Luscious French Silk Pie Recipe with a Pecan Cookie Crust (2024)

FAQs

What is the difference between chocolate cream pie and French silk pie? ›

The Crust: Chocolate cream pie traditionally sits on a cookie crumb crust, while French silk pie traditionally sits on a pastry crust. The Filling: Chocolate cream pie filling has a denser, pudding-like consistency, while French silk pie filling has a lighter, airier, more mousse-like consistency.

At its core, French silk pie is just a chocolate mousse consisting of eggs, cream, chocolate, sugar, and butter. (The building blocks of life!) Its title is accurate: yes, this pie really does have the texture of silk, albeit delicious silk.

Dairy Queen has discontinued the French Silk Pie Blizzard, a fan favorite.

A Boston cream pie is a cake with a cream filling. The dessert acquired its name when cakes and pies were baked in the same pans, and the words were used interchangeably. In the late 19th century, this type of cake was variously called a "cream pie", a "chocolate cream pie", or a "custard cake".

French Silk Pie is a rich chocolate pie cookie topped with silky mousse, fluffy whipped cream, and delectable chocolate curls. 🍫

Most French silk pie recipes call for raw eggs, but I gently cook them first. This requires an extra step on the stove, but it cancels out any worries of serving raw eggs. Even with this step, we still have the same smooth-as-silk texture—nothing is compromised!

The name French Silk Pie comes from its silky texture! The chocolate filling is often beaten for long amounts of time, aerating the mixture, unlike its thicker pudding filling counterpart. Whipped cream is also often folded into the filling, giving it its mousse-like texture.

Unlike denser chocolate mousse pie, French silk uses whipped eggs to achieve the remarkably light texture of its filling. Whisking the eggs with sugar over a double boiler dissolves the sugar, heats the eggs to a safe eating temperature, and incorporates air bubbles into the mix.

A flaky crust is used for non-liquid or cooked fillings. It's achieved by keeping your fat pieces larger after combining. Mealy dough is used for pies with a liquid or custard filling. It's dense, so it can withstand heavier fillings, and is made by rubbing your fat and flour down to cornmeal-sized pieces.

The difference is how the filling comes together: a custard filling is usually baked, while a cream pie filling is not. But we're not here to be fastidious, so you'll spot a few custard pies in the collection below—we promise they'll satisfy just as well whenever a cream pie craving hits.

What makes a cream pie different from other types of pies? ›

Cream pie. This mouthwatering variety of pie is unique from other pies in that the crust is typically baked first. A pudding-like mixture of milk, sugar, eggs, and other flavorings is then cooked on the stovetop until thick and poured into that pie crust to chill and set until firm.