French Chocolate Silk Pie

This is the third Thanksgiving I have spent with the Lederman family up in Santa Rosa. The first year, I made a pie. I guess it was a big hit because, ever since, I've been asked to bring pies.

This year I was lucky enough to have some help. My parents came down from Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with the Lederman's as well. Mom and I decided to make a Pumpkin pie and a Chocolate Silk pie.

Pie Dough:

4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 3/4 cups solid vegetable shortening (not refrigerated), do not use oil, lard, margarine or butter - it just doesn't work for pie dough

1 Tablespoon white or cider vinegar

1 egg

French Chocolate Silk Pie:

1 cup heavy cream, chilled

3 large eggs

1/4 cup sugar

2 Tablespoons water

8oz bittersweet chocolate, melted & cooled

1 Tablespoon vanilla

8 Tablespoons (1 cube) unsalted butter, cut into 1/2" pieces and sofened

1 9" pie shell, baked and cooled

Whipping Cream:

Heavy cream

vanilla

powdered sugar

I made the pie dough the night before at home and brought it up. Pie dough is pretty simple to make. This recipe you just use a fork and a bowl. It makes a huge amount of pie dough, enough for more than two 9" pies.

First you put the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and mix together with a fork.

Then you add the shortening. It's gross, but it really makes the pie dough what it's supposed to be. Mix with a fork until ingredients are crumbly.

Next in a separate bowl, beat with your fork the vinegar, 1/2 cup water and the egg

Then combine the two mixtures, stirring with your fork until all ingredients are mixed.

Done.

The recipe says to separate the dough into 5 portions and wrap, but I only did 2.

Lastly, put them in the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.

Thanksgiving morning was beautiful in Santa Rosa.

And the Mom-In-Law cleared out the living room and set a table for 19!

Mom and I started on the pies first thing so we could bake them before the Turkey went in.

Start by heating the oven to 475 degrees. Mom worked on rolling a perfect pie crust.

Look at this technique, she used the rolling pin to get the dough in the pie pan.

And then she "roped the edges"

Last, this was new to me, she poked holes with a fork all around the pie crust to keep it from shrinking.

Bake the pie crust for 8-10 minutes, until slightly brown.

I started on the filling. First you whip the cream until you have stiff peaks with a mixer on medium-high.

When finished, put the whipped cream in the refrigerator.

Fill a medium saucepan with 1/2" water and heat to barley a simmer (don't let it boil)

In a heatproof bowl (I had to transfer mine to a glass bowl), combine eggs, sugar and water.

While my water was still heating, I melted the chocolate so it would have time to cool.

Then just set it aside for later.

Next, set the egg mixture over the pan of simmering water and beat with an electric mixer on medium until egg mixture thickens and registers 160 degrees (this is so the eggs cook enough to be safe to eat).