Chocolate Coconut Mousse Pie

Easy-to-make chocolate mousse pie with hints of coconut. It’s made with a rich, chocolatey, subtly coconut-y filling that only requires 3 ingredients and can double as a mousse or filling in a cake or trifle.

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The story

Lately, everyone’s been posting awesome rainbow cakes as we gear up for St. Patrick’s Day, and I’m over here like, “Look at this pie I made for Pi Day!” I felt compelled to jump on the rainbow cake bandwagon for a hot second, but that kind of precision is time consuming and stressful. Gorgeous and super fun, for sure, but I work full time and have a baby. When exactly am I going to make a perfectly manicured rainbow cake?

Oh, and fun fact: I started writing this post last week but it was delayed because of life then it was finished while I sat holding my sick daughter. Thankfully she has the flu and not the other thing, but man did this weekend affirm my decision to not spend hours creating a rainbow of frostings. That’s how those are made, you know. You make a giant batch of white frosting (or batter, if you’re ambitious) then put a little into the same number of mixing bowls as there are colors of the rainbow (ROYGBIV: that’s seven 🙄) and stir in the really fancy food coloring so it’s nice and bright and won’t stain your mouth and hands and everything you own.

Like I said, gorgeous, but who has time to make all these rainbow cakes I keep seeing? How are some bakers making several rainbow cakes in different shades and color palettes??? Do they ever sleep?????

Besides, desserts are first and foremost about taste. That’s what this pie is all about. Taste. Easy-to-make yumminess.

In fact, the filling can be used alone as a mousse, to fill a cake, or in a trifle.

Tips for this recipe

Be sure the pie crust is cooled

Theres nothing like pouring a perfectly fluffy mousse into a warm pie crust and watching it deflate and melt. You can chill the crust in the fridge for a bit once it’s close to room temperature, but avoid putting a warm crust in the fridge.

By the way, today it was pointed out to me that it makes no sense for us to spell fridge with a “d” when refrigerator doesn’t have one. English. 🤷‍♀️

Let the chocolate chill completely

It can’t whip into mousse if it’s still warm. Room temperature might do, but you’ll have the best results if it’s a little cold.

The bowl assignments aren’t strict

In the instructions, I have you whipping up the ganache in one bowl, whipping cream into stiff peaks in a chilled bowl, then folding the two together. You can do both in a stand mixer, but you’ll need to do some transferring and washing between (unless you’re crazy like me and have two stand mixer bowls and two whisk attachments). I just do recommend anything that has a whisk attachment or can whip things really well for the chocolate, as it needs that to get fluffy and not break.

Coconut is optional

I fully intend to make this again without coconut. I had no idea my husband’s uncle doesn’t like coconut, and felt so bad when he asked for a slice then changed his mind at the coconut. Oops. You can use an all-butter crust and omit the coconut extract and flakes and it’ll still be delicious.

Plop whipped cream with a spoon to make spreading easier

The picture below shows how I added the whipped cream. It’s a technique I picked up a while ago that makes adding a second layer of something like whipped cream or merengue easier. It lets you gently spread it without squishing their bottom layer out.

Sugar is to taste

I went on the light side with the sugar, but it was a very rich pie, even by my standards. If you like sweeter desserts, by all means use the full amounts!

For a bit of tartness, add cream cheese

If you don’t want it to be super rich or if you like a bit of tartness with your chocolate, you can add 4-8 ounces of softened cream cheese to the chilled chocolate before whipping. It may create a grainy or less smooth texture, but it’s still delicious.

Chocolate Coconut Mousse Pie

• prep time: 15 min
• cook time: 5 min
• chill time: 1 hour
• total time: 1 hour, 20 min

Servings: 8-12

Ingredients:

• 1 single batch coconut oil pie crust or other pre-baked pie crust
• 8 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate, finely chopped (dark or milk chocolate work fine)
• 4 cups heavy whipping cream, separated
• ¼-½ cup powdered sugar, separated
• 2 teaspoons vanilla, optional
• 1 teaspoon coconut extract, optional
• ¼ cup unsweetened coconut flakes, optional

Instructions:

1. Pre-bake crust and let cool.
2. While crust is cooling (or even while it's baking, as long as its fully cooled before you put the mousse in), melt chocolate. Place chocolate in a heatproof bowl. Put 1 ½ cups of the cream in a small saucepan and heat over medium until simmering, stirring constantly. Don’t let it boil. Once small bubbles form and steam is coming off the cream, pour over chocolate and let sit 1-2 minutes. Stir vigorously until all chocolate pieces have melted and mixture is smooth. Refrigerate for 1 hour, stirring every 5-10 minutes (or place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface to prevent a film).
3. While chocolate cools, toast coconut flakes. Place on a large, rimmed cookie sheet in a thin layer. Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes, checking often. They go from golden to burnt in about 30 seconds, so watch carefully. Set aside to cool in the pan so they remain crispy.
4. Once chocolate is cooled, place a large mixing bowl in the fridge to chill it for the whipped cream. While that is chilling, whip chocolate in your stand mixer (or with a hand mixer, but those don’t aerate as well as the whisk attachment on a stand mixer) on high until light in color and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Alternately, you could use your hand mixer to whip the chocolate in a regular bowl and the stand mixer for the cream or use the stand mixer for both and just wash it before you make the whipped cream (what I did, but found to be annoying). Any of these options work, it just depends on your feelings about cleaning dishes.
5. Place 1.5 cups of cream, 2-4 tablespoons powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and the coconut extract, if using, in the chilled bowl and beat on medium-high until stiff peaks form. Gently fold into chocolate until fully combined. Pour into cooled pie shell and smooth with a rubber spatula or back of a spoon.
6. Using the same bowl you whipped the cream in for step 5, whip the remaining cup of cream with 2-4 tablespoons powdered sugar and the remaining teaspoon vanilla. Mix on medium-high until soft peaks form (or stiff peaks if you prefer or if you’re not serving right away—it’s really just a texture thing, but stiff peaks keep in the fridge longer, so I did it that way). Spread over chocolate layer and smooth with a rubber spatula. You can use the back of a spoon to make decorative swirls if you’re not using toasted coconut.

7. If using, sprinkle desired amount of cooled coconut all over whipped cream.

8. Keep pie refrigerated until serving. You can remove it 5-10 minutes before cutting if you’d like, but I like it fully chilled. Store covered in the fridge for 3-5 days.

Enjoy!