Peppermint French Silk Pie

This peppermint French Silk Pie is so perfectly rich and decadent, it’s a must have at any Christmas party!

If I haven’t said it already, let me say it right now: Chocolate and peppermint were made to go together. It’s a heavenly pairing y’all.

If there’s chocolate in your recipe, you can bet that a few drops of peppermint will take the flavor up from amazing to AhMaZing! That’s just a fact.

So, a few days ago when I made my first ever French silk pie, I looked at my little bottle of peppermint essential oil and though, why not? It’s one of the best flavors of Christmas after all.

Of course, completely aside from the flavor, which is incentive enough, I peppermint is a powerful digestive aid – and that makes me feel so much better about feeding all that whipped topping to my kids. 🙂 (you can read more about peppermint oil here)

A few tips before you begin

The only thing that gave me pause about making this pie, was pasteurizing the eggs over a hot water bath. I was really afraid that I would end up cooking the eggs, but I shouldn’t have worried! The trick is to just keep stirring, and keep an eye on that thermometer. Or if you don’t have a thermometer, just cook them until they’re uncomfortably hot. Truth be told, a lot of the French silk pie recipes I looked at used completely raw eggs, so I’m sure that pasteurizing your eggs in the shell would work as well, and be much easier.

In any case, here are a few of my tips for cooking the eggs in this recipe:

• Start with room temperature eggs.
• Start with warm, but not hot, water. (these two tips will cut your cooking time to less than half!)
• Heat rapidly, but be careful not to boil the water. (boiling the water increases your risk of cooking the eggs)

Happy cooking!

Peppermint French Silk Pie

• One Gluten-Free Pie Crust Recipe
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 2/3 cup butter
• 4-5 drops peppermint essential oil (or 1/2t. peppermint extract)
• 1 pint heavy whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Line an 8” pie plate with pie crust, and bake as directed.
2. In a small sauce pan, combine sugar and eggs.
3. Heat over a double boiler set up, stirring continuously until egg mixture reaches 160º
4. Remove from heat and add chocolate.
5. Stir to melt and combine.
6. Cool to lukewarm.
7. In the bowl of a stand mixer, whip butter until fluffy.
8. Add cooled egg/chocolate mixture, and peppermint essential oil.
9. Whip until light and fluffy (about five minutes)
10. Whip cream and remaining sugar until stiff peaks form.
11. Fold  3/4 of the Cream into chocolate mixture, pour into a pie plate, and refrigerate.
12. Top pie with additional cream, and garnish with crushed candy canes if desired.

Enjoy!