French Silk Pie

Every week I make a pie, I learn something new.  The last time I baked the shell empty, which is actually called “blind baking”, it puffed up and shrunk.  I was told that to keep that from happening, I should put dry beans in a pie tin and then place it inside the pie and bake it that way.

I tried that, but I couldn’t get the pie tin to nest right inside the shell without mashing the fluted crust, so I just dumped the beans on top of the raw crust. 

That didn’t work, either.  The beans kept the bottom of the shell from baking at the same pace as the top.  They also made little bean-shaped rivets and it still puffed up.  I had to pick them out and put it back into the oven.  I think this made the shell too hard.  You can see in the pictures that the crust was very flaky, but it was just over-cooked.

The filling was made using this recipe.  I wanted to use cocoa instead of baking squares, just to cut down on cost.  I don’t know if there is a difference in taste or not.  I guess I’d have to make it with the squares and compare the two. 

I also used Egg Beaters, instead of regular eggs, because they are pasteurized.  The first time I had French Silk pie was when I was pregnant with London.  I was seriously in heaven eating it until I learned that it had raw eggs and then I cried because I couldn’t finish the piece I was eating.  (I didn’t even eat cookie dough when I was pregnant.)  So not having to worry about getting salmonella from the eggs was a great thing. 

Also, you’ll notice that the edge of the crust is all jacked up.  That came from me putting the crust down on a rack by the back door so that it would cool faster and Paige plowing through it on her way in through the door.  Luckily, all was not lost.

Overall, this pie was delicious, with the exception of the hard crust.  I knew that the crust would be the toughest part of this, so I’m okay just doing it again next week.  I ordered some ceramic pie weights and a silicone pie crust shield from amazon, so I am expecting to have better luck with the blind baking.

I am actually going to make two pies this week because we have a chuckwagon dinner/potluck at the church on Friday.  I’m planning on a lattice crust apple pie and a lemon meringue pie.  Stay tuned.