French Silk Pie with Graham Cracker Crust, Espresso and Kahlua

If pies were wishes then I would wish this French Silk Pie for everyone! Hands down my most favortist pie ever. While I’ve seen several versions of this pie over the years, they’ve always been made with a regular pie crust or a regular pie crust with pecans but I have to tell you that for me; it’s the graham cracker pecan crust that elevates the chocolate mousse filling to new heights!

While I believe this is a perfect dessert for Valentine’s Day I don’t limit it to this one day of chocolate indulgence. We’ve had it for Mother’s Day (yes, remember it’s my MOST favoritist!), summer barbecues and well, anytime the urge for chocolate indulgence strikes you, a French Silk Pie really does fit the bill.

The original recipe is in one of my favorite cookbooks, Colorado Cache, one of the Junior League of Denver cookbooks that I received as a housewarming gift when I moved to Denver 25 years ago. I’ve added some espresso, Kahlua and vanilla and dolled it up with whipped cream and chocolate curls but even before those touches, the combination of that crust and chocolate filling was the ‘bomb.’

I was so very lucky to be the winner of a contest on my friend Ken’s blog that was sponsored by Hotel Chocolat. I knew this chocolate was special so I hid it from view and saved it for several weeks until I could gather friends together and we could enjoy it paired with some good wines . That event was last night and so today I thought it fitting to finish off my favorite pie with my new favorite chocolate as I had a bar left over (just for me…yeah!). I have to tell you this chocolate was amazing and I really want to thank both Ken and Hotel Chocolat for that experience. You should visit Ken’s site for his creative and delicious foods and certainly make a point of getting over to see what the folks at Hotel Chocolat have to offer, just exquisite products.

I feel I must note that this fantabulous (there I go again with descriptive words I’m not sure Mr. Webster would approve of) pie does contain raw eggs. I don’t have a problem with this and if you do…first think if you have ever licked your fingers when making cookies or cake with eggs…ahh, you really don’t either! For healthy people, the risk of salmonella is slim but if you are pregnant, older or have a weak immune system, you should notconsume raw eggs because of the risk of becoming ill. You might try pasteurized eggs but I have not done that so can’t speak from experience about those results. Now that I feel like one of those commercials for drugs on TV that makes me wonder why anyone would ever use any of them after the disclaimer…but they do so let’s get on with the pie!

While stellar in results it’s a little bit timely to make…but so easy. The lightness comes from 5 minutes of whipping the main ingredients together and 5 minutes of the same after adding each egg. I must warn you (again?) that if you LOVE this pie and are using a hand mixer…put a stand mixer on your Christmas or birthday or anniversary list now. Standing and mixing by hand for 20 minutes might not have you appreciate this baby quite so much.

I last made this pie almost two years ago. I had just started taking pictures to include with my recipes with an Olympus Point and Shoot and it died shortly thereafter. Am I crazy to include these old photos? Maybe but I actually enjoy seeing that some progress is being made and I can handle laughing at myself. Two cameras later; now using a Canon 60D which means a LOT to learn but I’m loving it.

Technorati Tags: chocolate, espresso, french silk pie, graham cracker crust, kahlua, pecans, valentines day, whipped cream

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