French Silk Pie with Pretzel Crust

This French Silk Pie with Pretzel Crust is sweet, salty and luscious!! Adding a pretzel crust to a classic chocolate pie provides pure bliss with every bite!

French Silk Pie with Pretzel Crust

Some recipe challenges throw me for a loop like this month’s Improv Challenge hosted by Kristen of Frugal Antics of a Harried Homemaker. Fish and Chips? What does a baker do with this? I know the hubby would have liked a tuna casserole topped with potato chips, but I just couldn’t go there. With a little brainstorming, my sweet tooth led me to a pie crust made with Goldfish Pretzels…and I filled it with my family’s favorite French Silk pie filling with chocolate curls made from semi-sweet chips (I gave them a couple options…and they all picked the richest most decadent filling…duh).

Did you all know I met Kristen in Orlando at the Food Blog Forum? She’s as sweet as can be. And I hung out with my buddy, Kim, of Cravings of a Lunatic, too.

Tips for Food Bloggers:

Here are some of the most useful pointers I learned at this excellent food blogger conference:

• Don’t be shy…approach sponsors and sell yourself and your blog. I need to follow the lead of my ultra-smooth and savvy blogger friends.
• Bring a decent camera…my iphone took less than desirable photos, especially indoors. Bring chargers, cords, extra memory cards.
• Know what you want to say when formulating a blog post…create a mood, feeling, voice and message.
• If you’re a bit camera shy, make a how-to video using snap shots…and set it to music.
• Experiment with directional lighting…see what effect you prefer.
• Try out different textured backgrounds…explore your home improvement stores for flooring samples, tile, etc.
• Clear your site of broken links for better SEO (try Free Broken Link Check).
• Don’t duplicate content…either in post titles or content.
• Make sure you have Google authorship of your blog.
• Optimize your website for mobile devices (a large % of your page views are via mobile devices)
• On Pinterest: post to group boards, post in the evening or night, use vertical photos, and tag your photos

I will be attending IFBC in Seattle in May and Mixed in Virginia in November. Hope to meet some of you very soon!!!

Tips for Making a French Silk Pie

On to the pie! I’ve been making a classic French Silk Pie for years and  it’s fun to shake up the recipe just a bit.

• I crushed the fish-shaped pretzels and mixed the crumbs with brown sugar and butter before pressing the mixture into a 9-inch pie plate. The crust was baked, then filled with the most decadent chocolate filling you can imagine.
• The French Silk pie filling is not for the faint of heart since the ingredient list calls for a large quantity of butter, raw eggs and chocolate that whip into a velvety chocolate ambrosia.
• I sent the hubby to the market to find pasteurized eggs…I was going to serve this diet buster to my neighbors and didn’t want to be the cause of a salmonella outbreak. Safest Choice is the brand of pasteurized eggs I (er, helpful hubby) can find locally.
• Make sure to use room temperature butter, otherwise it will be very difficult to obtain the silky smooth texture needed.
• This dessert combination gives those who crave the sweet-salty combo a reason to swoon. One of my sweet girlfriends boldly declared, “This is the best thing you’ve ever made.” The whole gang seemed to enjoy a sliver of pie along with glasses of sangria…as we gathered on our friends’ deck with a lush garden view to relax, laugh and tell tales. Summer is off to an excellent start.

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French Silk in Pretzel Crust

The classic French Silk Pie with a sweet salty pie crust

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 8 minutes

Total Time 38 minutes

Yield 8 servings

Ingredients

Crust:

• 1 1/4 cups crushed pretzels (regular shapes or Goldfish)
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup melted butter

Filling:

• 1 baked 9-inch pastry shell, cooled
• 12 tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks) butter, at room temperature
• 1 cup Imperial brand granulated sugar
• 3 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup heavy whipping cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Spray pie plate with non-stick spray and set aside.
2. Mix pretzels, brown sugar and butter. Pat into pie plate. Bake for 8 minutes and cool completely.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar for about 2 minutes, till light and fluffy. With mixer running, gradually add melted chocolate and the vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating at medium speed for 5 minutes after each addition. Pour filling into cooled crust. Cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 4 hours.
4. Before serving, whip one cup of heavy cream, adding sugar and vanilla to taste. I also add an envelope of Whip-It to stabilize the cream. Garnish with chocolate shavings if desired.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

8 servings

Serving Size:

1 slice
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 450 Total Fat: 26g Saturated Fat: 16g Trans Fat: 1g Unsaturated Fat: 9g Cholesterol: 124mg Sodium: 217mg Carbohydrates: 48g Net Carbohydrates: 0g Fiber: 3g Sugar: 32g Sugar Alcohols: 0g Protein: 7g