French Silk Pie (GF)
Chocolate Crust
100g semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
70g unsalted butter
220g gluten free flour (44g corn flour, 66g potato starch, 110g white rice)
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
10g dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 tsp kosher salt
70g powdered sugar
1 egg
In a small bowl, melt the chocolate and butter, either in the microwave in 20 second bursts, or over a bain marie on the stove. Set aside.
White the butter and chocolate cools, mix together dry ingredients in a separate, large bowl; your gluten free flour blend, cocoa powder, xanthan gum, and salt. Pour butter and chocolate mixture into your dry ingredients and mix. Start with a wooden spoon, and then work with your hands when mixture gets crumbly and dry.
Sift in powdered sugar and mix with hands again. It helps to rub the crumbs between your hands to get the mixture fully combined. Mix in egg and continue to work until dough comes together. It will be a bit crumbly but should come together into a ball. Do not add water! You can do this without it.
If you find the dough too soft to roll out, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 10 to 20 minutes. Otherwise, you can start right away.
Place dough between two large sheets of parchment and roll dough into a large circle. Remove top sheet of parchment. Gently place pie dish, facing down, onto rolled out dough. Then, while holding the parchment and dough against the pie dish from below, flip everything over. Carefully remove the parchment and secure the dough into the pie dish. Cut overlapping dough from the sides. If there were any tears, you should be able to patch areas with the excess dough.
Cover pie dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
While pie is in the fridge, preheat oven to 325˚F.
Prepare the pie crust to blind bake. Prick pie dough with a fork in several places. Wrinkle up some parchment paper and then spread out and place in dish. Fill with baking weights or beans or rice and place in oven for 15 minutes. After the 15 minutes, remove the baking weights and parchment and place crust back in the oven for 10 more minutes. Be careful moving the pie and parchment around so you don’t accidentally crack the crust.
When you finally take the crust out, it should look dry. If the bottom seems wet, place the crust back in to bake for a couple more minutes.
Allow the crust to cool before filling.
Chocolate Mousse Filling
2/3 cup granulated sugar (135g)
2 eggs (room temperature)
2 oz semisweet chocolate (60g)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsalted butter (room temperature) (72g)
2/3 cup heavy whipping cream (room temperature)
2 tsp powdered sugar
1/2 tsp instant coffee
Over a bain marie, whisk granulated sugar and eggs in a saucepan until heated to 160˚F. If there are a couple lumps, pass the mixture through a sieve, then, add the instant coffee and mix in.
In a separate, heat proof bowl, heat chocolate in 20 second bursts until melted. Then, pour into egg mixture and stir together until smooth. Let cool to room temperature.
In a stand mixer, cream softened butter with the paddle attachment. Then, pour in egg mixture and vanilla extract, and, now using the whisk attachment, whip mixture for several minutes. It should get fluffy and light.
In a separate bowl, whisk heavy cream and powdered sugar to soft peaks (since this isn’t a big amount of cream, I like to use my immersion blender in a tall but narrow vessel). Since the cream is room temperature (about 60˚F) it will take a bit longer than if it were cold.
Fold whipped cream into whipped chocolate. Ensure that the temperatures of both mixtures are relatively close to the same. Scoop into prepared chocolate crust. Refrigerate at least 2 hours before slicing. Serve with whipped cream and chocolate!
This recipe is a lesson in temperature. In my first several tests, I just couldn’t get the mousse smooth enough. It wasn’t terrible, but I wanted it perfect. I found that the temperature of the heavy cream made a huge difference. Normally, recipes tell you to have ice cold cream when you whip it up. But, in this case, you really need the temperatures to match. I found room temperature is the most manageable.
I do recommend using this gluten free blend over others. I tried bob’s 1-1 gluten free mix and it was too crumbly. I also tried an oreo cookie crust which was way, way too sweet, and Wholly Gluten Free’s crust was too fragile and tasted like butter crackers.
Also, keep in mind that corn flour is NOT corn meal! I included a link that directs you to bob’s corn flour so you make sure you’re getting the right one.
I hope you enjoy this pie. It’s really delicious and not too tricky. The addition of coffee really gives it a yummy darkness that I just love.
Bye!
