French Silk Pie is a creamy, chocolatey decadent dessert topped with homemade whipped cream and chocolate shavings. There is no need to buy one pre-made after you give this recipe a shot! If you love chocolate desserts, check out my Zucchini Double Chocolate Cake or my French Silk Brownies.
Note to readers: This French Silk Pie contains raw eggs. And though getting sick from eating raw egg products—particularly if you’re very careful to use very fresh eggs that have been adequately refrigerated and that weren’t cracked in the carton—is relatively unlikely, folks who are pregnant or have compromised immune systems might want to avoid it. You can also opt for pasteurized eggs.
French Silk Pie
Why buy a French Silk Pie when you can make your own? With a ready-to-bake pie crust, the process isn’t too overwhelming and complicated, and it is all topped off with homemade whipped cream. Of course, you can always bake your own pie crust if you want the pie to be entirely homemade. I have a Never Fail Pie Crust that would work great for this pie. Either way, you will have a pie that looks and tastes like it came from your favorite restaurant.
How to Make French Silk Filling
It’s all about the French silk filling in a French Silk Pie, and this is the same filling I used for my French Silk Cake Roll. It is the recipe my grandma shared with me a few years ago. Come to find out it’s from an old Martha Stewart magazine!
How to Make Whipped Topping & Chocolate Shavings
Making whipped topping from scratch is easy peasy! I love how wonderfully pure and smooth it is, but if you want to save a step (and a few dishes that need to be cleaned!) in this recipe, feel free to buy store-bought.
To make the whipped topping, add 1 cup heavy whipping cream to your stand mixer or use a hand-held mixer and a large bowl. (Heavy whipping cream can splatter quite a bit!) Mix on high for a few minutes or until soft peaks occur. Add in 1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar and mix for another minute or until there are firm peaks.
To get chocolate shavings, heat a chocolate bar (I like dark chocolate, you can use whatever you would like) in the microwave for up to 30 seconds, and then use a potato peeler to get little chocolate curls. My curls sat for about an hour so relaxed significantly and didn’t hold their curl shape and some broke. My chocolate wasn’t quite warm enough! This happens to me often so I just roll with it. 😉 One day I will take the time to perfect those sweet little curls!
Assembling French Silk Pie
The only baking you are doing for this recipe is the pie crust, whether you are using a store-bought crust or a homemade crust. After you have baked the crust, be sure to let it cool before filling it with the good stuff–the french silk filling, whipped topping, and chocolate shavings!
Can I Freeze French Silk Pie?
Yes, you can freeze French Silk Pie. It actually lasts up to three months in the freezer. Just be sure to take it out and refrigerate it for a few hours before serving it. And, always keep the pie in the refrigerator when storing it, if there happens to be any left!
An unfrozen pie should last about 3 days when refrigerated. Do not keep the pie at room temperature for more than a couple of hours. But, really, I don’t think you will need to worry about that since it will be gone before you know it!
More Rich Chocolate Pies
French Silk Pie
Ingredients
FRENCH SILK PIE
- 4.4 ounces dark chocolate, melted and cooled
- 1 cup (2 sticks / 226g) butter room temperature
- 1 ½ cups (300 g) granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
- 4 large eggs, room temperature
- ¼ cup chocolate shavings
- 1 uncooked pie crust
WHIPPED TOPPING
- 1 cup (238 g) heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup (31 g) confectioners sugar
Instructions
PIE CRUST
- Preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Place the room-temperature, uncooked pie crust in a 9-inch pie pan.
- Cinch the edge of the pie crust to make your desired shape.
- With a fork, prick the pie crust throughout the bottom and sides.
- Bake for about 12 minutes, letting it cool before filling.
FRENCH SILK FILLING
- Chop dark chocolate and microwave in 30-second increments until melted. (about 1 ½ minutes total) Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar. Turn mixer on high for 1 minute. Butter and sugar should be lighter and fluffy.
- With the mixer on low, pour in the melted (and slightly cooled) chocolate. Allow ingredients to combine for 30 seconds then turn the mixer off and scrape down the sides.
- Add vanilla and cocoa powder. Mix for about 30 seconds.
- Add in 4 eggs and turn the mixer on high for 10 minutes. The filling should lighten, increase in volume, and appear very smooth and shiny. (The filling will darken after assembly.)
WHIPPED TOPPING
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer, pour the heavy whipping cream. Whip (or use the whisk attachment on a hand-held mixer) for about 2 minutes, or until soft peaks occur.
- Add in confectioners sugar and whip until there are firm peaks. (Lift the whisk attachment out and make sure the whipped topping holds its shape.)
ASSEMBLING
- When the pie crust is cooled to room temperature, pour the French silk topping over the top. Smooth out the filling.
- Spread the whipped topping over the top of the filling, smoothing it out.
- Top with chocolate shavings and refrigerate the pie for at least 4 hours, overnight if possible.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Thank you for making my recipe! You took pictures, right? Well go ahead and post them on Instagram! Be sure to mention me @iambaker and use the hashtag #YouAreBaker.
I have made several french silk pies over the years and this is my new favorite. I found it ultra creamy and the flavor was special. I used your pie crust recipe with the shortening in it and WOW, was that a special treat. My husband said it was the flakiest he has had. Overall great recipe.
Looks great
So you don’t cook the eggs when making the filling?
1st time making any kind of silk anything and it was a hit. Mine seems to be the consistency between a soft fudge and mousse. Very rich and seems heavy. My 4 yr old was helping and I think put in more chocolate than we were supposed to so maybe that made it thicker. All in all went over extremely well and we will make it again.
I love your web page. All the receipes i have made so far have been so gooood. Thank you for sharing
This French Silk Pie was just as good, if not better than Baker’s Square’s. I used pasteurized eggs just because I get nervous like that. I have some left over so I’m going to make this pie again. My question is can I freeze it for a week later. If so do you recommend doing the chocolate filling only and doing the whipped part when I’m going to serve?
Hi, Karen! I work with iambaker and am happy to help with questions. Yes, you can freeze French Silk Pie. It actually lasts up to three months in the freezer. Just be sure to take it out and refrigerate it for a few hours before adding the whipped topping and serving it. I hope this helps, and have a wonderful day!
For me the chocolate filling is too hard (not fluffy enough) and gritty from sugar that didn’t dissolve. The recipe should really call for powdered sugar instead of granulated.
If you are able to follow the directions there is no way the filling would be hard or gritty.
I have tried this recipe twice now. The 1st time I did not let the butter and eggs come to room temperature, and thought that’s why my filling was gritty. The 2nd time, I followed the recipe to a T and the sugar is still gritty after 15 plus minutes of mixing. A bit disappointing.
Love love love ur recipes! Thank you!
This is an old pie recipe. Tip…use pasteurized eggs. Most stores carry them.
this pie was so delicious. easy to make. a stand up mixer is key because you have to mix it for the 10 minutes to get that fluff and help dissolve the sugar. using a hand mixer well let just say your going to get tired so have some kids or grandkids help mix if you don’t have the stand up mixer lol…well worth the 10 minutes of mixing. when I made it everyone wanted the recipe. make sure you use 65% cacao dark chocolate. makes all the difference.