French Silk Pie in a Pastry Shell

Set out whole eggs, granulated sugar, and oz unsweetened chocolate chopped before you start French Silk Pie in a Pastry Shell. The batch is written for 12 slices.

Count on 1 hour of prep, 45 minutes of cooking, 3 hours of resting, about 4 hours from the first measurement to the plate.

Ingredients Method

What goes in the bowl

Filling

• 4 whole eggs
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 6 oz unsweetened chocolate chopped
• 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ cup unsalted butter
• 1 ½ cups heavy cream

Topping

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 All-Butter Pie Crust, blind baked

• 1 ⅛ cups all-purpose flour measured by fluffing the flour then spooning it in, ⅛ cup = 2 Tablespoons
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 4 ½ tbsp unsalted butter cubed into ½ inch cubes
• 1 ⅛ oz cold water or as much or as little as needed

How the cooking goes

Make the all-butter pie crust

1. Beat together flour, salt and sugar. Using your preferred method cut in the butter until you have pea sized pieces. If you are using the electric mixer or food processor, leave slightly larger pieces.
2. Slowly begin to add your ice water a tablespoon at a time.
3. When your dough is shaggy, which means it looks like shards or strands of pastry, and there is still some loose flour, turn out your dough from the mixer or food processor and work the dough together by gathering it and pressing away from you with the heal of your hand. Do this JUST until it comes together. If it is crumbling, then dip your hand in a little ice water and pat it on the pastry dough.
4. Press into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 2 hours or overnight. If you chill your dough overnight, you will need to let it rest a bit before rolling or it will be too cold and it will crack.
5. Roll the dough out to ⅛ inch thick.

Blind bake the pie crust

1. Warm the oven to 350°F convection or 375°F conventional.
2. Line a pie tin with the pie dough, rolling the edges under and them crimping decoratively or pressing a fork tines to create a design. Dock the dough by pressing a fork into the bottom of the dough about 1 inch apart.
3. Chill the dough thoroughly before baking.
4. When ready to bake line the inside of the crust with baking paper and then fill with pie weights or beans. Bake 20 minutes with the weight and then remove the weight and continue baking until the bottom crust has browned.
5. Allow to cool before assembling the pie.

To make the filling

1. In a large heat-proof bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water being sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl. Whisk constantly until the mixture reaches 160°F.
2. Take it off the heat and add chopped chocolate, vanilla extract, and kosher salt. Cool, stirring now and then to 90°F. When not stirring, keep a piece of plastic wrap on the surface to prevent a skin from forming.
3. Once chocolate mixture has cooled, beat butter in the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment until the texture looks smooth. Add the chocolate mixture and beat until the texture looks smooth and incorporated.
4. Whisk heavy cream (for the filling) to medium soft peaks either in the bowl of a electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or in a mixing bowl by hand. Medium soft peaks are when the whisk is removed from the cream and inverted and the peak formed flops over considerably. Not just the tip but about half of the peak falls to one side.
5. Add no more than ¼ of the whipped cream to the chocolate mixture then mix it in aggressively. This is called sacrificing because you are sacrificing all of the volume whipped into the cream to get the chocolate mixture to a lighter consistency. This will make it easier to fold the remaining cream into the chocolate.
6. Turn remaining cream into the chocolate mixture.
7. Pour into baked crust. Chill 3 hours.

Make the Topping

1. In the bowl of a electric mixer or a large bowl, combine heavy cream (for the topping), confectioner’s sugar, and vanilla extract. Whip to stiff peaks either in the electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment or by hand with a whisk or hand mixer.
2. Mound the whipped cream on top of the chocolate filling and finish with decorative swooshes or swirls. You used the back of a spoon to make the ones pictured.
3. Top with shaved chocolate or decorate with chocolate décor.

After it comes off the heat

Let the pan settle before you slice, so the crumb stays together. Cover leftovers once they are cool.

If you want another plate from Pies and tarts, open Pumpkin Pie Cooled Before Slicing and Coconut Cream Pie Cooled Before Slicing.