bowl, combine the heavy cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Using an electric hand mixer on the lowest setting (you can use a stand mixer for this, as well), blend the ingredients until the heavy cream is just beginning to thicken, about two minutes. Fold in the mascarpone and continue to beat on the highest setting for a minute or two longer, until the mixture reaches a consistency somewhere between whipped cream and cream cheese. Set aside.

Assemble

At least one hour before you intend to serve, transfer the chocolate custard into the pre-baked pie shell using a rubber spatula. Make sure to spread it evenly and to the edges of the pie pan. Follow this with the mascarpone cream. Start by spreading the cream directly into the center of the pie and by working outward, using either a large spoon, rubber spatula or offset spatula. Refrigerate for a minimum of one hour before serving.