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With a homemade graham cracker crust and a creamy, no-bake filling, this frozen Chocolate Cream Pie is the ultimate make-ahead dessert!
Table of Contents
Recipe ingredients
At a Glance: Here is a quick snapshot of what ingredients are in this recipe.
Please see the recipe card below for specific quantities.
Ingredient notes
- Graham cracker crust: Use a store-bought crust if you prefer, no problem.
Step-by-step instructions
- To make the graham cracker crust (or substitute a store-bought crust), preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor, or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, finely crush graham crackers.
- In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar. Pour into a 9-inch pie plate.
- Use the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crust evenly and firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake until golden brown and fragrant, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely, at least 1 hour.
- In a large bowl stir together sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla extract. Add cocoa powder and milk in alternating batches, a few tablespoons at a time, until evenly incorporated. Gently fold in whipped topping. Pour into cooled crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Freeze for at least 4 hours or until serving. Thaw for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Drizzle individual pieces with chocolate syrup if desired.
Recipe tips and variations
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 delicious pie with 8 slices.
- Storage: Store leftovers in the freezer.
- Make ahead: Yes, please! This pie needs to freeze for at least 4 hours, but you can freeze it for up to 2 months. Thaw 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.
- Chocolate crust: An Oreo cookie crust would be delicious here.
- Whipped cream: Serve with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.
More cool desserts
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Easy Ice Cream Cake (DQ Copycat)
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Banana Split Recipe
Chocolate Recipes
Easy Chocolate Mousse Recipe
Cold Desserts
Fried Ice Cream
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Chocolate Cream Pie
With a homemade graham cracker crust and a creamy, no-bake filling, this frozen Chocolate Cream Pie is the ultimate make-ahead dessert!
Ingredients
For the graham cracker crust (see note 1):
- 9 graham crackers
- 5 tablespoons butter melted
- 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
For the filling:
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 3 ounces cream cheese softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 (8-ounce) container frozen whipped topping thawed
- Chocolate syrup for decorating, optional
Instructions
To make the graham cracker crust:
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a food processor, or in a plastic bag with a rolling pin, finely crush graham crackers. In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar.
- Pour into a 9-inch pie plate, using the bottom of a measuring cup to press the crust evenly and firmly into the bottom and up the sides of the pie plate. Bake until golden brown and fragrant, 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely, at least 1 hour.
To make the filling:
- In a large bowl combine sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla extract. Stir until evenly blended. Add cocoa powder and milk in alternating batches, a few tablespoons at a time, until evenly incorporated.
- Gently fold in whipped topping until well-combined. Pour into cooled crust and smooth the top with a spatula. Freeze at least 4 hours or until serving (up to 1 month in advance). Thaw for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Drizzle individual pieces with chocolate syrup if desired.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Graham cracker crust: Use a store-bought crust if you prefer, no problem.
- Yield: This recipe makes 1 delicious pie with 8 slices.
- Storage: Store leftovers in the freezer.
- Make ahead: Yes, please! This pie needs to freeze for at least 4 hours, but you can freeze it for up to 2 months. Thaw 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.
- Chocolate crust: An Oreo cookie crust would be delicious here.
- Whipped cream: Serve with a dollop of whipped cream if desired.
Nutrition
Serving: 1sliceCalories: 242kcalCarbohydrates: 31gProtein: 3gFat: 13gSaturated Fat: 7gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 4gTrans Fat: 0.3gCholesterol: 31mgSodium: 198mgPotassium: 115mgFiber: 2gSugar: 20gVitamin A: 378IUCalcium: 42mgIron: 1mg
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
So I 1st had this pie at a friends home. Her pie was dense dark chocolate and was delicious. She gave me the recipe which I made and my pie was much thicker and more a mousse look. The recipe calls for 8oz of Cool Whip. She made her pie with one 8oz cup of Cool Whip, I measured out 8oz of Cool Whip which was just about a whole container. Both pies were delicious but what amount of Cool Whip is correct? I love that either way was delicious!
Hi Dana, thank you so much for your question. I’m sorry that the recipe isn’t clear. It should have said 1 (8-ounce) container of frozen whipped topping, since it should be by weight, not volume. I’ve updated the recipe card to reflect that. Since your friend only used 1 cup (volume) of Cool Whip, it would make sense that the filling was thicker. I’m so happy that both ways came out delicious! In this case, I would say whichever way you prefer is the right way! I’m so sorry about the confusion again, and please write with any more questions. Take care! – Meggan
No room in freezer so I improvised and added about 3 TB of instant chocolate pudding to the cool whip prior to folding in. Worked like a charm…set up nicely and had a nice chocolately flavor. To finish it off I made ganache for drizziling and whipped up some cream with about a tsp of chocolate pudding to stabilize and piped onto the pie. Give it a try…it works.
Thank you, pjo! Adding it to my list to try out! – Meggan
Would this recipe fill a 10″ deep dish graham cracker crust?
Hi Jackie, I don’t think it will. A regular pie pan has a volume of about 4 cups, while a deep pie pan has a 7-cup volume. Sorry about that! – Meggan
Everyone absolutely loves this pie! I will be making this again soon.
Hi Melony, happy everyone loved it! Take care! – Meggan
Can i use homemade whipped cream instead of frozen?
Hi Azaylia, I haven’t tried it myself, but I don’t see why not! What a great idea, I’m putting it on my list to test. Take care!- Meggan
DELISH!!! 💜
Easy to make. I used a pre-made Graham cracker crust and I substited with coconut milk. I drizzled with melted chocolate, 70% cacao, because chocolate syrup has has too much refined sugar.
Hi Tess, so glad you loved it and were able to adjust the recipe to your liking! Take care! – Meggan
Hello, I am making this pie for family in town this weekend. I bought the graham cracker crumbs for ease but I’m not sure how much to use. Do you know how much 9 crackers yields? Thanks
Hi Jamie, it should be about 1 1/4 cups. Enjoy! – Meggan
Hi. If I’m using non dairy whipped topping which come in frozen liquid form in a carton do I whip it first or add it in its liquid state? Thanks.
Hi Elle, I am not familiar with liquid frozen non-dairy whipped topping. Is this like Cool Whip but in liquid form? I haven’t seen or heard of this kind of product. I guess I would say, whip it first vs. adding it in a liquid state, but that is a guess off the top of my head without knowing for sure. Are you in the US? What is the brand of this item? I’d love to learn more. Thanks! -Meggan
Working on this now, so excited to try! Quick questions, after making it FREEZE or REFRIGERATE for at least 4 hours?
Hi Carrie! This one you will definitely want to FREEZE. 😀 Hope you enjoy it! -Meggan
Thank you!! I appreciate the quick response, Meggan!! 🙂 Pie is chilling in the freezer now!! Thinking of melting a little peanut butter to drizzle on slices since I don’t have any syrup. The filling was to-die-for when I taste tested, so can’t wait to try it! Just found your page on Facebook as well! <3
IS this supposed to be regular sugar or powdered?
Hi Jess! Regular sugar, granulated, sucrose. If it was powdered sugar, it would say that or possibly confectioner’s sugar. Sorry for the confusion! Thanks!
Do i have to put whipped cream in the recipe or would it be okay without it?
Hi Shannon, leaving out the whipped topping would drastically change the cake (possibly for better, possibly for worse). Obviously that non-dairy type is light and airy and makes the cake also quite light and airy. I feel like it would still taste great without it (how can you go wrong with cream cheese and cocoa powder?) but I don’t honestly know what would happen. It might turn out to be more like a cheese cake, which would be good, or it might fail to set up entirely, which would be bad. Sorry I can’t tell you more! Best of luck.
Meggan! You are so conciensious! Thank you for the recipe!! I really want to try the pie recipe this Christmas, but I am cheating with the graham cracker crust!! Thank you for your recipe and suggestions!!
Hey Sandy, even if the better crust is the one made from scratch, the most important thing is to EAT THE PIE! LOL! So glad you’re going to give it a try. 🙂 Thanks for your comment!
This looks delicious and I can’t wait to try it! One question though, I noticed you mentioned chocolate syrup but there’s no chocolate syrup in the recipe. Is that a typo or do you just use it as a topping?
Hi Jill, it was a typo in the text. I am so sorry about that. I should have said it’s the COCOA POWDER which makes it chocolatey without being too sweet… obviously chocolate syrup is very sweet! The chocolate syrup should be used as a garnish on top, for drizzling, as desired. I have fixed up the post and recipe to reflect this. So, the recipe was correct but I just explained it badly. Thanks for finding this and pointing it out, and sorry for my confusion!
DELICIOUS! Made it tonight. Made my own crust, by your directions. The crust had a toasty perfect flavor. Definitely a chilled dessert, not melts. Would never just leave this out! Tastes like BK’s Hershey sundae pie Yummy
Hi Deanna! I am so glad you loved the crust, I swear one of these days I’m going to just make a graham cracker crust and EAT IT. Just plain. Not really. But maybe. I think you have a great point about not leaving it out… maybe only on a cold winter’s day. I’ll revise this recipe to include instructions to keep it chilled, or even frozen. You don’t want it frozen SOLID because then you can’t cut it, but it melts fast. Anyway, thank you so much for your comment and I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I made this for our church Easter brunch today! The crust tasted good, but was a bit hard, so perhaps I should have added more than 5 tablespoons of butter, or baked it for a shorter amount of time (I baked it between 15 & 20 minutes)? And the pie filling “melted” somewhat, so perhaps I should have frozen it? Otherwise it tasted great & received great compliments! I will make this again!
Thanks for commenting, David! I’ve been making this pie every couple of weeks lately, hoping to shoot new photographs for the blog (the pie never lasts long enough so I’ll have to keep trying). I do agree the crust is somewhat hard although I think it’s supposed to be that way. I agree a “chewier” texture might be easier to cut/bite through. The pie crust is from the America’s Test Kitchen cookbook (I need to add that as my pie crust source) and they say bake it for 15-20 minutes. I just double-checked the original recipe. As for the filling, I tend to keep it chilled in the fridge until serving time. In an informal situation, that seems to work fine (a little meltiness is no problem) but I think you are right: For something like a church brunch, freezing it ahead of time is probably a good idea. And then if it thaws a bit on the way, that should still be okay. I’ll update my recipe. Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m glad you liked it. This is going to be my 3-year-old’s birthday cake. 🙂 Happy Easter!!
Hi! Is the quantity of cream cheese correct? A regular package of cream cheese is 250g=8.8oz.
Hi Callie, I have only ever seen 8-ounce packages of cream cheese. Are you in the U.S.? All the recipes put out by Philadelphia (the main brand of cream cheese in the U.S.) reference an 8-ounce package. I am so sorry for the confusion!
Hi Meggan,
I’m overseas. 🙂 but your recipe says “1 (3oz) package”. The 3oz is what has me confused.
Ah!!!! Of course. Sorry, I should have gone to read my own recipe before replying. 🙂 It is possible to buy a 3 ounce package, this is true. Comparatively, for the price, it always makes more sense to buy an 8-ounce block and chop of 3 ounces. So, I should probably just re-write the recipe as such. So you should use your 250g package and chop of 85 grams… if that is easy to do. 🙂 And being the smart person you are, you probably already figured that out. So to finally correctly answer your first question… yes. This recipe only takes 3 ounces of cream cheese. If we used the whole block, the cake would have the texture and density of cheesecake. With just the 3 ounces, plus a container of whipped topping, it’s a much lighter pie filling, similar texture to mousse or whipped cream mixed with custard. I apologize for my hasty (and poor) original reply. I hope this information is helpful. And I’m going to fix the recipe to indicate that 3 ounces of cream cheese is required… not a 3 ounce package which is a poor value anyway.
it looks delish!
Thank you, I certainly enjoy eating it! My grandma also made a version with an Oreo cookie crust… YUM. Thank you for stopping by!