Recipe: French Silk Pie

When Scott's mom asked me what I wanted to bring for Easter dinner, I offered to make the fruit salad. It's something I frequently offer to bring to events because while it's easy to do (and hard to mess up), it's something that is time-consuming and usually appreciated by the host. But this year, I decided I should take a risk and try something new. So I offered to make a French Silk pie- a lofty challenge, considering my in-laws are BIG chocolate fans (as are Scott and myself!).

So out came the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, and on page 408, I found this recipe! My notes will be at the end, of course. This pie is easy to make, and was a HUGE hit at our Easter dinner!


French Silk Pie

Prep: 40 minutes
Chill: 5 hours
Makes: 8 servings

1 pastry pie crust
1 cup whipping cream
1 cup semisweet chocolate pieces (6 oz)
1/3 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
2 beaten egg yolks
3 Tbs. creme de cacao or whipping cream
1 cup whipped cream
Chocolate curls (optional)

1. Prepare your pastry pie crust, whether using a frozen one or making your own.

2. In a medium heavy saucepan, combine the 1 cup whipping cream, the chocolate pieces, butter, and sugar. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted (about 10 minutes). Remove from heat.

3. Gradually stir half of the chocolate mixture into beaten egg yolks. Return egg mixture to chocolate mixture in saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until mixture is slightly thickened and begins to bubble (about 5 minutes). Remove from heat.

4. Stir in the creme de cacao. Place the saucepan in a bowl of ice water, stirring occasionally, until the mixture stiffens and becomes hard to stir (about 20 minutes). Transfer chocolate mixture to a medium mixing bowl.

5. Beat cooled chocolate mixture with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 2 to 3 minutes or until light and fluffy. Spread filling in the pastry pie crust. Cover and refrigerate pie for 5 to 24 hours. To serve, top with whipped cream. If desired, garnish with chocolate curls.


Purple's Notes: I used a frozen pie crust, which turned out very nicely. At some point I will probably choose to make my own. Instead of creme de cacao, I just used whipping cream- I have no idea what the difference would have been, but I can't say it was poorly affected!

As far as chocolate curls.... if you have a good trick, PLEASE share! I was foolish enough to think that I could take a semi-sweet chocolate bar to a cheese grater. Yeah... no. I tried a number of different random tools from the kitchen to make curls, including a fork, a butter knife, a metal spatula, and a vegetable peeler. None of them worked very well, so I implore you to share your tricks with me!



This is my cookbook, and this is where the photo came from!