Aunt Betty’s Comfort Kitchen · Entertaining

Creamy Chocolate Pie

A no-bake icebox pie — instant chocolate pudding folded with whipped topping, spooned into a ready-made crust, and chilled until sliceable. Ten minutes of work and an hour in the fridge.

10 min prep 1 hr chill

Effort ●○○○ Time ●●○○ Anytime

Vegetarian

Slicesamounts scale to match

Units

Ingredients

Use only 1 cup of milk — not the amount on the box. The pudding has to set firmer than usual because you're folding in whipped topping. Underfill the milk and it whisks up thick, so the finished pie slices cleanly instead of slumping.

Easier, if you like

It's already the shortcut — to go even faster, leave the nuts out and just dust the top with cocoa or chocolate shavings.
Single servings: skip the crust and layer the filling with crushed cookies in little glasses for parfaits.

Method

Cook's notes

An icebox pie. No oven, no cooking — just a fold-and-chill dessert built on instant pudding and Cool Whip. It's the kind of thing you can put together while dinner's in the oven.

Chocolate-fudge pudding makes it richer; a graham or Oreo-cookie crust works in place of the chocolate one.

From-scratch topping: fold in about 1½ cups of sweetened whipped cream instead of Cool Whip for a fresher finish.

Make it the night before — it holds well, covered, in the fridge.

Easy to make gluten-free or dairy-free

Gluten-free: use a gluten-free cookie or graham crust and check that the pudding mix is GF.

Dairy-free: make the pudding with a non-dairy milk that sets (it must say it works for pudding) and use a non-dairy whipped topping.

Nut-free: simply leave the nuts out.