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.

Love this recipe? Please consider rating it in the comments below. You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram.

French Silk in Pretzel Crust

Print Recipe

Pin Recipe

The classic French Silk Pie with a sweet salty pie crust

• Author: Liz Berg
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 8 minutes
• Total Time: 38 minutes
• Yield: 8 servings 1x
• Category: Dessert, Pie
• Method: Baking, Mixing
• Cuisine: American

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.