French Silk Pie

We went on a married-date to Border's to look at cookbooks last week and while flipping through one of the Test Kitchen publications, Mac came across a picture of this recipe. His jaw dropped open and he said, "I want THAT for my birthday!" Well of course we didn't buy the cookbook, so I went on a hunt to find this particular recipe... lucky for Mac, lucky for me, and lucky for you, I found it!

This recipe is pretty labor-intensive. You really need to pay attention to what you're doing (which I don't normally do; I'm a multi-tasker), and you need to be ready to spend some time nurturing it. Let me tell you though, it's worth all the time, effort, and calories in the end!

You will need a fully baked pie shell for this recipe... I'll give you Grama's untouchable crust recipe following this one. Serve with sweetened whipped cream.

Ingredients:
1 cup heavy cream , chilled
3 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons water
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate , melted and cooled
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter , cut into 1/2-inch pieces and softened
1 (9-inch) pie shell , baked and cooled

Directions:
Whip cream with electric mixer on medium-high speed, whip cream to stiff peaks, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer whipped cream to small bowl and refrigerate.
Combine eggs, sugar, and water in large heatproof bowl set over medium saucepan filled with ½ inch barely simmering water (don’t let bowl touch water). With electric mixer on medium speed, beat until egg mixture is thickened and registers 160 degrees, 7 to 10 minutes (it actually took us about 15 minutes to get to 160). (Beating the eggs and sugar together in a double boiler incorporates air and gives the filling a light texture).Remove bowl from heat and continue to beat egg mixture until fluffy and cooled to room temperature, about 8 minutes.
Add chocolate and vanilla to cool egg mixture and beat until incorporated. Beat in butter, a few pieces at a time, until well combined. Using spatula, fold in whipped cream until no streaks of white remain. Scrape filling into pie shell and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours (I made it the night before his birthday).