This easy French Silk Pie is made with a fluffy, rich chocolate filling and no bake Oreo crust, topped with sweetened whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Easier than most, and no raw eggs!
Table of Contents
I feel like 2019 has been the year of the pie for The Recipe Rebel, and I’m not done yet.
I wanted to come up with a few new pie recipes that are perfect for Christmas dinner, but also great any time of the year.
If you’ve been around here long, you may know my allegiance lies with anything but traditional fruit pies.
Peanut Butter Pie? Yes, please.
Banana Cream Pie? Save me a slice or three.
Apple Crumble Pie? The streusel makes this one.
And now this easy French Silk Pie is joining the family.
It is so much easier than most (and no raw eggs required!), and it’s just the right combination of ultra rich and light and fluffy.
Perfect for the chocolate lovers in your life 😉
What’s the difference between French Silk Pie and Chocolate Pie?
I did quite a bit of research around what makes a chocolate pie a French Silk Pie, and many recipes were very similar.
Butter and sugar were creamed together, then melted chocolate was added along with a couple other ingredients.
Lastly, plain old raw eggs were beaten into the filling, and then you pour it in the crust.
With most chocolate pie recipes, it’s a simple cooked chocolate pudding poured into a pie crust and chilled. Chocolate pie is less, well, silky than French Silk Pie, and not as light in texture.
So while I’m calling this French Silk Pie, it is more accurately a mash up of the two, because who really wants to be eating raw eggs anyway?
What’s in a French Silk Pie?
Again, traditionally, a whole bunch of delicious things plus raw eggs. In this French Silk Pie, the ingredients are as follows:
- The crust, made of chocolate baking crumbs and melted butter
- Sugar
- Cocoa
- Eggs
- Chocolate – dark or milk, you decide!
- Cream
- Butter
- Vanilla
How to make French Silk Pie:
- Stir together the no bake Oreo crust — I polled readers, and you definitely wanted an Oreo crust instead of regular pastry! For that reason, that’s the route I went with this chocolate pie. It also makes this pie totally no bake.
- Whisk together the sugar, cocoa, eggs and cream until completely smooth. Heat over medium heat until thickened noticeably.
- Remove from the heat and stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla.
- Cool to room temperature — you can do this on the counter or in the fridge for an hour or so, stirring occasionally. Then whip until it lightens in color!
- Fold in some whipped (unsweetened) cream, spread it into the Oreo crust.
- Let it chill for several hours, or overnight is even better. It will firm up and slice easily!
Variations on this chocolate pie:
There are so many ways to make this French Silk Pie even more special! Check out a few of my favorites:
- This French Silk Pie is incredibly rich and chocolatey, but also light and fluffy. If you prefer, you can opt for a milder chocolate flavor by omitting the cocoa powder.
- For a less sweet pie, opt for solid dark chocolate.
- Add in a teaspoon of mint extract in place of the vanilla for a minty twist.
- Add in a tablespoon or two of peanut butter along with the butter for a chocolate peanut butter twist.
- Spread a layer of toasted, chopped pecans and thick caramel in the bottom of the crust for a Turtle French Silk Pie!
- Top with fresh raspberries, strawberries or mixed berries for a bit of freshness that will complement the rich chocolate perfectly
Can I freeze French Silk Pie?
Yes!
And this is one of the best things about this chocolate pie recipe, as it’s amazing frozen and thaws perfectly if you prefer to serve it chilled. My husband even prefers this French Silk Pie frozen!
More pie recipes you’ll love:
- Lemon Icebox Pie
- Easy Coconut Cream Pie recipe
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie recipe
- Easy Lemon Meringue Pie recipe
French Silk Pie (the easy way!)
written by Ashley Fehr
Ingredients
Crust
- 2½ cups chocolate baking crumbs (340g)
- ½ cup melted butter
Filling
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar (300g)
- 4 large eggs (room temperature)
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 2 cups heavy cream (30-35% fat, divided)
- 200 grams chopped dark chocolate (I use 2 100 grams dark chocolate bars — about 1 ¼ cup)
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- To make the crust, stir together chocolate crumbs and butter. Press into a 9" pie plate and up the sides. Set aside.
- In a large saucepan, whisk together sugar, eggs, cocoa and 1 cup cream until smooth.
- Place saucepan over medium heat, stirring constantly, and cook until thickened (you will know when it's thick!).
- Strain through a fine mesh sieve into a large bowl and stir in chocolate, butter and vanilla until smooth.
- Set aside or refrigerate until cooled to room temperature — 1-2 hours on the counter or 30-40 minutes in the refrigerator — stirring occasionally.
- Whip chocolate mixture on high speed until slightly lightened in color — about 5 minutes.
- Whip remaining 1 cup cream until stiff peaks form, and gently fold into chocolate mixture in two batches.
- Spread into prepared pie crust and refrigerate 6 hours or overnight, until set. Garnish with additional sweetened whipped cream before serving if desired.
Notes
- Add an extra ½ cup cream when whipping (for a total of 1.5 cups)
- Reduce the added chocolate to 100-150 grams
- Reduce the granulated sugar to 1 ¼ cup.
Nutrition Information
Want to save this recipe?
Create an account easily save your favorite content, so you never forget a recipe again.
Tried this recipe?
Tag @thereciperebel or hashtag #thereciperebel — I love to see what you’re making!
Tag @thereciperebel
Sharon says
Could you use a regular pie crust instead of a chocolate crumb pie crust.
Sharon says
Should you use a deep dish pie plate.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Sharon! You probably could, it just needs to be cooked first. Also a deep dish could work as well. Enjoy!
Cindy says
I’m going to try this recipe for our New Year’s meal, with 67% Dark Chocolate in a pastry crust. I also plan to cut the sugar to 100g, based on the success of another reviewer who used 60g. My question is, do I still need to add the cocoa? What does that do? It seems like it will have a lot of chocolatey taste with the dark chocolate already.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Cindy! I’ve only tested the recipe as written, so I can say for sure what the result would be if you leave an ingredient out, or change anything. If you decide to experiment, I’d love to know how it goes!
JoKasta says
I feel like your directions are missing some steps. Do you melt the chocolate and butter together with the vanilla? As it’s written you mix the cooked cream, eggs, cocoa with cold butter & chocolate.
Danielle says
I was wondering the same! It’s not very clear, and I’d love to try this.
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Danielle! The steps are correct. You are adding the chocolate, butter, and vanilla after you strain the hot cocoa mixture. If you watch the video, you’ll see these at the 1 minute 15 second mark, so you can see what it looks like. Hope this helps!
Chel says
The hot mixture will melt the chocolate and room temp butter.
The Recipe Rebel says
Yes exactly Chel!
Danielle says
Thank you so much! I just wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly! I ended up watching the video AFTER I commented of course! Haha thank you again! Trying it as I type, will update!
The Recipe Rebel says
Hi Jokasta! The steps are correct. You are adding the chocolate, butter, and vanilla after you strain the hot cocoa mixture. If you watch the video, you’ll see these at the 1 minute 15 second mark, so you can see what it looks like. Hope this helps!
Haley says
Will half and half work if you do not have heavy cream? Guessing the stiff peaks won’t form ?
The Recipe Rebel says
Right, it needs to be heavy cream!