Dark Chocolate Silk Pie

My husband loves French Silk Pie. It's one of his favorite desserts. However, I find them all to be too milk chocolatey, and I prefer dark chocolate. This pie though is the perfect marriage and satisfies both of us.

For the crust:
4 tablespoons butter, melted
1 lb chocolate sandwich cookies (about 24 cookies)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Crush the cookies and combine with the melted butter. Push into a pie pan.  Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Set aside to cool.

1 1/2 cups cream
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup tapioca starch
Pinch of sea salt
4 egg yolks
5 oz dark chocolate, chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium saucepan, combine the 1 1/2 cups cream, sugar, tapioca starch and sea salt. Whisk together. Place the pot over medium heat. Whisk the mixture until thick and bubbly, about 5-10 minutes. Turn off the heat.

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks. Add a small amount (about 1/4 cup) of the hot cream mixture into the eggs and whisk well. This will temper the eggs. Now, add the egg yolks into the pot with the hot cream mixture and whisk well for another minute or so.

Add the chocolate, butter, and vanilla extract to the hot mixture. Whisk well to combine. This will be thick. Transfer the pie filling to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap directly on the surface, and refrigerate for up to 1 hour to cool to room temperature.

For the Whipped Cream and Assembly:
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment or with an electric mixer, whip the whipping cream along with the sugar and vanilla extract until thick. Be sure to not over whip the cream!  Remove about 1/4 of the whipped cream and fold it gently into the chocolate pie filling. Pour the filling into the pie crust. Refrigerate the pie for at least 4 hours before serving. Refrigerate the remaining whipped cream until serving time. When it is time to serve, place the whipped cream over the chocolate filling  and spread out evenly.  Top with extra cookie crumbles or shaved chocolate if desired.

Enjoy!