This elegant Dark Chocolate French Silk Pie is great for you chocolate lovers out there! It has a silky dark chocolate filling, flaky homemade pie crust, and is topped with lots of whipped cream. All of it together practically melts in your mouth. A show-stopping pie that is perfect for holidays and occasions!
Why You’ll Love This French Silk Pie
This french silk pie is a luscious, chocolate-forward dessert that is surprisingly light. Using dark chocolate (60%+ cacao) gives the pie a deep, complex chocolate flavor so it is not overly sweet. If you’ve hung around here much, you’ll learn that dark chocolate is usually my go-to for baking since I much prefer the flavor. I can’t make this up — take dark chocolate mousse cake or dark chocolate cupcakes as prime examples of my loyalty to this ingredient.
Take the chocolate and turn it into a smooth and velvety mousse filling that gets paired with a flaky, buttery homemade pie crust. To keep things classic, add big globs of whipped cream and chocolate shavings on top (it looks impressive and tastes great). You could also make this pie with an Oreo cookie crust to turn it into a no-bake dessert.
Ingredient Notes
You’ll find the full list of ingredients in the recipe card at the bottom of this post, but here are a few important notes to keep in mind when doing your gathering and mise-en-place.
- Butter: Butter goes into the crust and the filling, with different requirements for each.
- For the pie crust you will need to ensure the butter is cold. Like, super cold. Freeze it if you must. Cold butter = flaky crust.
- For the filling, make sure to use room temperature/softened butter.
- Dark Chocolate: Pick your favorite chocolate bar. I prefer something that’s around 60%-70% cacao. Any more than that becomes a bit too bitter. I wouldn’t go below 50%, so semi-sweet chocolate is also okay but avoid milk.
- Eggs: Yes, we’ll be using raw eggs for the filling. I know there are shortcut or versions of french silk pie that don’t involve eggs (usually substituting cornstarch), but I think the richness you get from the eggs is hard to imitate. And don’t worry, we cook the eggs to a safe temperature.
- Heavy Cream: Similar to pie crust butter, ensure heavy cream is super cold. Also make sure to purchase ‘heavy whipping cream’ and not light cream
- Granulated Sugar: For added sweetness. Use fine white sugar and do not substitute other types of sugars.
Baker’s Tips
For the best french silk pie, make sure to keep the below tips in mind:
- Measure ingredients properly: use a digital food scale if you have one available to ensure accuracy. I find that pie crust and mousse fillings require more precision than some other desserts.
- Use the right size dish: the ingredient quantities are perfect for a 9″ or 10″ round pie dish. I used the William’s Sonoma Goldtouch pie dish.
- Don’t overwork pie dough: minimize gluten development and prevent shrinkage by handling only as much as you need to and no more. The dough should be shaggy before you bring it together.
- Chill pie crust before baking: to help crust hold its shape and firm up butter after rolling, I recommend freezing your pie crust for 10-15 minutes while the oven is pre-heating to get it extra cold.
- Cook eggs and sugar properly: part of the technique in making the dark chocolate filling is using a double-boiler to heat eggs and sugar. Make sure to cook to 160 degrees F and ensure the sugar is fully dissolved to prevent graininess.
- Let pie chill before serving: to keep its structural integrity after slicing, chill the pie for at least 4 hours but ideally longer before serving.
FAQs
- Can I use pre-made or a different pie crust?
- Yes you can use an Oreo or chocolate cookie crust or a graham cracker crust for more of a S’mores flavor.
- If you are using pre-made pie crust, follow instructions on the packaging to thaw it and then follow the steps in this recipe to blind bake it.
- How should I store leftover french silk pie?
- Store leftover pie tightly covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. If you anticipate having leftovers, it is best to omit the whipped cream and instead add it right before serving.
- Can I use premade whipped cream?
- For the topping absolutely! I actually love the frozen extra-creamy whipped cream you can buy at the grocery store. No shame in Cool Whip around here.
- For the filling, stick to homemade.
- What is the best chocolate for french silk pie?
- I like Ghiradelli or Lindt as easily accessible options, or even Nestle Dark Chocolate Chips. Vahlhorna is also great for a more premium chocolate In my ideal world I would travel to Belgium and buy chocolate buy that’s not exactly feasible on the daily lol
Did You Make This Recipe?
Are you interested in making this recipe but not ready to bake yet? Not to worry! You can hover over (or tap on mobile/tablet) any image in this post to save it to Pinterest. You can also directly pin the recipe card down below. The recipe will be waiting for you when you need it. 🙂
Happy baking my friends and as always, hope you love your dark chocolate french silk pie!
Yield: One 9" Pie
Dark Chocolate French Silk Pie
Rich and decadent Dark Chocolate French Silk Pie has a flaky butter pie crust, smooth dark chocolate filling, and lots of whipped cream on top.
Prep Time
1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time
1 hour
Additional Time
6 hours
Total Time
8 hours 30 minutes
Ingredients
Butter Pie Crust (or use one 9" premade pie crust)
- ½ cup (113g) cold, unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 1 â…“ cups (160g) all-purpose flour
- 1 tbsp granulated sugar
- ½ tsp kosher salt
- 4-5 tbsp ice water
Dark Chocolate Filling
- 1 cup (250mL) cold heavy cream
- 3 large eggs
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 6 oz (170g) chopped dark chocolate
- ½ cup (113g) salted butter, softened and cut into cubes
Whipped Cream
- 1 cup (250mL) cold heavy cream
- 2-3 tbsp powdered sugar
Instructions
Prepare Pie Crust
- Make the Crust. Add the flour, salt, and sugar into a food processor and pulse a few times to combine. Then, add the butter and pulse everything together roughly 9-11 times, or until the butter is the size of peas. Drizzle in the ice water, one tablespoon at a time, pulsing between each addition until a dough starts to come together. The dough will be crumbly but should stick when you press it together-add more water if needed. Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and use your hands to bring it together and form a disc. Avoid overworking the dough by trying to handle it as little as possible when doing this. Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill it for at least 30 minutes.
- After chilling, roll out the dough on a floured work surface. I recommend using a tapered rolling pin for the best results. Roll the dough into an even circle that is 3-4 inches longer than your pie pan (ex. for a 9" pie pan, make a 13" circle). If your dough has been chilling for longer than an hour you may need to let it warm up a bit.
- Drape the dough over your rolling pin and fit into a 9" round pie dish, trimming it if needed so that there is a ½ inch overhang. Tuck the overhang under itself and crimp the edges.
- Freeze the crust for 10-15 minutes. This will help it hold its shape when baking. While the pie crust is freezing, preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Blind bake the crust. Line the chilled pie crust along the bottom and sides with parchment paper or foil, then fill the crust with pie weights or dried beans almost all the way to the top. Bake for 15-16 minutes, or until the edges are lightly golden. Remove the pie crust and gently lift out the weights. Use a fork to prick a few holes on the bottom, and then return the pie to the oven to bake for another 15-20 minutes, or until it is golden brown. Note: if you are using a pre-made pie crust you will still need to blind bake it.
- Allow the crust to cool completely.
Make the Chocolate Filling
- Make whipped cream. Pour the 1 cup of heavy cream into a mixer bowl and beat with the whisk attachment until stiff peaks form. Transfer the cream into a large bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Note: freeze the whisk for a few minutes before beating. Option to use a hand mixer. Make sure to store the cream in a large bowl since we'll be mixing the chocolate mixture into it later.
- Heat the eggs and sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar together in a metal or heatproof bowl. Set the bowl on top of a pot of simmering water over medium heat, making sure that the water does not touch the bowl. You can also use a double boiler if you have one. Whisking and scraping down the sides of the bowl constantly, heat the egg mixture until it reaches 160°F, or until the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture is pale yellow and ribbons when it falls off the whisk. This means that it will hold its shape for a second before sinking back down, which may take anywhere from 15-30 minutes.
- Remove the egg mixture from the heat and add the chocolate, vanilla, and salt. Stir until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Then, fold in the butter a few cubes at a time until it is all fully melted and combined as well.
- Allow the chocolate mixture to cool for 10-15 minutes.
- Combine the chocolate mixture with whipped cream. Remove the whipped cream that you previously made from the fridge. Start by folding two heaping spoonfuls of the cream into the chocolate mixture, and then pour the chocolate into the bowl of remaining whipped cream, gently folding everything together until smooth and combined.
- Pour the mixture into the blind baked pie crust, cover, and chill for at least 4 hours, but ideally overnight. This is essential to ensure the filling sets properly.
Finish the Pie with Whipped Cream
- Right before serving, make whipped cream by beating the 1 cup of heavy cream and 2-3 tbsp of powdered sugar together to your desired consistency. Less time for softer cream, more time for stiff peaks (for piping).
- Spread or pipe the cream on top of the pie and garnish with chocolate shavings (if desired). Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- Pie Crust: You are welcome to use a pre-made pie crust (often found in the freezer section at the grocery store). However, make sure that you follow the steps to blind bake the crust.
- Chocolate: High quality dark chocolate yields the best results in this recipe. I like using Ghiradelli or Lindt chocolate that has at least 60% cacao, but will go as high as 70%. I would not recommend using anything higher than 70%.
- Double Boiler: Make sure you are using a heatproof bowl and that it fits on top of a small pot without sinking too far in. If you own a double boiler then go ahead and use that!
- Chocolate Shavings: You can easily make chocolate shavings using a chocolate bar and vegetable peeler. Fast strokes of the peeler will get you shorter shavings while slower strokes will get you longer, curly ones.
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