If you love all things chocolate, this French Silk Pie is a top notch chocolate dessert to have in your repertoire. Lusciously smooth chocolate mousse is piled into a buttery pecan pastry crust, topped with a generous crown of sweetened whipped cream, and sprinkled with chocolate shavings. This is one of those recipes that takes humble ingredients and transforms them into something magical!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Crust
- Butter – Always use real butter if you can!
- Pecans – These will be ground, so feel free to buy them in whatever form is the cheapest!
- All-purpose flour
- Brown sugar
- Salt
Mousse
- Butter – Salted. Always use real butter if you can.
- Granulated sugar
- Unsweetened baking chocolate – Melted and cooled.
- Vanilla extract
- Pasteurized eggs – This recipe uses pasteurized eggs to ensure safety since the filling isn’t baked. Note that traditional store-bought eggs are not pasteurized; the label needs to specify that they’ve been pasteurized. If you can’t find pasteurized eggs, you can pasteurize raw eggs at home using a sous vide (140°F for 3.5 minutes) or sit them in warm water for about 3.5 minutes at 140°F to eliminate bacteria while maintaining smooth texture. Pop them in an ice bath afterwards for about 10 minutes to cool them back down before continuing with the recipe.
Topping
- Whipping cream
- Powdered sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Chocolate shavings – Simply use a good quality chocolate bar and a vegetable peeler to make shavings.
How to Make French Silk Pie
Step 1: Make the Crust
- For the pecan-pastry crust, you’ll need some cold butter grated with a large cheese grater, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, salt, and pecans that have been finely chopped or ground (not into pecan butter, just into crumbs) in a blender or food processor. Just add all of the crust ingredients to a mixing bowl and combine gently with clean fingers until course crumbs form.
- Press the mixture into a greased pie plate and bake for a few minutes, until golden brown.
Step 2: Make the Chocolate Mousse Filling
- Cream softened butter and granulated sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy.
- Add your melted chocolate and mix to combine.
- Add an egg and beat for 5 minutes. Add the second egg and beat for an additional 5 minutes. Add the third egg, and beat for 5 minutes more. Is all this beating necessary? Yes! This gives the mousse its structure so don’t skimp on the beating time!
- Transfer the filling to the prepared crust (be sure your crust is completely cool!), cover tightly, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. When ready to serve, top with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings.
Storing and Other Tips
- Cover the pie tightly, store in the refrigerator, and enjoy within 2-3 days for best results.
- If making ahead, wait to whip your cream until ready to serve.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. If you have nut allergies or would rather not use nuts, any traditional pastry crust like this Pastry Pie Crust would work. Another delicious alternative would be the oreo crust from this White Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake. I would just recommend baking the crust for 8-10 minutes at 350°F to firm it up before filling, since this pie isn’t baked.
Yes! I have not tested this recipe with gluten-free flour, but it should work ok to make the crust. Other options would be store-bought gluten-free crusts, nut crusts, or gluten-free graham cracker or chocolate cookie crusts.
For planning ahead, you can make the crust a day or two ahead of time, just keep it covered until ready to use. You can also make the filling and fill the pie up to one day ahead of time, just keep it tightly covered in the refrigerator. It’s best to whip the cream and top the pie right before serving.
French Silk Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- ½ cup salted butter grated
- ⅓ cup pecan halves coarsely ground in blender or food processor or finely chopped
- 1 ⅓ cups all-purpose flour lightly spooned into measuring cups and leveled with a knife
- ¼ cup packed brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Filling
- ¾ cup salted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate melted and allowed to cool until just barely warm, not hot
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 large eggs pasteurized if possible
Topping
- 1 cup whipping cream
- ⅓ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- shaved chocolate curls from a quality chocolate bar, as desired
Instructions
Crust
- Preheat oven to 325℉. Butter, grease, or spray a 9″ pie plate and set aside.
- Combine the crust ingredients in a medium mixing bowl and combine with your fingers until coarse crumbs form. Press into the prepared pie plate, using your fingers or the base of a glass to evenly form a crust.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the crust is becoming golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.
Filling
- In a large mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the 1 ½ sticks of butter, vanilla, and granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add the melted chocolate and mix until combined. Add 1 egg and beat for 5 minutes. Add the second egg and beat for another 5 minutes, and then add the third egg, beating for another 5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary.
- Using a rubber spatula, scrape the chocolate filling into the pie crust. Carefully cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Topping
- When ready to serve, combine whipping cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract in a mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer until soft peaks form.
- Top pie with whipped cream and chocolate curls.
Notes
- Cover the pie tightly, store in the refrigerator, and enjoy within 2-3 days for best results.
- To create chocolate shavings, simply use a good quality chocolate bar and a vegetable peeler.
Questions & Reviews
MMM, this looks amazing! So, just a quick question: Any suggestions on a substitute for pecans if someone with food allergies were to consume this? Maybe just leave them out? thanks!
Since I am pregnant I was a bit concerned with the raw eggs. But after seeing the pictures of this pie I just had to have it. So I cooked the eggs with half of the sugar in a double boiler until they reached 160 F. I whisked it the whole time to keep it liquid. And then I let them cool and followed the rest of the recipe as written. For the steps about the egg I just added 1/3 of my pasteurized mixture for each egg. I’m not sure how it compares to the recipe as written, but my husband and I thought it was delicious!!
I made this last night with fresh eggs from my chickens. My new favorite pie! I didn’t have any grainy problems. I scraped the bowl a couple of times after each egg. I set a timer for the 5 minute mixing for each egg also. Fantastic!
That pie was delicious for our Easter dessert! Thanks, Kate. I do wonder if powdered sugar–instead of the granulated sugar (i.e. regular table sugar?)–would make my pie less grainy (as Kirsten on 3.20 also mentioned). Thanks to you, Kate, I now know where to go to get “safe eggs.” My local Dillons (Kroger) thankfully carries them, which my husband especially appreciates. He *hates* it when I eat raw cookies dough, brownie batter, etc, so it’s worth literally paying twice as much for those lovely shelled pasteurized eggs. Happy (late) birthday to your blog, which I’ve enjoyed for years, as well as both of your cookbooks. I use the books at least weekly! Baked creamy chicken taquitos is our go-to for company dinner. Thanks for all of your hard work and creativity!
I wouldn’t use powdered sugar–it’s just a different beast. My biggest piece of advice to keep it from being grainy is to make SURE you’re beating the filling for the full 5 minutes after adding each egg and scraping down the sides of the bowl completely and frequently.
Hope that helps! 🙂
I made this yesterday, and it is AH-MAY-ZING!!! Happy Blog-Birthday! I’m SOOO glad you ladies do this, because I was getting so bored of making the same stuff all the time! I have both your cookbooks, and we definitely have some new family favorites. Congratulations, and here’s to many, many more years of you two doing something you love that we love, too!
Do you ever have trouble with the pie being grainy? My husband LOVES this pie and I can only get it right about half of the time. Any suggestions on preventing a grainy texture?
I haven’t, BUT the biggest thing you can do is make SURE you’re beating for the full 5 minutes after every egg and are scraping down the sides of the bowl frequently. The graininess comes from sugar not getting the chance to dissolve completely, so as long as it’s actively in the mix, you’ll be fine!
The pie looks great, and Happy Birthday, but what I really want to know about is that clear glass mixing bowl for your kitchen aid! When did they come out with those? I love it!
I’m not totally sure, but I got mine a year or two ago from Amazon. Life-changing. Okay, that might be exaggerating a little, but most definitely awesome. 🙂
If they taunt us a second time we can always tell them their mother was a hamster and their father smelled of elderberries. I’ve been tagging along with you guys since The Daily Bite because you’re the best there is. Raw eggs never hurt Rocky Balboa. Happy Birthday OBB!
I know I’m a few days late but Happy Birthday! I have been looking around for a good French silk pie recipe, thank you for helping me out with that.:) On top of all of your wonderful recipes, you ladies are hilarious! Thanks for the laugh!
Happy birthday! Not a week goes by that I don’t make at least one (sometimes several) of your recipes. I’m making my grocery list right now and I’m using three of yours. So thanks for all the fun meal and treat inspiration!!