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French Silk ‘n Satin Pie Recipe
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French Silk ‘n Satin Pie
or Nancy Genevieve’s Three-Year French Silk ‘n Satin Pie

History of this recipe:
As a professor and a poet, I am not usually asked for recipes. With one exception. This recipe. This recipe literally took me three years to capture, which friends from further north than my home state tell me is not surprising.

This story began back in the sixties while I was attending the University of Kentucky (UK). I would return home for weekends and holidays to western Kentucky, homesick for family and for food. Not just any food but very specific western Kentucky foods: two in particular, pit smoked barbeque and this pie. While I still return to western Kentucky for the barbeque and to visit family, I can now make this pie anywhere I live.

When I came home the first time from UK, I asked Mama for the recipe and she didn’t have it, neither did my grandmother or any of my five great aunts. But there was a restaurant which served it.

So I asked the owner to please share her recipe. She said she couldn’t that it was a pie which drew customers. Since our families went back four generations, I promised if she gave it to me, I would never share it with anyone; I would just fix it for my family. She said she was sorry, but she “just couldn’t share it.”

So every time I went home, I went to this restaurant, bought a piece of this pie and a cup of coffee, savored every bite of the dessert, and went home and tried to make it.

The early pies I made left a lot to be desired. But my family smiled and ate them anyway. Then slowly, recipe-change-by-recipe change, the pie began to be good. Then after about three years, it began to be really good. Now many decades later, my grown children request it for special occasions.

Why has it taken me so long to share this recipe in a public way? Well, the restaurant changed hands and the woman who originally would not share her recipe has passed, and so I think sharing it causes no harm. While I have given this recipe to friends and family, this is the very first time I have shared it with people I don’t know by their first names. I do hope you and your family enjoy this as much as mine has.
Enjoy!

French Silk ‘n Satin Pie

First, make Meringue Crust:
Ingredients:
2 egg whites
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 cup powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
optional: ½ cup finely chopped pecans

Beat egg whites with salt and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar one tablespoon at a time, beating until all of the sugar is added and very stiff peaks hold.

Fold in vanilla and nuts.

Pour into a well-greased 8-inch pie pan (a glass pan works best).

Bake at 300 degrees for 50-55 minutes (until golden brown).

Note: The time required to bake this crust depends on events out of my control, for example the humidity that particular day. So watch this crust carefully as it bakes.

Set aside to cool.

Then, make the Chocolate Filling:
Ingredients:
1 stick butter
¾ cup powdered sugar
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs

Melt chocolate, set aside to cool.

Cream butter (this works best if the butter is at room temperature to begin with!); gradually add ¾ cup powdered sugar; cream well; blend in chocolate; cream well; add vanilla.

Add one egg at a time to butter-sugar-chocolate-vanilla mixture, beat five minutes with a mixer at medium speed; repeat this process with the second egg.

Pour this mixture into the cooled meringue shell.

Place in refrigerator for several hours until the filling is firm.

Third, whip a pint of Heavy Cream (whipping cream), add powdered sugar and vanilla to taste.

Swirl whipped cream mixture as a frosting over the cooled filling; return to refrigerator.

Fourth, shave about ½ ounce each, Unsweetened Chocolate and Pecans, set aside.

Finally, just before serving, sprinkle whipped cream with shaved chocolate and pecans.

Directions: Must be eaten the same day it is made or the meringue becomes chewy—smile; this is usually no problem!

Note: This recipe comes from a dear friend of mine and is copyrighted to Nancy Genevieve Perkins Kohl. For permission to reprint please contact That's My Home.