Classic Boston Cream Pie isn’t pie. It is cake with a cream filling and a chocolate ganache top. Apparently the reason it became known as pie was that bakers in 19th Century Boston made the cakes in pie pans.
There’s nothing wrong with cake, but often I find the cake version of Boston Cream Pie rather dry. Traditionally, the cake layers are sponge or pound cake. They should be a nice contrast to the creamy filling, at least in theory. However, in reality, that is not often the case. Instead, the cake is crumbly and overpowers the cream and chocolate.
So when I stumbled upon a SeriousEats’ version that was really pie, I was intrigued. I tried it and was impressed – up to a point. Good, but not great. The concept seemed better than the execution. After tweaking the filling and changing the pie crust from dough to a graham cracker crust, Boston Cream Pie finally became my ideal pie. Eureka!
Whether this version is an adaptation of the SeriousEats Boston Cream Pie, or is simply inspired by it, is a matter of semantics. What really matters is that it is pie, not cake. Gone are the dry cake layers. In their place, a graham cracker crust provides a moist and tasty base.
The ingredients are pure and simple. On top of the buttery graham cracker shell sit pastry cream filling and a chocolate ganache topping. The three parts play well together, crunchy at the bottom, smooth in the middle, and rich at the top.
For those who favor the traditional Boston Cream Pie, there is another way to look at this dessert. Don’t focus on the pedigree. Instead, think of it as a reverse chocolate cream pie. This pie turns that diner specialty on its head, substituting vanilla cream for chocolate filling and spreadable chocolate for a whipped cream top.
Boston Cream Pie Reinvented as Pie
A crunchy graham cracker crust, with vanilla pastry cream and a rich chocolate topping, this dessert is a crowd pleaser that is a lot simpler to make than it looks.
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 graham cracker crust
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- 3 tablespoons sugar
Filling - Vanilla Pastry Cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 9 tablespons sugar (1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon)
- pinch kosher or fine sea salt
- 3 egg yolks
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Chocolate Topping
- 3 ounces heavy cream
- 4 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
- 3 3/4 - 4 ounces dark chocolate, finely chopped
Instructions
Crust
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Crush the graham crackers and mix in the melted butter and the sugar. Spread over the pie pan and press down. See note below for link to pie crust recipe - must be baked and cooled before adding the filling.
Filling - Vanilla Pastry Cream
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Stir the milk, vanilla, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the pinch of salt together in a medium-large saucepan. Set aside.
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In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, starch and the remaining sugar (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) until the mixture is thick and pale yellow, about 2-3 minutes.
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Heat the milk, vanilla, sugar and salt mixture under a low light until the mixture simmers. Then remove from the heat and pour small amounts of the hot liquid into the egg yolks, starch, and remaining sugar in a stream, whisking after each addition. After you have added all the liquid to the egg yolks, starch, and sugar, pour the mixture back into the saucepan. Bring it back to a simmer, whisking constantly, and whisk for two more minutes after the first sign of bubbles.
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Take the mixture off the heat and gently whisk in the softened butter, until the butter is completely absorbed into the custard.
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Pour the custard into the cooled pie crust and press plastic wrap against the top. Let the filling cool for about 30 minutes, then refrigerate until well chilled, at least 2-3 hours.
Chocolate Topping
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Bring the heavy cream and corn syrup to a simmer over medium heat, stirring gently to combine the ingredients. Once the cream and corn syrup mixture simmers, pour it over the chopped chocolate (in a heatproof bowl) and leave those ingredients undisturbed for two minutes. At the end of the two minutes, stir them together until the chocolate is smooth. Refrigerate the ganache until you are ready to serve the pie. Once you are ready to serve it, microwave the ganache on a low setting and stir until it is a pourable consistency. Then gently pour it over the top of the pie and spread it out to the edges.
Recipe Notes
The process of slowly adding the heated milk to the eggs in the filling is called "tempering" the eggs. It prevents the eggs from scrambling, which would happen if you suddenly added all of the hot liquid to the cold eggs.
If you can find it choose heavy cream over whipping cream for the topping. Here is why.
You can make the chocolate topping (called ganache) days or even weeks ahead of time and freeze it, well wrapped. When defrosting it in a microwave (or warming it after refrigeration) do it slowly at a low setting, stirring frequently.
The butter pictured among the ingredients is partly for the graham cracker crust. Here's my crust recipe. If you prefer a slightly less sweet crust with this rather sweet pie, just leave out the sugar in the crust and use only graham crackers and butter.
Melissa says
Where does unsalted butter come in? Do you melt and mix with eggs or heat/melt with milk mixture?
Laura says
Melissa, From your comment, I realize that the photo of the ingredients is confusing. The butter is for the crust, and as a result of your question, I made that clear in the recipe comment.
julie s says
had a version of this at a party Monday, but it was filling on the bottom, graham cracker dust in the middle, a fine layer, and the chocolate on top, it was divine, I ate like 2 servings, 🙂
Laura says
Julie, How interesting. Wonder what recipe they used? Anyway glad you liked it. It’s one of my favorite pies:)
Ashley says
My friend made it and the filling didn’t set, it was runny, she wanted to know what she did wrong??
Laura says
Ashley, Thanks for checking in. Without knowing what your friend did, it’s impossible to say what went wrong with her filling. Making pastry cream by whisking the custard is more of an art than a science. It does work if done with patience and following the directions.
Laura says
You need to take butter out of the ingredients for the custard if it is for pie crust!
Laura says
Laura – Thanks. Not sure what happened originally, but I fixed the recipe – butter now listed as part of the crust.
Laura says
After making the custard, and checking other Boston cream pie recipes, it needs the butter that is listed as an ingredient. I’d add it towards the end, after it’s thickened a little.
Laura says
Laura – There should be butter in both the pie crust and the filling. I’ve fixed the recipe now – and the butter for the filling is added at the end (off the heat) just before you pour it into the pie crust. Many thanks for catching that.
Nadiya says
Where does the sugar come in? Filling step 1 says add the remaining sugar, but filling step 2 also says that.
Welp, I added it to step 1. Let’s see how this turns out…
Laura says
Nadiya, You are so right – the way the directions are written can be confusing. I’ve just revised them to indicate that 3 tablespoons of the sugar go in the crust. The rest (9 tablespoons, which is equivalent to 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon) goes in the filling. Thanks for stopping by and for helping me to write a more precise recipe. Hope you enjoy the pie and do stop by again. Best regards, Laura
will says
When you say to add the remaining sugar that makes no sense, you never said what fraction of sugar to take out at the start.
Laura says
Will, My apologies. You caught a mistake in the recipe, which I’ve just corrected. The sugar for the filling should be divided roughly in half. The first almost-half (1/4 cup) goes in with the milk, vanilla, etc and the second slightly more than half (1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon) goes in with the egg yolks. Many thanks for your eagle eyed catch and again, my apologies. Hope you like this rather unusual, and fun version of Boston cream pie.
Annie says
Hi! Can this pie be made in advance and how long can it be stored for afterwards? Should it be refrigerated? Thanks!
Laura says
Annie, This pie can be made in advance by about 1 day (I often make pies the night before) and yes, it must be refrigerated. See https://motherwouldknow.com/do-baked-pies-have-to-be-refrigerated/
Kelley says
Can you use pudding?
Laura says
You could use it instead of the vanilla pastry cream. I would advise homemade pudding, but if you’re going with store-bought, boxed pudding, use whole milk and a good quality pudding. It is, after all, dessert.
Tony says
Can you freeze the Boston cream pie
Laura says
Because this pastry cream is made with cornstarch (as opposed to flour), I wouldn’t recommend that you freeze the pie.
marilyn says
You wrote one graham cracker crust in ingredients. Do you mean a pre made one? or just the crackers? How many?
Laura says
You can use either homemade or store-bought. In the post, I linked to my recipe for a homemade crust https://motherwouldknow.com/easy-graham-cracker-pie-crust/. It uses about 1 sleeve or 8 full graham crackers (8 crackers of 4 segments each.)Hope you enjoy the pie – I love it 🙂