French Silk Pie
Happy Pie Day! Pie is one of my favorite genre of desserts. Making pie dough is what I consider one of the most therapeutic acts. I actually have been working on writing up my go-to pie dough recipe so stay tuned. For this years Pie Day I went chocolate-y and made the ever rich French Silk Pie. It’s light, creamy, and very luxurious. I have adapted this recipe from the New York Times. I used a 7 inch cake pan for this but I think it actually works best in a 9 inch pie plate.
Crust:
Crumbled cookies (Oreos work really great)
Butter
Filling:
Sugar
Eggs
Dark chocolate
Vanilla
Butter
Heavy cream
Powdered sugar
Topping:
Heavy cream
Powdered sugar
Vanilla
Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix together 1 ½ cups of crumbled chocolate cookies and 3 tablespoons of melted butter. Transfer mixture into pie or tart pan, pressing the bottom and up the sides to make the crust edges. Bake for about 6 minutes, a good way to tell if it’s done is if you start to smell sweetness when you open the oven.
Cool completely.
Filling:
Whisk 1 cup sugar and 3 eggs in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture reached 160 degrees and/or coats the back of a spoon. Add 6oz of dark or semi sweet chocolate and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and whisk to combine.
Let cool until slightly warm, whisking periodically.
In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer beat 8 tablespoons of room temp butter until fluffy, about two minutes. Slowly add in the chocolate mixture and beat on medium/high speed until fluffy and lighter in color, about three minutes total.
In a separate bowl (or if you have one stand mixer like me, transfer chocolate mixer to separate bowl and clean mixing bowl) beat 1 cup of heavy cream and 1 T powdered sugar until whipped cream has skiff peaks.
Fold chocolate mixer into whipped cream gently until completely combined. Spread evening in crust and chill for 1 hour.
Topping:
Beat together 1 cup of heavy cream, 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar, and 1 teaspoon of vanilla until soft peaks.
Spread over top of pie, adding little swooshes for design if desired. Let cool in fridge for an additional hour to firm up.
Optional: Grate dark chocolate over the top.
