This is a recipe I ripped out of a Better Homes and Gardens magazine almost 20 years ago. I’ve made it year after year, during the holidays or any occasion I wanted an especially impressive dessert to serve and it never disappoints. If you want to walk away with rave reviews, you’ll want to give this sweet treat a try. Creamy, dreamy, silky chocolate pie. Not a pudding pie, mind you. This is french silk. Thick, rich, decadent. Topped with freshly made whipped cream, it’s all you’ve ever wanted, and more.

Chocolate Silk Pie

(adapted from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, November, 1995)

1 cup heavy whipping cream

1 – 6 ounce package semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/3 cup butter

1/3 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons Godiva chocolate liqueur

1- 8 or 9 inch pastry pie shell

Additional whipping cream for topping

Prepare your pie crust. Bake and set aside to cool.

Add 1 cup heavy whipping cream, chocolate chips, sugar and butter to a heavy bottomed 2 quart saucepan over  low heat. Cook, stirring constantly until chocolate is melted and all ingredients are combined.

In a small bowl, beat egg yolks. Remove saucepan from heat. Add about 1/4 cup of the chocolate mixture to the beaten eggs to temper* (see note). Return egg mixture to saucepan over medium low heat. Bring to a low simmer, stirring constantly. Mixture with thicken slightly and start to bubble, 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove saucepan from heat and stir in the chocolate liqueur. If you prefer not to use liqueur, stir in an additional 3 tablespoons of heavy whipping cream.

Prepare a large bowl of ice and cold water large enough to hold the saucepan. Place saucepan in ice water, adding additional ice as needed. Stir occasionally as mixture cools and stiffens. This will take about 20 minutes. Remove saucepan from ice water and beat on high speed with an electric hand mixer for 2-3 minutes. Filling will become light and fluffy.

Spread filling evenly in pie shell, cover and chill at least 5 hours or overnight. Decorate with freshly whipped cream and mini chocolate chips and chill for another hour before serving.

For the whipped cream topping:

Pour 1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. (for best results, chill the bowl and the beater before using). Add 1 tablespoon sugar. Start on low and gradually increase speed to medium high. (8 on a KitchenAid stand mixer) The cream will start to thicken and soft peaks will form. Continue until the cream stands in stiff, sharp peaks. This only takes a few minutes; watch the cream closely and do not over whip or you might end up with butter.  Add whipped cream to a piping bag with decorative tip and pipe decorative swirls onto the pie as you wish. I used a large Wilton tip. If you don’t want to pipe the cream and prefer just to cover the top of the pie with it, increase the amount of cream to 1 and 1/2 cups and add another tablespoon of sugar. For best results, do not use ultra-pasteurized whipping cream.

*About tempering: You need to bring the eggs up to a high temperature without cooking them. Take your hot chocolate mixture and add a small amount into the beaten eggs and whisk. Slowly adding the hot mixture to the eggs prevents the eggs from being scrambled.