Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie was my first baking project after my daughter was born. Crisp, buttery crust, chocolate ganache, and a caramelized goo that meets chewy oatmeal cookie.
Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie at a Glance
- ⏱ Prep Time: 25 minutes
- 🔥 Cook Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 1 hour 50 minutes
- 👪 Serves: 10
- 🍽️ Calories: 491
- 🌾 Main Ingredients: Pie crust, chocolate, corn syrup, brown sugar, butter, eggs, rolled oats
- 👌 Why You'll Love It: Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie is a pecan-free pie with a chocolate ganache layer under a gooey, caramelized oat filling.
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Oatmeal in pie sounds unusual but it works here - you get all the gooey pecan pie filling that people love, without the pecans. The chocolate underneath balances the sweetness and makes the pie feel fancier with one extra step. If you love a classic pecan pie, this pie is worth trying, whether or not you can eat nuts.
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Three textures in every bite: silky ganache, gooey filling, and chewy oats.
- A crisp, buttery crust that stands up to all that sweetness.
- Doneness cues from testing in three pie pans, so the filling doesn't run.
Ingredients You'll Need
Pie crust: Use storebought if desired; gluten-free crusts should be fine, but crumb crusts will be too fragile. If making a crust, all-butter crusts brown better and taste more flavorful than shortening- or margarine-based crusts, which remain pale and flaky. When I use a 10-inch pie pan, I increase the quantity of my Homemade Pie Crust by 33%.
Oats: Old-fashioned and quick rolled oats are interchangeable. Smitten Kitchen toasted them, but I don't bother. Don't use steel-cut or instant oats, which won't cook properly. Choose certified gluten-free oats if you need the pie to be gluten-free.
Chocolate: I use semisweet or dark chocolate chips for convenience. The oat layer is very sweet, so I can't recommend milk chocolate.
Milk and butter: I use these in place of cream for ganache here since I don't always have cream. This is what keeps the chocolate layer soft enough to cut when chilled.
Corn syrup: Keeps the chewy layer chewy. I use light corn syrup, although dark would add more flavor - use what you have. If you try honey or a thinner syrup, cut back on the brown sugar by ¼ cup; the bake time may change.
Distilled vinegar: Balances the sweetness. Lemon juice also works, or you can skip it.
Ground nutmeg: Optional but recommended. Grate whole nutmeg since prepackaged ground nutmeg you buy at the store often has no taste. Use ground dried ginger or cinnamon instead, if desired.
Best Pie Pan Size for Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie
This pie baked best in a 10-inch pie pan with 2-inch sides. The 9-inch pan worked too, but held slightly less filling. Glass or ceramic pans will work best. I tested this pie in three pans.
9-inch, ½ inch deep: Held most but not quite all of the filling. Baking time was 65-70 minutes. I poured excess oatmeal filling into a small ramekin and baked it for about 20 minutes, until it no longer wobbled.
9.5-inch, 1 ½ inches deep: Held all the filling; however, it needed well over 80 minutes before it showed signs of being done - which I attribute to steep sides. Also, the crust was a little hard. Pie was still delicious; it just took a while.
10-inch, 2 inches deep: Held all the filling and baked similarly to the 9-inch standard pan. Make extra pie crust dough to have a thick enough crust. My pie pan is actually a 10.25-inch one, which I used in the photos in this post.
How to Make Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie
If you don't have a storebought crust, start by preparing a pie crust. Don't trim the edges; leave them overhanging the rim. Optionally prebake at 425F for 10 minutes (unless you're using a deep dish pan).
One: Combine the chocolate, milk, and 1 tablespoon butter in a medium bowl set over a saucepan with 1 inch of simmering water. Cook over medium heat, stirring until the chocolate and butter are melted; it'll start off clumpy, but become smooth. Turn off the heat if you're worried it will burn. This makeshift double boiler melts chocolate more gently than direct heat, so the chocolate is less likely to scorch or seize. I have a photo of this double boiler setup in my Chocolate Truffle Cake recipe.
Two: Pour the ganache over the prepared crust. Freeze while you prepare the oat filling, about 10-15 minutes.
Three: Using the same bowl you used for ganache (no need to wash), whisk together the corn syrup, brown sugar, melted butter, vinegar, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg until smooth.
Four: Use the wire whisk to beat in the eggs, then switch to a rubber spatula to stir in the oats.
Five: Place the cold pie plate on a baking sheet after freezing the crust and ganache but before baking, to prevent temperature shocks and breakage. Pour the oat filling over the chocolate layer in the pie crust.
Six: Bake at 325F until done as described below. It will puff up as it bakes but settle as it cools - this is normal. Cool on a wire rack.
Bake for Doneness, Not Time
The bake time on this is a 20 minute range, so here's how to tell when Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie is done. Many factors affect bake time - ingredient temperatures, how long you chilled the chocolate, pie plate size and depth, oven accuracy. My pie took 65 minutes the first time I baked this, 75 the second time, and even longer most recently.
Check the pie for doneness starting at 55 minutes and bake longer as needed. The pie is done when:
- The top is dark and dry.
- The center is slightly firm to the touch.
- The center of the pie doesn't slosh or jiggle; if it does, the pie needs to bake longer.
Serving and Storage
Cool the pie completely, around 2-3 hours. If you cut it early, the filling will be extra runny and gooey, and you won't get clean cuts.
I eat my pie unadorned, but my husband always tops his with whipped cream.
Refrigerate leftovers in a covered container for 2-3 days.
Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie FAQs
A black bottom pie is a pie that has a layer of chocolate between the bottom crust and the filling on top.
Ganache turns clumpy if it hasn't been stirred enough, or if the chocolate has overheated. Touch the ganache; if it stings your finger, it's too hot. If it's undermixed, reduce the heat and keep stirring to see if it smooths out. You can't fix overheated chocolate, so discard it; lumpy, undermixed ganache will be fine in the pie.
More Gooey, Old-Fashioned Desserts
Here are some of my other favorite gooey, old-fashioned desserts. Pecan Fudge Pie is dense and chocolatey, while Honey Walnut Pie leans into nutty sweetness. Earthquake Cake has its frosting baked in, while classic yeasted St. Louis Gooey Butter Cake has goo over just enough cake that it can double as breakfast.
I hope this becomes a recipe you'll return to. If you try it, a star rating below helps others find it - and I'd love to hear how yours turns out in the comments! 💕 Questions or trouble? Drop a note, and I'll do my best to help.
📖 Recipe
Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie
Equipment
- 10-inch standard pie plate
- wire whisk (affiliate link)
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust (unbaked; I use a 1.33 batch of my Homemade Pie Crust)
Chocolate Layer
- ⅔ cup chocolate chips or bittersweet chocolate (110 grams/4 ounces)
- 3 tablespoons milk (45 grams)
- 1 tablespoon butter (14 grams)
Oat Filling
- 1 cup corn syrup (312 grams; light or dark)
- ¾ cup brown sugar (150 grams)
- 5 tablespoons butter (70 grams; melted)
- 2 teaspoons distilled vinegar (10 grams)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla (5 grams)
- ½ teaspoon table salt (4 grams)
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg (optional)
- 4 eggs (200 grams, without shell)
- 1 ½ cups rolled oats (120 grams)
Instructions
Pie Crust (optional 10 minute bake)
- If you're using a storebought crust in its own pan, no need to prep anything.
- For a homemade crust, roll it out to a 11-12 inch circle, roughly 1-inch wider than your pan on both sides. Place the crust in the pan and let the edges hang over the sides. Prick the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork and bake (on a baking sheet if you're worried about mess) at 425F for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the crust to cool briefly, reduce the oven temperature to 325F, and start the ganache.
Chocolate Ganache Layer (10 minute prep)
- Combine chocolate, milk, and 1 tablespoon butter in a medium bowl. Place it over a pot of water over medium heat. Stir until smooth, being sure to scrape off the spatula. The mixture will be clumpy as it melts, but will smooth out after a few minutes. Turn off the heat if the chocolate seems to heat too quickly.
- Spread the chocolate ganache over the bottom of the pie crust. Place crust with ganache in freezer for 10-15 minutes while you prepare the oat filling.
Oat Filling (10 minute prep)
- Using the mixing bowl from the ganache, use a whisk to combine the corn syrup, brown sugar, 5 tablespoons melted butter, vinegar, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg.
- Whisk in the eggs, then switch to a rubber spatula to stir in the oats.
- Remove the prepared crust from the freezer and place on a baking sheet. Pour the oat filling over the chocolate layer.
- Bake at 325F for 55-75 minutes; my first pie took 65 minutes, my second one took 75, and a deep dish even longer. The pie will look dark and dry on top, and the center will be slightly firm to the touch. If the filling sloshes or jiggles, it's not done yet.
- Cool completely at room temperature, about 2-3 hours, to allow the filling to set before serving.
- Store leftovers in a sealed container in the refrigerator for 2-3 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Memories from 2015
That season is a blur, with a one-month-old and little downtime, but I remember how great it was to be back in the kitchen. Here's what I wrote in March 2015 about my first major baking project as a new mom:
Our baby is one month old! Recently my life has been changing diapers, nursing, and napping. It's a good thing that I stocked my freezer with meals and all the bread I made last December, because we've gone through just about all of it. I don't mind emptying my freezer or taking care of Amelia at all, but it does mean that I haven't had two hands available to do cooking or typing/blogging. As baby gets bigger, spending time in the kitchen or on the computer should become a little easier, and I can keep updating this blog!
I was super excited to finally do some baking. And I loved this Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie.
... My friend Jen reminded me that last Saturday was Pi Day. Was I going to make a special pie for a super-special Pi Day, since it was actually 3/14/15, the extended digits of Pi? It was a shame not to make a pie, since Alex would be home all day and able to watch baby. I hadn't planned to make anything elaborate, but then I saw that Smitten Kitchen had posted the recipe for a Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie, and although it was more complicated than the super-easy Key Lime Pie I made recently, I couldn't resist it.
This pie wasn't too difficult overall, but it was a little more involved than I probably should have tackled with a 4-week-old at home.
Leona Konkel says
A friend and coworker of my husband's texted me after I sent pie to work with him. "I'm powerless against the pie. It was glorious. Thank you."
That's the kind of feedback I love getting, and I hope you get similar compliments when you make it. Let me know when you make it. I'd love to hear how it turns out!