Some years ago my family went to have dinner with my dear friend Charlotte’s family.  Char is an amazing cook; her mom is of Scottish descent, and her dad was Italian, and Char learned to cook really well while growing up in their home.  At least everything I’ve ever eaten at her house has been amazing: luscious lasagne and meatballs made with beef and Italian sausage, grilled chicken and beautiful salads with cranberries, nuts, and goat cheese, and scrumptious desserts.   So good! However, there is one wonderful recipe that was especially good that  I had to have, and I’ve used it often over the years.  It’s Char’s French Silk Pie.

My mom wasn’t a big pie maker.  We had pies mostly at Thanksgiving and at Christmas, so I never learned much about making them. In fact,  I don’t remember mom ever making any pie other than apple, pumpkin, or sweet potato.  My biggest pie memory, other than at the holidays, is going to Morrison’s Cafeteria in Panama City, Florida, after church on Sunday and not caring what I ate as long as I got a piece of their strawberry pie at the end of the meal.  I thought that was the best pie I’d ever tasted.

But I digress; we were at Charlotte’s house enjoying a great meal and she brought this lovely pie out of the refrigerator and served us.  It was so perfectly creamy and full of chocolate-y goodness, I had to ask for her recipe, which she generously gave me.  (I was willing to swipe it when she wasn’t looking if I had to!)   😉

The nice thing about this dessert is that it seems like it is much more difficult to make than it is! This is a great pie for a beginner to try out.

French Silk Pie

One 9″ pie shell – baked and cooled (you can make your own pastry dough or buy pre-made deep-dish pie shells)

3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted

1  1/4 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

For topping, whipped cream  (you can use Reddi-Whip or Cool Whip, but it’s really fun and easy to make your own with heavy whipping cream. I’ll tell you how in a sec if you don’t know yet.)

Method:

1.  Cream softened butter in mixer bowl, gradually adding the cup of sugar.  Beat with mixer until fluffy, about a minute.

2.  Still beating, add in melted chocolate and vanilla extract. Blend until uniform in color (no chocolate streaks.)

3.  Add eggs one at a time, beating  for 20 seconds or so between eggs.  Once all three eggs are in, beat for three minutes.

4. Spoon mixture into baked pie shell; smooth out the top.  Refrigerate for 30 minutes or more to allow it to thicken.

If you’d like to make your own whipped cream:

Chill your mixer bowl, beater(s) (at least 15 minutes in freezer)  and one cup of heavy whipping cream (from the fridge is fine.)

Pour cream into chilled bowl, and begin whipping on high speed.  When it begins to become a bit fluffy, gradually sprinkle in 2 TBS granulated sugar and 1/2 tsp vanilla extract.  Watch carefully; when it looks fluffy enough to spread on the pie, STOP.   If you whip too long, you’ll have nice, sweet vanilla-flavored butter.  😉

Here’s what it looks like:

I hope you enjoy yourself with this one; it’s fun and really delicious! My family devours this in one sitting. I hope yours does, too.