Certainly Not Cotton...

So… this crazy thing happens when I make pies. When I use a store bought crust and bake it… I get far more rave reviews than when I actually go to the effort to make a crust from scratch. What have I learned from this? That my skills do no lie in pie crusts… more so what fills that crust. :) This pie is SO rich and good. I use super fine sugar so the filling doesn’t get grainy from the sugar crystals. One other important tip is to make sure all the filling ingredients are about the same temperature. That way your chocolate won’t harden up into pieces of unsweetened grossness in your pie. Sure, it happens a little, but big ol’ chunks of bitterness is NOT what you are looking for in a sweet pie. Oh yeah…. Chocolate curls… right… that’s something I haven’t mastered either. So I melted some semi sweet chocolate chips, and spread them thin on a piece of wax paper. When they were hard, I broke them in pieces and scattered them on the pie… looked and tasted just as good in my opinion. :)

French Silk Pie
What you need!
1 pie crust baked. Either the roll out kind or the preformed kind.
Filling
1 cup superfine sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened (do not use margarine or vegetable oil spreads)
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
3 oz unsweetened baking chocolate, melted, cooled
3/4 cup fat-free cholesterol-free egg product
Topping
3/4 cup whipping cream
2 tablespoons granulated or powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Chocolate curls, if desired

What to do!
1. In medium bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and the butter with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla and the chocolate. Gradually beat in egg product on high speed until light and fluffy (about 3 minutes). Pour into pie crust. Refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours but no longer than 24 hours.
2. In chilled medium bowl, beat whipping cream, 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla with electric mixer on high speed until stiff. Top pie with whipped cream; garnish with chocolate curls.