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.