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Chocolate Caramel Buttermilk Pie

This chocolate caramel buttermilk pie is a more complex twist on an Amish classic. It take a bit longer to make, but the results are worth it. It's rich and light at the same time, and the flaky pastry goes beautifully with the chocolate. It slices like a dream too. Check the recipe notes for a less involved process.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings 8 servings
Author Jennifer Field

Ingredients

For the Pastry

  • 9 oz all purpose flour (I used King Arthur)
  • 1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 7 oz unsalted butter straight from the fridge
  • 2 oz cold water
  • 1.5 oz buttermilk straight from the fridge

For the Filling

  • 9 oz granulated sugar
  • 1 cup buttermilk
  • 4 Tablespoons all purpose flour
  • 3 Tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3 oz melted unsalted butter (3/4 stick or 6 Tablespoons)
  • 1-3 teaspoons espresso powder (use 1 teaspoon if you want to reinforce the chocolate. Use the greater amount for mocha)
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract or paste
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3-6 Tablespoons granulated sugar (See Recipe Notes)

Instructions

For the Pastry

  • In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.
  • Cut the butter into 10-12 pieces and toss with the flour. Use your fingers and thumbs to pick up flour and butter and sort of smoosh the flour into the butter. Keep some of the pieces larger (maybe the size of small marbles). The flour that is coated with the fat will add tenderness. Larger pieces of butter will help to build flakiness. When the butter is mixed in, the flour should look a bit mealy with larger pieces of butter still visible.
  • Mix the water and buttermilk together and evenly pour it over the flour-butter mixture. Toss to combine and then press the dough against the sides of the bowl to collect all the loose floury bits in the bottom and to gently knead it until it comes together.
  • Turn the dough out onto a liberally floured surface. Flour the top of the dough as well.
  • Roll the dough out into a rough rectangle that is approximately four times as long as it is tall. Fold both short ends in towards the center so they meet, and then close that like a book. Fold in half again so you have a fat square. (All of this is Stella's procedure in her Serious Eats dough linked in the post). Roll out again until you have about a 10" square and then fold into thirds like a letter. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.
  • Once the dough is well-chilled, cut the dough in half (or slightly more than half for a deep dish pie) and roll one half out on a floured surface to fit into a pie pan. I used deep dish, but you can also use a regular pie pan. You're looking for about a 14-15" circle for deep dish and about a 12-13" circle for a standard pan.
  • Fold the dough loosely in fourths and transfer to the pan. Unfold and gently lift and press the dough to fit the pan. Try not to stretch it or it will want to shrink back when baked.
  • Trim the dough so there is about a 1" overhang and then tuck the overhang underneath to form a rim with a double layer of dough. Crimp in your favorite way.
  • Freeze the crust for at least an hour until it is very hard. Overnight wouldn't be the worst thing, so feel free to split your pie making into a two day process if you'd like.
  • When you're ready to bake the crust, prick it all over the bottom and sides with the tip of a sharp knife. Line the crust with a coffee filter, parchment or heavy duty plastic wrap. Fill with beans (chickpeas work great for this. So do lentils or rice). Bake at 375 for about 15 minutes.
  • Remove the paper/plastic and beans and brush the crust all over with an egg wash (1 egg beaten well with 1 teaspoon of water and a pinch of salt). Return to the oven until the bottom of the egg wash on the bottom of the crust is dry, about 10 minutes. Now your crust is ready for the filling.

For the Filling

  • Fill a bowl large enough to fit the pan you're cooking the sugar in with ice and water. Set 2-3 ice cubes aside.
  • Put the 9 ounces of sugar in a heavy bottomed saucepan. Add enough water just to get everything wet and stir well.
  • Heat over medium high heat until boiling. It's okay to stir at this point. Once the sugar is boiling, put the lid on for 2 minutes to wash down any sugar crystals that might be hanging out on the sides of the pan.
  • Remove the lid and watch carefully as the sugar cooks. It will turn a pale honey color and then begin to deepen. Cook the sugar until it is a deep reddish brown. It will smoke, and that's okay. Just be ready to act fast.
  • As soon as the caramel is the color you want, remove it from the heat and set the pan in the ice bath. Carefully toss the reserved ice cubes into the caramel and swirl the pan. All the foolishness is to make sure you arrest the cooking at exactly the point you want. 
  • Check the temperature of the caramel. You want it to be around 140F. 
  • Pour in the buttermilk. The caramel will be hard at this point and you will be sad. It's okay. All will be well. Set the pan over medium-low heat and reheat, stirring, to melt the caramel into the buttermilk. Don't let the mixture boil or the buttermilk will curdle, so just take it slow and use a spatula to scrape up the melting caramel from the bottom of the pan and stir it into the buttermilk. This will take about 10 minutes. Keep the mixture around 165F or so and then cool it to below 140F before proceeding.
  • Whisk together the eggs, flour, and cocoa powder. Whisk them really well to avoid lumps.
  • Whisk the egg mixture into the caramel mixture. Whisk in the melted butter, espresso powder, vanilla, and salt.
  • Taste the filling. Add additional granulated sugar if you would like it a bit sweeter. If you don't cook your caramel as dark as I cooked mine, you might not need extra, but it's up to you. I think I ended up adding in about 5 extra Tablespoons of sugar. 
  • Pour the filling into the blind-baked pie shell. Bake at 400F for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375, loosely tent the pie with foil and bake until the pie wiggles but doesn't slosh in the center, about 30-35 minutes. Check the temperature in the center of the pie. It should be about 165F.
  • Remove pie from the oven and set on a rack to cool. Serve barely warm. Refrigerate the leftovers. Pie is good cold or gently rewarmed in the microwave on low power for a few seconds.

Notes

Feel free to use ready-made pie dough or your favorite pie dough recipe.
 
To Reduce the Number of Steps To Make This Pie:
  • Don't caramelize the sugar. In that case, you won't have to add any additional sugar. Just whisk all the ingredients together and you're good to go.
  • You can also switch out heavy cream for the buttermilk (in which case it won't be a buttermilk pie. But it will be a very tasty chocolate caramel pie). In that case, you don't have to mess around with the ice bath and ice cubes when you caramelize the sugar. Just remove the caramel from the heat once it's at the color you like and pour in 8 oz of heavy cream. It won't curdle like the buttermilk will. It will make your life easier. In that case, reduce the amount of melted butter to 2 ounces rather than 3 oz.