Doug’s Birthday French Silk Pie
Doug had French Silk Pie for his birthday all his life. It is an extremely rich pie made with lots of butter and sugar. I have tried it on a pastry crust and on a meringue crust. This is the meringue crust and it is our favorite.
It is yummy, but we always threw half the pie away because that was all anyone could eat at any one time. These days we usually have something much lighter.
Yield: 1 ‑9 inch pie
Time: 6 hours (including chilling)
9 inch pie plate
300 degrees
Crust Ingredients:
3 egg whites (allow to get to room temperature before using. Older eggs will make fluffier meringue)
1/4 tsp cream of tarter
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
½ cup chopped pecans
½ tsp vanilla
Crust Instructions:
Beat whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Gradually add sugar while beating. Continue beating until stiff. Fold in pecans and vanilla. Spoon into a well-greased 9 inch pie pan. Shape meringue to pan, swirling sides high. Bake at 300 for 1 hour. Cool completely.
Filling Ingredients:
10 tbs butter
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 oz unsweetened chocolate, melted
1 tbs brandy
3 eggs
1 cup whipping cream
2 tbs sugar
semi-sweet chocolate bar
Filling Instructions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla, chocolate, and brandy. Add eggs one at a time beating 3 minutes after each egg. This is very important, so don’t get in a hurry here. This will seem like a long time if you are using a hand mixer, but if you don’t beat it enough the filling will be grainy. Pour filling into cooled meringue shell. Chill for 3 hours. Before serving beat whipping cream with 2 tbs. sugar until peaks form. Spread over pie. Garnish pie by grating the semisweet chocolate bar over the top of the whipped cream.
Serve very small pieces, this is an extremely rich pie. Goes great with a cup of Decaf Taste of San Antonio Coffee (an HEB product) or a dark jammy Zinfandel.