french silk pie (no raw eggs!)

This French Silk Pie has the creamiest chocolate filling, and is made with basic ingredients (and no raw eggs!). Although this pie takes a bit more steps than other types of pie, it’s completely worth the effort. Add your filling to a buttery, flaky pie crust, a crisp graham cracker crust, or even a chocolate cookie crust for extreme chocolate lovers. Everyone is sure to love this delicious pie!

this recipe

This post is sponsored by our friends at Danish Creamery! All opinions are my own. Thanks for supporting the brands that make Blue Bowl possible. 

A Bit About This Recipe: 

Who’s ready to make a Homemade French Silk Pie?! As I mentioned above, this pie takes a bit more effort than something like a pumpkin or apple pie, but the steps are fairly easy. The main difference here is that we’re mixing up different components of the recipe in a few different bowls, before combining them all in the correct order at the end. All these steps are important for a few reasons. 

• Following all these steps in order will ensure your pie filling sets up properly and isn’t runny. 
• Carefully cooking your eggs and sugar together first is important to keep out raw or scrambled eggs, and will also ensure your pie sets up properly. This part really isn’t hard as long as you follow the directions and check for doneness as I’ll teach you. 

Because this pie has a few more steps than other pies, I recommend looking at all the photos to see what each step looks like, as well as reading through the complete recipe 1-2 times before beginning. If you do all these things, you’ll have a creamy, delicious French Silk Pie to serve your guests!

French Silk Pie Ingredients:

What exactly is in a French Silk Pie? I’m so glad you asked! The ingredients for the filling are fairly simple and the list is relatively short – but each ingredient serves an important purpose. 

• Milk and Semi Sweet Chocolate – In testing different versions of this recipe, I found that it wasn’t quite sweet enough with all semi sweet chocolate, so I replaced just a bit of it with milk chocolate to create the perfect amount of chocolate flavor, without it being too dark or too sweet. I also don’t think you can get the same rich chocolatey-ness in this pie with cocoa powder, so I do not recommend subbing that in (it would also change the texture of the filling). 
• Eggs – Eggs are essential to helping the filling set up and, don’t fret – we cook the eggs so you don’t have to worry about raw eggs in the filling. 
• Granulated Sugar – Just the right amount of sugar is added to this pie to keep it sweet without being too sweet. 
• Butter – Butter provides creaminess and richness to this pie, and I love using Danish Creamery’s Sea Salt Butter for baking because of it’s high quality!
• Heavy Cream – Whipped heavy cream is folded into the chocolate filling to give this pie it’s light texture. Make sure to use heavy cream here, and nothing else as a substitute. 
• Vanilla Extract – A little vanilla is mixed in with the heavy cream for extra flavor. 

Crust Options:

We have a few crust options for this pie!

• Pie Crust – You can use a traditional pie-crust, which will need to be blind-baked (aka fully baked) before use, since the filling for this pie isn’t cooked. 
• Graham Cracker Crust – This is an easier option and just as delicious! Plus, you can easily make the whole pie gluten-free if you go this route, by simply using gluten-free graham crackers. 
• Oreo Crust – If you’re a true chocolate lover, you can make this a double chocolate french silk pie by doing a chocolate cookie/oreo crust. This is also an easier option if you aren’t comfortable making traditional pie crust. 

I made this pie with a blind-baked pie crust, and you can find all sorts of tips and tricks for working with pie dough in my post dedicated to the subject.

How to Make French Silk Pie Filling: 

Start by chopping and melting your milk and semi sweet chocolates together in a small bowl. Set this aside to cool for a bit while you move to the next step. 

How to Cook Eggs for French Silk Pie:

Cooking the eggs is an essential step here, since we naturally don’t want raw eggs in our pie. But, it’s important to cook them gently, so we don’t end up with scrambled eggs either. The good news is that you can simply repeat this step if you do accidentally overcook your eggs on the first try, as I did on my first try when I was learning to make this pie.

Whisk together your eggs and sugar in a heat-proof bowl. Set this over a small saucepan filled with an inch or so of simmering water (making sure it doesn’t sit in the water). Cook this mixture, whisking constantly, for about 6 minutes. You’ll want to use a candy thermometer here as the time can fluctuate a bit – the eggs are cooked at 160 degrees F. You can carefully rub a bit of the mixture between two fingers to make sure it’s smooth and not granular – this means the sugar has all dissolved, leaving your pie filling with a smooth – not grainy – texture.

Note: If this mixture smells just a bit like scrambled eggs by the end, don’t freak out! It always smells a bit like that at this point, and that doesn’t mean you overcooked the eggs. You would definitely be able to see if you had scrambled egg bits in your bowl instead of a smooth mixture (pictured below right), and the eggy smell will dissipate quickly, and will be completely undetectable in the finished pie. Set the egg mixture aside to cool for 10 minutes. 

Start the base of your pie filling: 

While the eggs are cooling, beat room temperature butter in a large mixing bowl.  We’re using Danish Creamery’s Premium Salted Butter here because it’s slow-churned in small-batches with high-quality cream, which gives the most silky, luxurious texture to our pie filling. And, you know this butter is good when the recipe hasn’t changed since 1895! Once the egg mixture has cooled, slowly whisk the chocolate into the egg mixture, and then let that cool for 5 more minutes. (While that’s cooling, you can whip your heavy cream in another bowl, and pop it in the fridge until ready to use). 

Next, slowly mix the chocolate and egg mixture into the butter. Look how luscious that is! 

Once the chocolate is mixed in, continue mixing for 5 minutes – the mixture will increase in volume and lighten in color (see photo on below left). Then, add your whipped cream and fold it in. 

And yes, I can and will show you what folding it in is, haha! See the photos below – you’re essentially running the spatula down the side of the bowl, across the bottom, and then back around the top of the filling. This is crucial for keeping the texture of the whipped cream in tact, which will give you a light and pie filling in the end. After all, we don’t want to knock out the air that we just whipped into the heavy cream. 

Spread your filling into your cooled pie crust, whichever option you chose. The filling needs at least 4-6 hours in the fridge to set up before you can serve it, which makes it a great make-ahead dessert. If you’re wondering how long French Silk Pie is good for in the fridge, I recommend making it not farther ahead than one day. The moisture from the pie filling will eventually make a traditional pie crust a bit soggy. After that, leftovers will keep in the fridge for 3-5 more days, but the pie crust will lose a bit of crispness with each day. 

Once you’re ready to serve the pie, top it with a towering pile of whipped cream (an absolute must!) and some chocolate curls or shavings. I hope you love this pie as much as we do. And, as I said, this pie has a few more steps but it’s truly simple once you’re familiar with the process. And, the end results are completely worth the effort. Happy Thanksgiving!

Did you make this recipe? Snap a photo and leave a comment! 

Be sure to follow bluebowlrecipes on instagram and tag #bluebowlrecipes with your photo – I’d love to see what you make! And, be sure to leave a comment + rating if you make this recipe.

French Silk Pie (No Raw Eggs!)

This French Silk Pie has the creamiest chocolate filling, and is made with basic ingredients (and no raw eggs!). Although this pie takes a few more steps than other types of pie, it's completely worth the effort. Add your filling to a flaky pie crust, a graham cracker crust, or even a chocolate cookie crust. Everyone will love this delicious pie!

5 from 2 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: Dessert

Keyword: Homemade French Silk Pie, Thanksgiving Pies

Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Dough Chilling + Pie Setting Up: 7 hours 30 minutes

Servings: 12 slices

Author: Stephanie Simmons

Ingredients

For the Pie Crust

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 18 tbsp Danish Creamery's Premium Salted Butter, cold
• 9 tbsp ice cold water, plus more as needed

For the French Silk Filling

• 6 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, chopped Use high-quality chocolate bars here, such as Baker's or Ghirardelli. Do NOT use chocolate chips.
• 2 ounces milk chocolate, chopped Use high-quality chocolate bars here, such as Baker's or Ghirardelli. Do NOT use chocolate chips.
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp granulated sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 1/2 cup + 5 tbsp Danish Creamery's Premium Salted Butter (13 tbsp total, or 184 grams)
• 1 cup cold heavy cream
• 2 tsp vanilla extract

For the Whipped Cream

• 1 and 1/2 cups cold heavy cream
• 3 tbsp powdered sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

For Chocolate Curls

• 3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate *see notes for chocolate curl directions
• 1 tbsp shortening

Instructions

• Make the Pie Dough: Make the dough as instructed in my "Perfect Pie Crust" post. The ingredient amounts listed above (the same as are in that post) make 2 crusts, so you can save one for later, or cut the recipe in half. Prepare the dough through step 4, chilling it as directed. Then, roll it out and transfer to a 9-inch ceramic or metal pie plate as directed in steps 5 and 6.

  See alternate pie crust options (graham cracker and no-bake chocolate cookie crust) in the notes below.
• Bake the Pie Crust: Once your crust is in the pie plate, and you've crimped the edges (as directed in step 7), pop the whole thing in the fridge for 30 minutes or in the freezer for 15 minutes, uncovered. This step is crucial! Once the pie is completely chilled, place it on a baking sheet and prepare it for blind baking as directed in step 7 of my Perfect Pie Crust post.

  Bake the pie at 425 ° F for 15 minutes. Then, remove the pie from the oven and lift out the parchment paper with the weights. Brush the edges of the crust with egg wash, and return to the oven for 13-16 more minutes, until the crust is golden brown and sounds cooked and crisp when tapped with your finger. Let cool completely before adding the filling. I recommend making this the same day you plan to fill it, so that it doesn't start to lose it's freshness or crispness.

  Alternate Crust Options: You can also use my graham cracker crust, found here, or an oreo/chocolate cookie crust, found here. Bake as directed in these respective recipes, pressed into your 9-inch pie dish. Let cool before filling.
• Make the French Silk Filling: Read through the directions before you begin so you understand the order of steps here. This won't be too complicated as long as you familiarize yourself with the steps first.

  Melt your chocolate in a small bowl, in 30 second intervals, stirring between each until completely smooth. Set aside to cool a bit.

  Choose a heat-safe bowl and set it over a small saucepan filled with 1 inch or so of water. Make sure it sits above the water. Add the eggs and granulated sugar to the bowl and whisk to combine. Bring the water in the pot to a simmer, and place the bowl of egg and sugar over it. Cook for 6 minutes, whisking constantly. Keep an eye on the temp with a candy thermometer while you go - the eggs are cooked at 160° F. Once it reaches that temperature, remove the bowl from the heat immediately. You can also rub a bit between your fingers to make sure the sugar granules have all dissolved. If you heat the eggs too high or too long, they'll scramble and you'll know it. Toss it out and try again. Set this aside to cool for 10 minutes.

  After 10 minutes, slowly whisk the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture. Set this aside to cool for 5 more minutes. While that's cooling, cream your butter in a large mixing bowl. Set aside. Then, add the heavy cream and vanilla to another large bowl, and mix until stiff peaks form. Pop this in the fridge for later.

  After the 5 minutes are up on the chocolate egg mixture, slowly pour it into the bowl with the butter with the mixer running on medium. Once it's all added, continue mixing the butter chocolate mixture on high speed for 5 minutes. The mixture will grow in volume and lighten in color. Carefully fold in the whipped cream until completely combined. (See folding tips + photos in the post above.)
• Chill the Pie: Spread the filling into your room-temperature prepared crust, and cover with plastic wrap or foil. Pop in the fridge, and let chill for 4-6 hours before serving. I don't recommend making this farther than a day ahead.
• Serve + Store: Make chocolate curls, if desired. These can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for a few days.

  When ready to serve the pie, make the whipped cream by mixing all whipped cream ingredients together in a large bowl on high speed, just until stiff peaks form. Dollop this on your chilled pie, and top with chocolate shavings or curls. Enjoy!

  Leftovers keep in the fridge for 3-5 days, although this is better on the first or second day, as the crust can start to absorb moisture from the pie over time.
• Make-Ahead Tips: Pie dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and kept in the fridge, well-wrapped. See additional make-ahead tip below, if using an alternate crust.

Notes

Graham Cracker: Use the crust from my Perfect Classic Cheesecake Recipe if you want a graham cracker crust - this is easier than making the homemade pie crust. Press it into an un-greased 9-inch pie dish, and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees F. No need for foil or pie weights. Let cool completely before adding the filling. 

Oreo Chocolate Crust: Use the oreo crust from my Amazing No-Bake Peanut Butter Pie for a no-bake crust option! Press the mixture into an un-greased 9-inch pie dish, and chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour before adding the filling.

Make-Ahead Tip: If you use the graham cracker or oreo crust, the pie can chill in the fridge for 1-2 days before serving since the crusts won't soak up the moisture the same way that a traditional pie crust will. 

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