On my train ride home today, I considered what I could make that would require enough time to take my mind off disappointment and soothe my pain upon completion. For me, that leaves only one realistic option: a monstrous triple chocolate french silk pie.
Oops! One problem. I don’t cook with raw eggs. Sure, I lick the beaters, test my cake batter and cookie dough, but I don’t serve raw eggs (pasteurized or not) to my loved ones. I’m not knocking those who do, I just don’t.
So, here’s my rendition of french silk pie. It’s not low fat. But today is not a day for counting calories. Today is a day to rejoice in the glory of chocolate.
The crust is a combination of chocolate truffle cookies and ground macadamia nuts, topped with more ground macadamia nuts, sea salt, and chocolate ganache. This is all topped with an eggless french silk, drizzled with warm ganache. Mmmmhmmm, this is a heart-stoppingly good pie.
This recipe requires four steps: 1) bake chocolate cookies, 2) make & bake pie cookie crust, 3) make ganache, and finally 4) make pie filling.
Raw-Eggless Chocolate Silk Pie
Chocolate Truffle Cookie Crust
French Silk Pie Filling
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 4 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp salt
- 4 egg yolks
- 4 oz semisweet chocolate
- 1 tbsp butter
- 3/4 tsp, and 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tsp confectioner’s sugar
- Prepare crust. Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a food processor, grind cookies until smooth. Pour into a medium sized bowl.
- Mix cookie crumbs, 1/3 cup ground macadamia nuts, 1 1/2 tsp salt, and butter.
- Press into pie pan and let rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes (until crust just about holds its shape).
- Set aside to cool (you can place in the refrigerator to speed this up as I did).
- Once cooled, pour in ganache (reserve a few tbsp, do not refrigerate) and top with 2 tsp sea salt and 1/4 cup ground macadamia nuts. Set aside to cool (again, helping this along in the fridge will be fine.
- Prepare french silk filling. Begin by preparing a pudding. In a small saucepan, combine sugar, 3/4 cup heavy cream, buttermilk, cornstarch, salt, stirring until smooth.
- Raise heat to medium-high, bringing to a boil, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes.
- Beat egg yolks; set aside.
- Continue to boil for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly.
- Temper the egg yolks by adding about 1/4 of the hot mixture into the egg yolks. Stir until thoroughly combined. Add rest of hot mixture to the egg mixture, then pour back into the saucepan. Continue to stir for two minutes.
- Pour mixture into a clean bowl; stir in chocolate, butter, and vanilla.
- Cover pudding with plastic wrap placed directly on the surface and refrigerate until at least at room temperature.
- When mixture has reached room temperature, in a stand mixer, beat remaining heavy cream until stiff peaks form.
- Mix 1/4 of whipped cream with chocolate pudding to lighten the mixture and then gently fold in the rest of the cream until no white streaks remain.
- Top with remaining ganache and refrigerate for 6 hours or, better yet, overnight. (Okay, I ate some almost immediately, but at this point, it doesn’t hold its shape and the consistency isn’t nearly as tasty).
Supplemental Recipe (See Above):
Chocolate Truffle Cookies
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup shortening
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 325F.
- Sift four, cocoa, and salt.
- Place butter in a large bowl and beat with a whisk attachment until fluffy (at least 5 minutes).
- Add sugar and vanilla and continue to beat (using beater attachment), about 2 minutes.
- Combine ingredients. Beat until well mixed.
- Spoon dough and shape into circles, placing on a parchment paper-lined pan and bake for 20 minutes.
- When cookies have cooled, use as directed above.
