Cook’s Country Magazine French Silk Pie

As a Cook's Illustrated subscriber, I recently received a sample copy of Cook's Country magazine.  I have to admit that when I first saw the magazine, I thought that I wouldn't really be able to get anything out of it.  Cook's Country, to me, seemed like it would be too focused on fatty, meaty American food — not necessarily what a somewhat health-conscious vegetarian looks for in cooking magazines.  

I was pleased to find though after finally ripping open the magazine's outer packaging that not only were there some meat-free recipes, there were also some low-fat and simple recipes that I actually wanted to try out.  What's funny is that the first recipe that I decided to try was not healthy at all — it was the re-envisioned Betty Crocker French Silk Pie, which I decided to pair with a Cook's Illustrated Chicago Deep Dish Pizza (more to come on that recipe later, but yes, it was an incredibly heavy and absolutely delicious meal).  

I paired the pie filling with the standard Gourmet Cookbook basic pie dough crust, and found the pie to take a relatively short time to prepare (maybe 45 minutes to 1 hour, excluding the cooling period and the pie crust assembly time).   Needless to say, despite slightly altering the recipe to include 4oz of bittersweet chocolate and approx. 2oz of semisweet chocolate chips (I didn't have the 8oz of bittersweet called for in the recipe), the pie was a HUGE hit with my friends.  

The only part that I didn't fully like was the crust, which I thought I probably should have refrigerated after rolling out because I think the butter got soft and hence the crust wasn't as flaky as it could have been.  I ended up baking the crust with a beans-in-foil pie weight at 375 for 15 minutes, and then without the weights for maybe around 10 minutes.  I will probably follow that method for pre-baked pie crusts again in the future, except with refrigerating the crust prior to baking to ensure the cold butter can really play its part in the recipe.  I also didn't have a thermometer during the cooking process, and cooked the egg mixture for 10 minutes beyond what the recipe called for to ensure it had thickened to what the recipe pictures looked like (my substitute for knowing the exact temperature).  I am not sure if my bowl was heat-proof, which maybe was the issue?  In any case though, the pie was fantastic (perfect chocolate flavor and texture), and I definitely recommend it to all!