Kentucky Chocolate Walnut Pie with Bourbon
Kentucky's chocolate and walnut pie: a layer of melted bittersweet chocolate in a blind-baked crust under a brown butter, bourbon and brown sugar filling packed with toasted walnuts.
Edited by JP Lambiase
Change the estimate
Swaps change the price only: cook any meat to its own safe temperature. Where these numbers come from
Around Louisville, a chocolate and walnut pie is Derby food, but the most famous one has a name nobody else is allowed to use. Wikipedia says Derby-Pie was created in 1954 at the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky, by Walter and Leaudra Kern with their son George, that the family settled on the name by drawing it out of a hat, and that the Kerns' company, Kern's Kitchen, registered it as a trademark in 1968 or 1969 (the article gives both years) and still keeps the recipe secret. The company guards that name hard: Wikipedia counts more than 25 lawsuits, a 1987 ruling that the name was generic that was reversed on appeal, a 2013 spot in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Takedown Hall of Shame" over notices to recipe websites, and a 2017 suit against Louisville's Courier-Journal that was dismissed, a dismissal an appeals court affirmed on January 11, 2021. So everyone else bakes "chocolate walnut pie", "Kentucky pie" or, at America's Test Kitchen, "Thoroughbred Pie". The Courier-Journal had its own answer: Wikipedia credits its food editor Alice Colombo with a Race Day chocolate pecan pie made for the Kentucky Derby. This version is not the trademarked pie and does not claim to copy it.
🇺🇸 This one is American
Kentucky's chocolate and walnut pie: a layer of melted bittersweet chocolate in a blind-baked crust under a brown butter, bourbon and brown sugar filling packed with toasted walnuts.
🇬🇧 The original
The British original is the mince pie: a small, sealed pastry of dried fruit, suet and spice that once held real minced meat. See the British Mince Pies recipe.
Why it works the kitchen science
Chocolate on the bottom, not in the batter
Melting chopped chocolate on the hot crust makes a solid chocolate layer that tastes stronger than chips scattered through the filling, and it seals the crust (ATK).
Less sugar, cornstarch to set
ATK found most versions far too sweet, cut the sugar and used cornstarch instead of flour, which also gives the top a crisp crust.
🧰 You'll need 8 items
Everything the steps call for. Tick off what you have before you start.
Appliances
Pans and pots
Tools
Supplies
Step by step
- Step 1
Make the dough (see the crust baseline), roll it to 12 inches, fit it into a 9-inch pie plate and crimp. Wrap and refrigerate 40 minutes, then freeze 20 minutes. Set a rack in the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375°F.
- Step 2
Line the shell with two 12-inch squares of parchment, letting them hang over the edge, fill with pie weights and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the dough no longer looks wet.
- Step 3
Take out the shell and lower the oven to 325°F. Remove the parchment and weights, scatter the chopped chocolate over the hot bottom, wait 5 minutes and spread it into an even layer.
- Step 4
In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the butter, stirring constantly, 5 to 7 minutes, until it smells nutty and turns brown. Off the heat, slowly stir in the bourbon (it bubbles hard), then cool 5 minutes.
✓ What it should look like - Step 5
Whisk both sugars, the cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, yolk and vanilla until smooth, then slowly whisk in the warm butter. Stir in the walnuts and pour the filling over the chocolate.
- Step 6
Bake at 325°F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the filling is puffed and the center jiggles slightly when you gently shake the plate.
- Step 7
Cool on a rack 4 hours before slicing. Refrigerate leftovers, covered, up to 2 days.
Kentucky Chocolate Walnut Pie with Bourbon
Serves 8 · one 9-inch pie · 1 hr 45 min total
Crust (King Arthur's Classic Single Pie Crust)
- 1 1/2 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp table salt
- 4 tbsp (46 g) vegetable shortening
- 5 tbsp (71 g) cold unsalted butter
- 3 to 5 tbsp ice water
Filling
- 3 oz (85 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 8 tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- 3 tbsp bourbon
- 3/4 cup (149 g) sugar
- 1/2 cup packed (99 g) light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 large eggs plus 1 large yolk, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped
Equipment: Oven, 9-inch pie plate, Small saucepan, Chef's knife and cutting board, Measuring cups and spoons, Mixing bowls, Whisk, Parchment paper
Method
- Make the dough (see the crust baseline), roll it to 12 inches, fit it into a 9-inch pie plate and crimp. Wrap and refrigerate 40 minutes, then freeze 20 minutes. Set a rack in the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 375°F.
- Line the shell with two 12-inch squares of parchment, letting them hang over the edge, fill with pie weights and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until the dough no longer looks wet.
- Take out the shell and lower the oven to 325°F. Remove the parchment and weights, scatter the chopped chocolate over the hot bottom, wait 5 minutes and spread it into an even layer.
- In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the butter, stirring constantly, 5 to 7 minutes, until it smells nutty and turns brown. Off the heat, slowly stir in the bourbon (it bubbles hard), then cool 5 minutes.
- Whisk both sugars, the cornstarch and salt in a large bowl. Whisk in the eggs, yolk and vanilla until smooth, then slowly whisk in the warm butter. Stir in the walnuts and pour the filling over the chocolate.
- Bake at 325°F for 35 to 40 minutes, until the filling is puffed and the center jiggles slightly when you gently shake the plate.
- Cool on a rack 4 hours before slicing. Refrigerate leftovers, covered, up to 2 days.
Adapted from America's Test Kitchen (Cook's Country), "Thoroughbred Pie" by Erika Bruce (April 29, 2013), one 9-inch pie, serves 8. Amounts, the blind bake at 375°F, the chocolate layer, the brown butter and bourbon, the 325°F bake and the 4-hour cool are ATK's. ATK calls for your favorite pie dough; we write out King Arthur's Classic Single Pie Crust (see the crust baseline). ATK serves it with a bourbon whipped cream we do not reproduce. History from Wikipedia's Derby pie and pecan pie articles, linked in the Story. America's Test Kitchen. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Toast the walnuts at 350°F for 6 to 8 minutes before chopping; that step is our timing, not ATK's.
- Stand back when the bourbon hits the hot butter.
- Prefer pecans? Swap them in one for one; Wikipedia notes the pie is made with walnuts or pecans.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- You can't call it Derby pie. Documented as a trademark: Kern's Kitchen owns "Derby-Pie" and has sued more than 25 times (Wikipedia). This is why our title says chocolate walnut pie.
- The trademark dates from 1968. Disputed: Wikipedia gives both 1968 (registered by Kern's Kitchen) and 1969 (state and federal trademarks).
- George Kern invented it. Disputed: Wikipedia's lead credits George Kern with his parents' help, while its history section credits his parents Walter and Leaudra Kern as the owners and creators.
- The real recipe uses pecans. Folklore: the recipe is secret; Wikipedia describes the trademarked pie as chocolate and walnut.
- Bourbon is in the original. Folklore: the original recipe is secret; bourbon is in ATK's version and in Alice Colombo's Race Day pie (Wikipedia).
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Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie Without Corn Syrup
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