Chocolate Cream French Silk Pie is a silky, smooth and creamy chocolate pie topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream and glorious milk chocolate shavings.
A few years ago when this here little blog was in its infancy, I went on a pie crust making bender. Shocking, I know. In my defense, when it takes less than five minutes to make two pie crusts, it doesn’t take much to go from “stocking up” to “overly ambitious” when making the dough. With a stack of freshly made pie crusts on hand, I whipped up a semi-homemade French Silk Pie on a whim. Seems reasonable, right? I mean, why would anyone fault me for making a semi-homemade pie?
Well, someone should have faulted me for thinking that taking photos with my Blackberry smart phone.
At night.
Under incandescent lighting.
What I’m trying to say is that I posted an easy recipe with horrid photos, yet for some reason, the collective Internet loves it. Of course it does. That’s like pouring salt in the wounds of my pie making ego because I’ve been meaning to share a chocolate cream pie recipe made from scratch for-seemingly-ever.
I’ve also been meaning to make that semi-homemade recipe again for the sole purpose of taking new photographs that may actually look appetizing. But the truth of the matter is that 99% of the times that I make a chocolate pie, I made this Chocolate Cream French Silk Pie from scratch. I prefer it to the semi-homemade version because it simply tastes better. The other 1% of the time? I make this Chocolate Peppermint Cream Pie for the holidays. The other recipe was just a whim that I thought would resonate with people that aren’t crazy pie makers like me that feel compelled to bake everything from scratch.
Although I hope that I can encourage most of you to try because a cream pie made from scratch is realatively easy and well worth the effort.
Homemade Chocolate Cream French Silk Pie is so luxuriously rich and creamy that I just can’t bring myself to “cheat” and use a boxed pudding mix for the filling. Chocolate Cream French Silk Pie is a silky smooth chocolate pie that feels like velvet in your mouth. Topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream and generous curls of milk chocolate, this is one pie that is not only decadent, but also easy on the eyes. It’s so pretty!
Chocolate Cream French Silk Pie is worth the extra effort to make from scratch.
I include helpful tips in the recipe instructions for achieving those big, glorious curls of chocolate to decorate the top of this pie. You can apply the same method to make chocolate curls for a variety of other desserts, too!
Calories
Fat
Carbs
Protein
Kirsten Kubert
Yields One 9-inch Pie
Chocolate-Cream-French-Silk-Pie is a silky, smooth and creamy chocolate pie topped with lightly sweetened whipped cream and glorious milk chocolate shavings.
2 hr, 45 Prep Time
30 minCook Time
3 hr, 15 Total Time
Save RecipeIngredients
- For the Pastry Shell:
- 1 half recipe Food Processor Pie Crust
- One egg white
- 1 tsp. water
- Aluminum foil
- 2 to 3 C. dried beans (about 2 lbs.) or ceramic pie weights
- For the Chocolate Custard Filling:
- 1 1/3 C. granulated sugar
- 1/3 C. cornstarch
- ½ C. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 2 ¼ C. 2% milk
- 3 egg yolks, beaten
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- For the Whipped Topping:
- 1 pint heavy whipping cream
- 1 Tbs. powdered sugar
- For (Optional) Chocolate Garnishes:
- 1-2 Tbs. chocolate candy sprinkles
- -or-
- 2 Hershey’s milk chocolate bars
- 1 Tbs. all vegetable shortening
Instructions
- Prepare a full recipe of Food Processor Pie Crust according to the recipe directions. Reserve the extra disk of pie crust for another pie. Roll out one of the disks of pie dough to fit a standard depth 9-inch pie plate . Fold and crimp edges as desired. Dock the pastry well with a fork. Freeze the lined pie plate for at least 2 hours or overnight.
- Preheat [the oven|https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00UZK8SYA?ie=UTF8&tag=comfortab-20&camp=1789&linkCode=xm2&creativeASIN=B00UZK8SYA rel='nofollow' to 400 degrees F. Remove the lined pie plate from the freezer. Layer a double thickness of aluminum foil over the frozen pie dough, and fill it with 2 C. of dried beans, or other pie weights. Bake the pie dough for 15 minutes.
- During initial baking, whip 1 egg white with a teaspoon of water. After baking the pie shell for the initial 15 minutes, reduce the oven heat to 375 degrees F. Remove the foil and pie weights from the pie plate. Lightly brush the egg white wash over the interior of the pie dough—this will keep the crust from becoming soggy when filled with the chocolate custard. Continue baking the pie shell at the lower temperature for another 10 to 12 minutes or until crust is golden and cooked through. Allow the pie shell to cool completely in the pan set on a wire rack.
- While the pie shell is cooling, prepare the filling prepare the chocolate custard by whisking the granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, and unsweetened cocoa powder together in the bottom of a heavy saucepan until well blended. Lightly beat the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Pour the milk into the egg yolks, whisking to incorporate it with the egg yolks. Slowly whisk the milk mixture into the cornstarch mixture until there are no lumps present. Cook over medium heat, whisking slowly and continuously, until it begins to boil and get very thick; about 6 to 8 minutes. Continue to cook the custard for another minute at a boil. Stir in the vanilla extract.
- Spoon the custard into the cooled pie shell, leveling it to the edges of the pastry. Cover the surface of custard with a layer of plastic wrap, so that it doesn’t form a “skin” as it cools. Be sure to leave the edges of the pie shell uncovered. Refrigerate the pie for 2 hours, or until the custard has completely cooled.
- Once the custard has cooled, prepare the whipped topping by beating the heavy whipping cream with vanilla extract and powdered confectioner’s sugar on medium-high speed, until soft peaks form. Spread the whipped cream over the chocolate custard layer of the pie.
- For an optional garnish, scatter a pinch of chocolate candy sprinkles over the whipped cream layer.
- Alternately, chocolate curls may be used.
- To make chocolate curls - unwrap and coarsely chop the Hershey’s Milk Chocolate bars. Place the chopped milk chocolate into a small glass bowl along with the shortening. Melt the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts on half power, stirring thoroughly in between each burst, until the shortening is fully incorporated into the melted, smooth chocolate.
- Spread the chocolate in a very thin layer onto the back of a rimmed aluminum half sheet pan. Freeze the pan, chocolate side up, for 30 to 60 seconds. The chocolate is ready to curl with it is cool, yet still soft, and doesn’t leave a fingerprint indent when pressed.
- Place the pan of chocolate on the counter. Working on the side of chocolate closest to you, use the flat edge of a thin spatula to make the curls by scraping the edge of the spatula through the chocolate while pushing outward away from you. Continue scraping the chocolate in large strips.
- Arrange the chocolate curls on top of the whipped cream layer of the pie. Serve the pie immediately or lightly cover it with plastic wrap and chill until serving. Leftover pie may be stored for a day or two in the refrigerator if lightly covered in plastic wrap.
Notes
Notes: If at any time the chocolate becomes so soft that it folds up on itself when scraped, return the pan to the freezer for another 20 or so seconds to firm it up again. If the chocolate seems brittle and breaks when attempting to curl, it is too cold and needs to rest at room temperature for a few seconds before trying again. I also find it helpful to freeze a ceramic plate along with the chocolate. Once I make a few good curls, place them on the frozen plate and quickly return it to the freezer while continuing the process to curl the rest of the chocolate.
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