French Silk Pie

Every year, my brother would always buy his all-time favorite pie, French Silk pie, from Baker's Square for Thanksgiving dinner. Unfortunately, all the Baker's Square branches closed down here in Southern California. He was kind of bummed out about that. The other day, I came to learn that my friend Kiran was also addicted to the pie and so she did a search for the recipe to try to make it for their Thanksgiving dinner. I had this French Silk Pie recipe saved up from Beantown Baker and it gave me the idea to make it for my brother for Thanksgiving this year.

The original recipe called for raw eggs to be used. Being in the field of food safety, I wasn't too keen on feeding my daughter raw eggs. So I did a trial run the other day by cooking the eggs in a double boiler. The pie came out quite rich and grainy, but still very tasty. Tonight, I decided to modify the recipe some more by adding a container of ready-made whipped topping, which came pretty darn close to what Baker's Square pie was like. My brother seemed to really like it because he took the rest of the pie home. I'm glad he liked it.

1 (9 inch) ready made pie crust

1 1/2 sticks butter, softened

1 cup sugar

3 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

3 eggs, beaten

8 oz container prepared whipped topping

chocolate shavings for garnish

1) Preheat oven to 350 deg F. Bake pie crust for 25-30 minutes, until pie crust just begins to turn golden brown. Set aside and cool completely.

2) Melt chocolate chips in a double boiler. Temper the eggs by adding some of the melted chocolate and mixing thoroughly using a wire whisk. Add the remaining melted chocolate and continue to whisk thoroughly. Return egg and chocolate mixture over the double boiler and add the vanilla extract. Cook for 5 minutes, whisking constantly to prevent clumping. Remove from heat and cool slightly.

3) In a separate container, cream butter and sugar until fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture until well combined. Fold in ready-whipped topping until well incorporated.

4) Pour mixture into cooled pie crust. Refrigerate for 4 hour or overnight. Let pie sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour before serving. Top with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.