Is this French silk pie the best thing you’ll ever put in your mouth?
I’d always been partial to chocolate cream pies growing up, as opposed to fruit pies. But since feasting on Steak & Ale’s French silk pie years ago, I haven’t gone back to chocolate cream.
Today, I have to say the best pie ever – and frankly the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth – is my wife’s own French silk pie – the recipe for which I’ve included below.
If I were a condemned man, I’d want Susie’s French silk pie to be my last meal. The whole pie. Then I’d lick the plate. Then I’d use my last call to order another one. After eating a second one, I’d have my attorney file an appeal for stay of execution to eat a third one. They could probably save money on the electric chair and just let me eat myself to oblivion on this pie. Death by chocolate silk.
Yeah. It’s that good.
As opposed to the heavier chocolate cream pie – which I have absolutely nothing against – a French silk pie filling is a light, creamy chocolate mousse. Like the “dreamy chocolate mousse topped with fluffy whipped cream and shaved chocolate” that Amanda Davis writes regarding her French silk pie at Amanda’s Cookin’. Notably, she says hers “tastes just like Bakers Square’s famous pie; rich, decadent and delicious.”
Indeed, the Bakers Square Restaurant & Bakery chain is famous for its fabulous pies. It’s headquartered in Minnesota (which is ground zero for all things pie) and has restaurants there as well as Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Ohio. But anyone across the U.S. can order its “best seller” here, a “velvety smooth chocolate silk covered with real whipped cream and milk chocolate curls, inside our award-winning pastry crust.”
Sometime soon I’ll order one myself, to see how Bakers Square stacks up to Susie’s. Might try Amanda’s recipe too.
The problem for the competition is that Susie’s pie crust is a hard-to-beat, from-scratch old family recipe – and the French silk filling, which started with a recipe found online, has evolved with her expert touch over the years. (Of course, feel free to use a pre-made or homemade pie crust of your own choosing.)
Incredible. Silky. Unforgettable. Those are just some of the words our dinner guests have used to describe Susie’s French silk pie. I can certainly attest to it, as I was interrupted while writing this blog to lick the beaters for the latest one.
When we lost our black toy poodle Choco a few years ago, we planned on naming our next one Chocolate Mousse – partly in honor of Mike Moustakas, who helped win our Kansas City Royals the World Series in 2015.
But the truth is, I love chocolate mousse. And it’s never tasted better than in Susie’s French silk pie.
Pie filling: Ingredients
8 to 9 squares, Bakers Semi-Sweet Baking Chocolate
10 tablespoons of unsalted butter softened
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup original Egg Beaters
Directions
Soften butter in microwave oven, about 20 seconds. Combine butter and sugar in mixer for 10 minutes high speed.
Melt chocolate in microwave in 10-second increments to avoid scalding. Add melted chocolate into butter/sugar mixture. Add vanilla. Mix another 10 minutes high speed.
Add Egg Beaters. Mix another 10 minutes high speed. Check for consistency to make sure sugar has dissolved. If not, mix some more in three-minute increments until dissolved.
Add to pie crust. Top with Cool Whip or other whipped topping. Optional: top with chocolate shavings.
Pie crust: Ingredients
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons original Crisco
1/8 cup milk
1 egg yolk
Directions
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add Crisco. Work it with a pastry cutter until it forms small pebbles.
Combine milk and egg yolk in a separate bowl. Drizzle and mix it into the dough. When combined, mold dough into a ball.
Prepare rolling surface (For that I put wax paper on a wetted counter to keep it stable). Sprinkle flour onto rolling surface. Sprinkle top of dough ball with flour and cover it with another sheet of wax paper. Use rolling pin to flatten dough ball into flat, thin crust between sheets of wax paper.
Remove top wax paper. Place crust in pie pan for baking. To do that, you can flip the crust over into the pie pan and carefully peel away the wax paper; or you can place the pie pan upside down on the crust and flip them over and carefully peel the wax paper off. (Here is a link for how to “flute” the top of the crust.)
Bake at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes.
Once finished, cover and chill the pie in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
