French Silk Pie Bars
French Silk Pie Bars have all the velvety chocolate flavor of a French Silk Pie, in the portable format of a dessert bar!
By the way, I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend. In case you missed my big announcement, be sure to check it out on Instagram.
My little brother came to visit for the weekend. Of course, when I say little, don’t kid yourself. This guy towers over all of us at 6’4″. His favorite dessert is French Silk Pie. We really enjoyed this recipe I made before when he visited us in Boston a few years ago, but this time, I wanted to make something different.
And, let’s be honest, I didn’t want to make a pie. Pies are not my favorite thing to make. I know fall is coming right around the corner, which makes me think of pies, but I’m just not in to them. So bars it was.
As you can see in the pictures, the crust to filling ratio is pretty high on these bars. When I make these again, I’ll reduce the crust recipe to 3/4 of the original. I have reflected the recipe below to reflect that change. The chocolate mousse filling in this recipe is amazing. I’m tempted to just make that part of the recipe again to eat it with a spoon.
Since the crust and filling were both really tall, I didn’t think my pan could handle the whipped cream topping, so I cut the bars and piped it on top. And piping the topping made it look all fancy and fun. I threw the sprinkles on top since I’m lazy and wasn’t in the mood to make chocolate curls… Next time you need a chocolatey travel-friendly dessert to impress your friends, remember these French Silk Bars.
French Silk Pie Bars
French Silk Pie Bars have all the velvety chocolate flavor of a French Silk Pie, in the portable format of a dessert bar!
Yield: 16 bars
Ingredients:
For the Crust:
12 Tbsp (1.5 sticks) butter
1 1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
For the Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp water
1 Tbsp vanilla
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into small pieces
For the Topping:
1/2 tsp gelatin
2 Tbsp cold water
1 cup heavy cream
4-5 Tbsp powdered sugar
Directions:
For the Crust:
Preheat oven to 350 degF. Line an 8"x8" pan with parchment paper.
Pulse crust ingredients in food processor 8-10 times until combined. Press crust in to bottom of pan.
Bake for 20-22 minutes or until lightly browned. Set aside to cool.
For the Filling:
Melt chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave (use 30 second intervals at medium power). Set aside.
Beat the heavy cream to stiff peaks. Place in small bowl and chill in the fridge.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together eggs, sugar, and water until pale yellow and slightly thickened (~6 minutes). Set bowl over saucepan of simmering water and heat mixture to 160 degF, whisking occasionally.
Put bowl on to mixer and beat on medium speed until cooled to room temperature and thickened, about 8 minutes. While beating, add in the chocolate and vanilla. Beat in butter, one piece at a time. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in whipped cream.
Pour mixture over cooled crust and smooth top. Cover and chill for at least 3 hours.
For the Topping:
In a small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over water to soften for 2 minutes. Head 15 seconds in the microwave and whisk to dissolve gelatin. Whip the cream to stiff peaks, adding the gelatin and powdered sugar while whipping.
Spread or pipe on top of bars and chill until set. Decorate with chocolate sprinkles or curls.
Recipe adapted from Willow Bird Baking
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
A slice of this? Yes please!
Oh my…a slice? I’ll take the whole pan, please. 🙂
I am a firm believer in combining foods that are great. The photos are making me drool!
So amazingly decadent! I love these. So would my boyfriend 🙂
You should simply call these the “Yes, Please” bars.
Those bars look perfect!
Mmmmm, she said trying not to drool.
Yes please is right! I need to make these as soon as possible!
Yours turned out so pretty! I’m so glad you liked them! 🙂
Holy cow! I agree with your husband. I’d beg for those bars, for sure.
Oh, I say “yes please,” too! YUM! Those both sound and look delicious!!! A must make!
xxMK
Delightful Bitefuls
I’ve seen these around and each time I think, MUST bake, soon! This time around is no different except I AM going to make these asap. Thanks for the shove, I mean nudge! 🙂
~ingrid
I’ve made these before and I still think about them. Your pictures are beautiful. I’m adding you to my blog list!
wow! heavenly! –hoteles en veracruzt
I’ll take two! These bars look great. I am saving the recipe!
Wow, these look simply amazing! I think I would say “Yes Please” too!
i just printed this off. SO excited to try it!
My family would go insane for this! Newest follower here!
Lots of yummy love,
Alex aka Ma, What’s For Dinner
http://www.mawhats4dinner.com
These are some of my favorite bars! Yours look great 🙂
Oh wow, these look absolutely delightful! I could probably eat a whole pan 🙂 Happy weekend!
Sues
Yum, yum, yum! I could do some serious damage to those. They look heavenly.
I’ve been browsing your blog and these look delicious! Well, everything looks delicious but I’m a cheesecake girl and my husband is definitely a chocolate chip cookie kind of guy so I can’t wait to try these!
I made these last week. They were amazing!