Saturday, July 23, 2011

French Silk Pie

French Silk Pie

6 Servings Prep: 40 min. Cook: 10 min. + chilling

Ingredients

1 precooked pie shell
1 cup sugar
4 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
¼ cup olive oil
1 tablespoon instant coffee
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter, softened
1 1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
4 teaspoons sugar
Whipped cream and chocolate curls, optional

Directions

Prebake your pie shell (Click here for recipe). It should be room temperature when you add the filling.  In a sauce pan mix the sugar and eggs until blended. Cook over low heat and stir constantly until the mixture is 160 degrees or coats the back of a metal spoon. Remove from heat. Add the cocoa powder, olive oil, coffee, and vanilla. Mix until smooth then let cool to room temperature (About 90 degrees), stirring occasionally.
In another bowl, cream the butter and add the chocolate mixture. Beat on high speed for 5 minutes. In a blender mix the cream and sugar. Beat on high until the cream is firm. You will hear a difference in the blender when it reaches this consistency.  Fold the cream mixture into the chocolate mixture. Pour into pie shell. Chill for at least 6 hours.

Buttermilk Biscuits



There is no need to buy those refrigerator biscuits when you can make them at home just as quickly. Since I am only cooking for two people I make a full batch of biscuits, then I bake the ones I want to serve and freeze the rest. When I  want biscuits I pull the dough out the night before and store it in the refrigerator. In the morning they will bake in 10 minutes and will be nice and fresh.

2 cups of flour
2 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/4 teaspoon of baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of flax seed (Optional)
1/3 cup of butter, softened*
3/4 cup of buttermilk**

Preheat the oven to 450. Mix all of the dry dry ingredients together. Add the softened butter. Mix it together with a fork until it looks like the texture of cornmeal. Then add the buttermilk until moistened. Drop the biscuits onto a baking sheet. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

*If you forget to remove the butter from the refrigerator, that is okay. Just pull out the amount you need. Cut it in small slices onto a plate and let it sit out while you are making the dry part of your biscuits. By the time you need the butter it should be soft.

**I buy powdered buttermilk. I add 3 tablespoons of the powder to the dry ingredients and add the water after I mix in the butter. It is not as healthy because it is more processed, so use fresh butter milk whenever you can. I am trying to move away from eating processed foods so eventually I will ween myself off of dry buttermilk.