This is a perfect summer pie candidate! A baked pie crust, filled with chilled, silky-smooth chocolate custard, topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream and chocolate curls. This pie was a no-brainer! My Grammy likes to give me food magazines and I’ll sift through them, stacks at a time, pulling out recipes, testing them, getting inspiration. Family Circle for the win! This recipe calls for very basic ingredients – flour, sugar, heavy cream, chocolate, egg yolks, etc. – which means… you can make it any time! Bake time is 10 minutes, chill time 5+ hours, so plan ahead.
French Silk Pie
1-9″ pie
Ingredients
1 pie crust, recipe below
1 ¾ cup heavy cream, divided, 1 ¼ cup and ½ cup
6 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
⅓ cup unsalted butter
⅓ cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 tablespoons powdered sugar
Chocolate curls, optional
Single Pie Crust
1 cup flour
½ teaspoon salt
⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon shortening
2-3 tablespoons ice water
Pie Pastry Directions
- Mix together the flour and salt in a medium sized bowl. Fill a small cup with water and ice, set aside.
- Cut in shortening using a pastry blender, until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.
- Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the cold water into the flour mixture and gently mix with the pastry blender. Continue adding water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until all the flour is moistened and pastry holds together when gently squeezed. It should not be sticky.
- Shape into a disc and roll out for a 9″ pie pan.
Pie Assembly Directions
- Heat oven to 450 F.
- Fit prepared pie crust into a 9″ pie pan, crimp edges and pierce with a fork.
- Bake in pre-heated oven for 9-11 minutes. Cool for 30+ minutes. While pie crust is cooling, prepare the chocolate custard filling.
- In a medium saucepan, combine 1 cup of the cream, chopped chocolate, butter and sugar. Whisk over low heat, until chocolate is melted and mixture is combined, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
- Gradually whisk half the cream mixture into beaten egg yolks until combined. Return egg and chocolate mixture to the saucepan and stir constantly over medium-low heat, until slightly thickened and begins to bubble, about 5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in ¼ c. of remaining cream.
- Set saucepan in an ice bath and stir periodically until mixture stiffens and is difficult to stir, about 20 minutes. Transfer the cooled chocolate to a medium mixing bowl.
- Beat cooled chocolate with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 2-3 minutes, until light and fluffy. Spread filling in baked pastry shell.
- Cover and refrigerate pie 5+ hours.
- When ready to serve, whip remaining ½ c. heavy cream with the powdered sugar to desired stiffness. Spoon whipped cream on to the center of the pie. Garnish with chocolate curls.
