Mississippi mud pie is an intensely chocolatey, no-bake dessert made with a chocolate cookie crust, thick, fudgy ganache, a chocolate mousse filling, and homemade whipped cream.
No-Bake Mud Pie
My Mississippi mud pie starts with a crumbly, crunchy Oreo crust topped with a thick, smooth layer of fudgy chocolate ganache. We’ll then layer a lighter, no-bake chocolate mousse-like filling (sort of no-bake cheesecake) and top it off with pillowy homemade whipped cream. Lots of adjectives up there but you need to know what to expect! It’s decadent and indulgent and, yes, worth every calorie!
This pie has lots of layers and lots of chocolate. It’s rich and indulgent, but overall it’s quite balanced, the whipped cream keeps things from seeming overbearing.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Made from scratch. No Cool Whip, gelatin, pudding mix, or pre-made crusts here! We do use Oreo cookies for the crust, but I’ve been itching to try it with my homemade Oreo shells!
- Entirely no-bake–even the crust! Some no-bake recipes still have you bake the crust, but not mine.
- Balanced: while you may occasionally find this pie with a brownie or chocolate cake base, I felt that the crisp cookie crust really balanced things out!
- Perfect for summer, since it’s served cold. It’s refreshing and there’s no need to turn on the oven.
A note about the name: similar to my dirt cookies, this pie is obviously not made from its namesake. Instead its inspiration comes from the muddy banks of the Mississippi river, with lots of layers in varying shades of brown. It’s also different from my Mississippi mud cake, which is made with marshmallows.
I talk more about the origins of this pie in the FAQ section below, in case you are curious!
Ingredients
Lots of layers in this cake, but not so many ingredients (it helps that a few of them overlap through the layers!). Let’s chat about them.
- Chocolate. I tend to prefer using a couverture chocolate or a chopped baking bar, but you can use semisweet or dark chocolate chips in a pinch. We’ll use some of this for our ganache, and the rest will go into our filling.
- Sour cream. Just a bit of sour cream balances the flavor of this pie and keeps it from being too rich. I use this in my chocolate cheesecake recipe for this exact same reason.
- Cream cheese. Stick with brick-style cream cheese here for the best results. Also, don’t use any low-fat varieties; they won’t set up properly.
- Instant coffee. This won’t make your pie taste like coffee, but it will give it a rich chocolate flavor like it does in my devil’s food cake. Just a teaspoon is perfect!
- Heavy cream. We use some of this for our chocolate ganache, some for the filling, and the rest for decorating the pie. Whipping cream or double cream will work as well.
SAM’S TIP: If you’ve ever struggled with making whipped cream in the past, try placing your beaters and bowl in the fridge for 10-15 minutes beforehand. The cold bowl and beaters will encourage the cream to whip up nicely. Using a metal bowl is especially helpful with this!
Remember, this is just an overview of the ingredients I used and why. For the full recipe please scroll down to the bottom of the post!
How to Make Mississippi Mud Pie
Make the Crust & Ganache
- Make the crust – pulverize your cookies until they are fine crumbs (I use a food processor), then toss them with melted butter. Firmly press this into a pie plate to form the crust.
- Add the ganache – Pour steaming cream over your chopped chocolate, cover and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk to combine, then pour into your crust (just in the bottom). Place this in the fridge to set up a bit.
Make the Chocolate Layer & Whipped Cream
- Stir together your cream cheese, sour cream, and powdered sugar mixture, then melt your chocolate (with the instant coffee) and stir everything together.
- Whip the cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla to stiff peaks in a separate bowl.
- Fold half of the whipped cream into the chocolate. This doesn’t need to be exact, you can just eyeball it. Don’t go crazy over-mixing (and don’t use an electric mixer!) but make sure there are no white streaks remaining.
- Spread the filling into the prepared crust, then add the remaining whipped cream on top (you can just dollop this on top or pipe it). Cover and place your pie in the fridge to set for at least 4 hours before enjoying.
SAM’S TIP: If you have an extra chocolate bar laying around, use it to add some chocolate shavings on top (a vegetable peeler works great for this!). Or you could just use a sprinkle of Oreo crumbs instead!
Frequently Asked Questions
Mississippi Mud pie has contended origins and not one specific recipe to follow as the original. This has really left it open to interpretation, which makes it kind of fun!
What we do know is that this pie is said to be inspired by the thick, muddy banks of the Mississippi river, so that was my inspiration for this recipe.
Absolutely! Just make sure to cover it well and store in a freezer-safe container. I recommend enjoying within a month for the best flavor.
You can, but it might be a bit more crumbly and sweeter than my homemade version. Also, make sure the store bought crust is large enough, many of them are much smaller than your average pie plate which means you’d have lots of filling left over. Making your own is super easy, so that’s what I recommend for the best results.
This is my go-to dessert for this summer, and everyone I’ve shared it with has asked for the recipe. I hope you fall just as much in love with it as I have!
Enjoy!
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Mississippi Mud Pie
Mississippi mud pie is a chocolatey, no-bake dessert made with a chocolate cookie crust, rich ganache, a chocolate mousse filling, and whipped cream. Less than 10 ingredients!
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Servings: 10 servings
Calories: 910kcal
Ingredients
Chocolate “Mud” Filling
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Instructions
Crust
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Place Oreo cookies in a food processor and pulse until you have fine crumbs.
25 Oreo cookies
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Pour crumbs in a medium-sized mixing bowl, add melted butter and toss together until all crumbs are moistened.
4 Tablespoons (57 g) butter
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Press crumbs firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9” (23cm) pie plate and set aside.
Ganache
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Place chocolate in a medium-sized heatproof bowl and set aside.
6 oz (170 g) semisweet or dark chocolate
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In a small saucepan, heat cream over low heat until it begins to steam. Remove from heat and pour evenly over chocolate. Cover bowl with foil and let sit for 5 minutes, undisturbed, then remove foil and whisk until smooth.
⅔ cup (158 ml) heavy cream
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Pour chocolate evenly into prepared pie plate over Oreo crust and set in the refrigerator while you prepare your filling.
Chocolate “Mud” Filling
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Place chocolate and instant coffee grounds in a microwave-safe mixing bowl and heat in 15-20 second intervals, stirring well in between, until completely smooth and melted. Set aside and allow to cool until still melted but no longer warm to the touch (stir periodically).
8 oz (226 g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate, 1 teaspoon instant coffee
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Combine cream cheese, sour cream, and powdered sugar in a large mixing bowl and stir until smooth.
16 oz (453 g) cream cheese, ¼ cup (60 g) sour cream, ½ cup (65 g) powdered sugar
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Add melted chocolate to the cream cheese mixture and stir until completely combined. Set aside and prepare whipped cream.
Whipped cream
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In a separate large mixing bowl, combine heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Use an electric mixer to beat to stiff peaks (mixture will be thick and fluffy).
1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 2 ½ cups (590 ml) heavy cream, 1 cups (25 g) powdered sugar
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Add half of the whipped cream mixture to the chocolate mixture (it is fine to “eyeball” this, it does not need to be exact) and use a spatula to gently fold ingredients together until completely combined. Spread evenly into pie plate over ganache.
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Spread (or pipe) remaining whipped cream over the chocolate filling. Cover and return pie plate to fridge and allow it to sit until firm (at least 4-6 hours, preferably overnight).
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Keep refrigerated and serve cold.
Notes
Chocolate (for ganache & filling)
I recommend using couverture chocolate or a finely chopped baking bar, but in a pinch you could use chocolate chips. You would need 1 cup of chocolate chips for the ganache and 1 ¼ cups for the chocolate mud filling.
Storing
Store in the refrigerator tightly covered for up to 5 days. You may also freeze this pie for up to a month.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 910kcal | Carbohydrates: 64g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 70g | Saturated Fat: 41g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 20g | Trans Fat: 0.2g | Cholesterol: 148mg | Sodium: 323mg | Potassium: 465mg | Fiber: 5g | Sugar: 46g | Vitamin A: 1911IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 134mg | Iron: 7mg
Nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered an estimate only. Actual nutritional content will vary based upon brands used, measuring methods, cooking method, portion sizes, and more.
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