French Silk Pie (Wednesday, February 2, 2011)

I received a suggestion (or was it a challenge?) from Abby to make a dessert on the second snow day of the week.  Per the suggestion of Erin I decided on French Silk pie.  After looking the recipe I thought there were some things I could learn.  Plus, Erin was just too excited for it, and it had to be done.  I almost gave up when I couldn't get my truck to move from its parking spot due to it being parked at a 45 degree angle on the side of the street.  The 2% grade is just too much for it to handle!  I put on some tennis shoes with fresh grip and walked to Schnuck's and back with ingredients in hand.

The Crust:

Into the food processor went 8 tbsp. butter (1 stick, cubed and cold), 1/3 cup pecans, 1 1/3 cups flour, 1/4 cup dark brown sugar and 1/2 tsp. salt.  I processed until there were no more butter chunks but before the mixture became warm.  This made enough for probably 2 pie crusts but I used about 75% of it for one, cause I was only making one pie of course.  I packed the crust into the pan (metal, non-stick, 9 inch pie pan) as evenly as possible, thought there ended up being a rather thick crust in the corner, too thick to easily get through with a fork.  In fact, the crust was probably too thick everywhere and using only 50% would have been better.  The crust was baked at 325 degrees for 20 minutes.

The Filling:

There is no lack of butter in this recipe.  In a mixing bowl I creamed 12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) butter with 1 cup of sugar.  While I was doing this I melted 3.5 ounces of unsweetened chocolate in a double boiler and then let it cool a bit before mixing it into the butter cream with 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla.  Okay, then the recipe I used called for 3 large eggs to be whipped in one at a time for 5 minutes each at medium speed.  I don't know if whipping each one in separately was necessary but I took the advice.  Behold, 15 minutes later I had a thick chocolate substance.  This I poured into the shell and put in the fridge to set.  The recipe says 4 hours.  By the time I got to it it had been about 5 hours.  I whipped some cream and shaved some chocolate for a topping and viola.  It was really good.  The texture was somewhere between a mousse and a cheesecake.  I think this would be awesome with chocolate crust as well.  I loved it.  Erin loved it.  And, a day later, Jake loved it.  Make sure to use fresh salmonella free eggs cause there's no cooking involved!