Chocolate French Silk OhMyGoodness!

My fabulous brother and his family live and work in Honduras.  I don't.  As a result, our time together is too short and too infrequent.  This past weekend I had the pleasure of hanging out with my brother for a little more than a day - unexpected and very treasured time with him.  Of course, I simply had to make sure he got a slab of French Silk Pie crammed into his visit since it's one of his favorite things. 

Before I launched into an epic French Silk Pie making event though, the wisdom of my age suggested I make sure that's the way he wanted me to spend my time during his visit.  The discussion went something like this...

Me: I was thinking of making a French Silk Pie while ..
Him: OH-KAY!

Okay.

So I went hunting for a real French Silk Pie recipe.  Having never made one before, and having enjoyed some good ones and many mediocre ones, I was convinced that this would be a complex and time consuming cooking challenge.

Um.

NOT.

If you're a freak about eating anything with raw eggs in it, I suggest Cook's Country version with a cooked custard.  Yes, you will need a subscription to get to the recipe with that link.  I haven't tried it, but I'm offering it as an option because I've never made a recipe from the Cook's family that didn't rock.

I used a recipe I found just googling and contemplating the recipes.  This one is from Suite101 and can be found here.  For your convenience, it's duplicated below:

The Proportions Part One

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

3 one ounce squares unsweetened baking chocolate, melted

2 tsp pure vanilla

3 large eggs

The Method Part One

Melt chocolate in a small bowl over hot water. Do not let the chocolate harden up.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter at medium to high speed about 1 minute.

Add sugar, 1/4 cup at a time and continue to beat until light and fluffy. This will take 3-5 minutes. Scrape bowl often. It must be mixed long enough so it is no longer gritty.

Slowly add the melted chocolate to the butter mixture, beating on low to medium speed until the chocolate is well blended and mixture is smooth and creamy. Scrape again.

On medium speed, add eggs one at a time, beating after each one before adding the next egg.  Scrape bowl.
Add vanilla and give it one more mix.

Spread into prepared pie crust. 

Set aside.

The Proportions Part Two

1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp pure vanilla
Chocolate curls, optional for garnish

The Method Part Two
In large mixing bowl, beat cream until it sets up. There is no way to explain how long this will take. Every mixer is different. It should be light and fluffy and look like soft whipped cream. Do NOT let it get to the butter stage which can happen very quickly. If in doubt, under mix. You can always whip it a little more after the sugar is added.

Add powdered sugar and and vanilla and beat until fluffy and stiff. Do not over beat.

Put whipped cream into a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip and decorate the pie. Or pile the cream on high with a spatula.

Sprinkle with chocolate curls.
Refrigerate pie and any leftovers.

The Tips

The recipe itself includes some good tips, especially when it comes to getting the filling smooth and not turning your whipped cream into butter.

I would add that use of superfine sugar instead of regular sugar will contribute to a smoother filling.  However, I used regular sugar and beat the living daylights out of it and finally gave up on the gritty ever going away.  By the time I added the melted chocolate and the eggs, the filling was smooth as ... well ... silk.  In retrospect, I might not have had to mix the butter/sugar combo as long as I did but hey, that's one place where it's more than okay to overmix.  Air is good.

A word about mixers.  If you have a weeny, underpowered hand mixer this pie might take a while to achieve that cloud-like, perfectly smooth, chocolately goodness.  If you have a good stand mixer, it will be easier.  If, like me, you are blessed with owning a KitchenAid Professional 600 series mixer then this pie is as easy as falling off a log and will pretty much make itself in a matter of minutes.

About the crust... every recipe I've looked at tells you to put this in a regular pre-baked pie crust.  Why?  Why oh why oh why?  Doesn't this just scream out for a chocolate cookie crust?  (The answer is, "Yes, Marie, it does. Why didn't the rest of the cooking world realize this sooner?  Thank you for saving us from this culinary tragedy.") 

So, I made my first Chocolate French Silk Pie using a chocolate wafer crust.

The Proportions

32 chocolate wafers (e.g., Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers)
3 tbsp butter

The Method

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Crush chocolate wafers.

Melt butter and blend with the crushed wafers.

Press into pie pan.

Bake for 6-8 minutes.

Cool.

A Few More Tips

A food processor makes crushing the chocolate wafers a snap.  You can also just keep the processor running and drizzle the melted butter into it.  You will end up with something that looks like wet coffee grounds and makes the most delicious chocolate crust.

The bottom of a measuring cup is a perfect tool for pressing crumb crusts into a pie pan.

You don't have to use exactly 32 wafers.  I think I used 35.  Or maybe 30.  I don't know ... I ate some along the way.