This Chocolate Pecan Pie is sweetened with brown sugar and maple syrup and flavored with cocoa powder, chocolate chips, and chopped pecans. This rich and flavorful pie has a buttery crust and sticky-sweet filling (no corn syrup). You will love it!
Pie crust (or use your favorite 9-inch deep dish unbaked pie crust*):
1 ¼cupsall purpose flourplus more for rolling out the dough
1tablespoongranulated sugar
½teaspoonsalt
½cupchilled unsalted buttercut into small cubes
¼cupice waterplus more, if needed
Filling:
6tablespoonsunsalted buttercut into pieces
1cup packed brown sugar
½cuppure maple syrup
1tablespoonunsweetened cocoa powder
½teaspoonkosher salt
3largeeggs
1teaspoonvanilla extract
1½cupschopped pecans
½cupbittersweet/dark chocolate chips
non-stick baking spray
flaky finishing saltoptional
Instructions
Pie crust:
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, and salt. Add the cubed butter and use your fingers or a pastry blender to cut the butter into the flour, doing so until the butter is broken down into pea-sized pieces. Add ¼ cup ice water and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough starts coming together. Then use your hands to bring the dough together. If necessary, add another tablespoon of cold water. The dough should just be sticking together. Try not to overwork it.
Transfer the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten it into a disc and wrap it up. Roll the edges of the crust on the countertop (like a wheel) to smooth out the edges. Transfer to your refrigerator for 1 hour (or up to 2 days).
Let the pie crust sit at room temperature for several minutes until it is no longer rock-hard, but still cold (this will depend on how long it was the fridge). Roll out the dough on a floured surface until it is a 12-13 inch circle.
Lightly spritz a 9-inch deep dish pie plate with non-stick spray, then transfer the crust to the pie plate. Trim and fold/crimp the excess crust around the edges. Place the crust in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes while you prepare the filling.
Filling:
Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the center to lower third of the oven.
In a saucepan over medium heat, melt butter. Add brown sugar, maple syrup, cocoa powder, and salt. Whisk until smooth and combined. Bring the mixture to a low simmer (bubbles forming around the perimeter of the pan), then remove from the heat. Pour the mixture into a bowl to cool for 15 minutes.
Add eggs and extract to the syrup mixture, whisking until combined.
Sprinkle the chopped pecans and chocolate chips into the bottom of the uncooked pie crust. Pour the syrup mixture over the pecans, rearranging the pecans if necessary (most the nuts and chocolate chips will float to the top).
Lightly spritz a piece of foil with non-stick spray. Cover the pie with foil and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the foil, then continue baking for another 15-25 minutes, until the edges are set but the center of the pie is still a bit jiggly (like gelatin). Sprinkle the top of the pie with a few sprinkles of flaky finishing salt. Place the pan on a wire rack to cool completely; it will firm up as it cools. I like to serve this pie at room temperature.
Notes
*If using a frozen store-bought pie crust that is in a pie tin, keep it frozen until you add the filling. Do not thaw.