This vegan French Silk Pie is one of the easiest and most luscious pies you can make!
Edited: This post used to have a lot of unrelated content about why I’m nerdy (my tagline used to be Vegan. Feminist. Nerd) and yeah, TL;DR: I like a lot of fandoms, I like to read, and I play video games. I’ve deleted the post content because it was over 10 years old and honestly kinda cringe. Very LiveJournal vibes.
Anyway, back to the pie.
French Silk Pie is traditionally an icebox cake, so if you want to keep it oven-free, use an Oreo-style no-bake crust. I’d probably take a 270 g pack of Oreos, and put it in the food processor and add about 1/4 cup of melted vegan butter until it forms a dough. Pat that down into your pie or tart pan, and chill for about 30 minutes before you fill it.
How to make the chocolate shortcrust
If you want to make a shortcrust style crust, this recipe is extremely simple. Especially if you have a food processor. Take all the ingredients for the shortcrust, process until you have a dough, and then press into a pie pan. If you have a fluted tart pan, it will look fancier, but a pie pan will do just fine.
Then, press down well, pierce the bottom with a fork to prevent air bubbles, and then bake for 15 minutes. If your crust still poofed up, use a fork to gently press it back down.
How to make Vegan French Silk Pie
Fun fact, this recipe is not even French. At least as far as I can tell. When I do any research, hundreds of websites say that in 1951, an American named Betty Cooper (hello Riverdale/Archie?) made it for the 3rd annual Pillsbury Bake Off competition, and she called it French Silk because it was “so decadent and elegant that it felt fancy” so naturally it would be French. I can’t find an actual source of this anywhere, so I’ll just repeat the telephone history of it for you. Is it true? No idea. Regardless, that’s what the internet says.
Betty Cooper’s recipe uses raw eggs and softened butter. Since we’re making it vegan, we’ll use a block of silken tofu instead! The melted chocolate will help solidify the blended silken tofu, and you can sweeten with any liquid sweetener of your choice.
Coffee Liqueur Alternatives
It’s been many years since I published this recipe, and for the last 3 years or so, I discovered that I’m allergic to alcohol. As such, in future renditions of this recipe for Vegan French Silk Pie, I’ll be replacing the coffee liqueur with espresso or instant coffee (probably 1-3 tsp + 1/3 cup hot water, up to you to determine how strong the coffee flavour will be).
Coffee and chocolate are such good flavour friends: coffee will just make chocolate taste richer. Even if you hate coffee, you probably won’t notice. However, I love coffee, so perhaps I am biased.
Despite Eddie’s dislike of coffee, he likes my Biscoff Tiramisu, so he’d probably like this.
Recipe adapted from Alton Brown
Vegan French Silk Pie
Ingredients
For the crust:
- 1/2 cup vegan butter
- 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 cup dutch-processed cocoa powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
For the filling:
- 200g (7 oz) dark chocolate, chopped (make sure there's no dairy to keep it vegan)
- 1/3 cup coffee liqueur (I used Kahlua)
- 1 block silken tofu, drained and at room temperature (300g)
- 2 tsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the coconut whipped cream:
- 1 can Thai Kitchen full fat coconut milk, refrigerated overnight (do not shake)
- 1/4 cup icing sugar
- Optional: 1 tbsp tapioca starch
- Optional: Fresh raspberries
Instructions
For the crust:
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- In a food processor, blitz together butter, sugar, flour, cocoa powder and salt until a dough forms (it'll be very soft, like cookie dough). Press into a lightly sprayed tart pan (if you're using a pie pan you can probably skip the spray). Use a fork to pierce the bottom to prevent air bubbles. You may not use all the dough, depending on the size of your pan. Reserve the rest to make a mini pie later if you also have extra filling.***
- Bake for 15 minutes, then remove and let cool on a wire rack. You may need to use a fork to press down the crust because it may have puffed up.
For the filling:
- Using a double boiler or a heat-safe bowl over a low-simmering pot, melt the chocolate. Transfer to a food processor or a blender and blend with the coffee liqueur, maple syrup, and vanilla extract until smooth. Add tofu and continue to blend/process until you have a very smooth and silky filling. Fill your cooled chocolate pie crust, you may have some leftover.
- Let the pie set in the fridge for at least 4 hours, but I let it chill overnight.
For the coconut whipped cream:
- Scoop out the thick, coconut cream from the top of the unshaken and refrigerated coconut milk can. Reserve the remaining liquid for smoothies. Whip cream with icing sugar until thick and soft peaks form. If you are finding it's not thickening up, add 1 tbsp tapioca starch.
- Either spread on top, or pipe little rosettes and garnish with fresh raspberries.
Notes
French Silk Pie is traditionally an icebox cake, so if you want to keep it oven-free, use an Oreo-style no-bake crust. I'd probably take a 270 g pack of Oreos, and put it in the food processor and add about 1/4 cup of melted vegan butter until it forms a dough. Pat that down into your pie or tart pan, and chill for about 30 minutes before you fill it.
Kelley says
I don’t know what I love more.. your admitting all your nerd-dom or this pie. It might be a tie. The pie looks really good though. Maybe its the pie.
Lisa Le says
Hahaa thanks Kelley. The pie is pretty awesome. Probably more awesome than I.
Heather @ French Press says
this is the most gorgeous french silk pie Lisa! we’re not vegan, but i am totally making this pie for my family
Lisa@ Cooking with Curls says
OMG, your pie looks absolutely amazing Lisa!!!! It’s really fun to learn more about you. ;) I personally, cannot do math to save my life! I was married to an electrical engineer (with a minor in math), and pi to me…..was just a really long number that he used as a padlock combination. :0 I’m digging this food blogger version of Pi Day, lol
Lisa Le says
Thanks Lisa! Trust me, Chris is an engineer too and honestly, when he talks about integrals or something… my eyes just glaze over ><
Martha @ A Family Feast says
Lisa – Would it be wrong if I made this pie and then ate it all myself? Seriously – this is one amazing pie!! And, gorgeous photos as always… Adding this to my must-try list!
Ashley says
NERD LOVE!!! You are awesome. I think you and I might be soulmates. I see no mention of Battlestar Galactica, which leads me to believe that you haven’t seen it (if you had it would TOTALLY be on this list). DO IT.
p.s. dig the pie too.
Lisa Le says
Hahaha I have to admit, I’ve never been into BG. I think it’s on Netflix though so when I need a binge-fest I’ll check it out =)
Hezzi-D says
This looks amazing! I can hardly believe it’s vegan!
Lisa Le says
Thanks girl! You’d be surprised how many things are vegan ;)
Katie @ Produce on Parade says
It’s okay, I was the editor of Key Club. The EDITOR…of KEY CLUb. Omg, dork. Oh but it gets worse, I also created our high school’s Key Club website..from straight up legit, pure HTML. NERD. Um…this pi(e) makes my day. You are awesome. Also do you listen to the slightly feminist podcast Stuff Mom Never Told You? I feel like you’d enjoy it.
Lisa Le says
Hahah that’s amazing!! I’m so glad you shared that. I honestly had no idea what Key Club was but I just looked it up and it’s awesome! Good for you for doing something so awesome. And girl, I TOTALLY acknowledge your mad HTML skills. I totally did that once upon a time, y’know with frames and flash?? Hahah. I used to listen to SYMNTY and Stuff You Should Know too! You have excellent taste in podcasts!
Kathleen @ Fearlessly Creative Mammas says
I raised a couple of nerds, so nerds hold a special place in my heart. When someone says something not nice about a nerd, I always say, “Nerds will rule the world someday.” It’s true. Your pie looks so silky and sounds really yummy. I am a chocoholic, so it is right up my alley!
Julianne @ Beyond Frosting says
Gorgeous pie!
Nicole says
This pie is Gorgeous! Pinned :)
ang says
I don’t think you’re a nerd, Ithink you’re a super-star – this pie looks incredible Lisa!
I pinned it to my PIE board :) Happy Belated PiDay.
Ang
jugglingactmama.com
Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen says
I love vegan desserts, your pie looks so silky and dreamy!!
Lauren says
I love French Silk Pie! Pinning :)
Elin Andersson says
Hello!
I’m a Swedish vegan feminist who found your site by accident while procrastinating on Tumblr and can I just say that you are THE ULTIMATE HUMAN BEING!!! Sorry but I was like oh, amazing looking vegan pie. OMG Lord of the rings nerdiness, OMG Manga nerdiness and then you have a vegan glutenfree cathegory that’s like things I didn’t know existed in this world?!?! This is too good!
Lisa Le says
Hahha thanks Elin, this comment made my day. You rock =)
Adelina says
Holy smokes, I think you’re describing me. HP and LoTR obsession? Yes! Band camp? Yes! Except it was orchestra, but same thing pretty much. As a kid I raided the library each time I visited. A normal book would take me max 2 days to finish reading. NERDS FTW!
This pie looks delicious too. :)
Lisa Le says
Hahah if it counts at all I played flute and piccolo in symphony orchestra at band camp? Yay nerds!
Aya says
Is there something I can replace with tofu…? I tried looking for it in the supermarket, but it wasn’t there. :(
P.S. I’m Egyptian, so I guess that’s why I couldn’t find it, though I was looking in the Asian corner?
Lisa Le says
Eeeee that’s hard. The silken tofu is what gives this tart its texture. Maybe vegan yogurt? It might not set as nicely though.
Eveliina says
Hi ! I was wondering how much is that one block of silken tofu exactly? Or what brand did you use?:)
Lisa Le says
HI Eveliina, shoot, I meant to specify in the recipe. I think I used a Rooster brand one, I believe it was 300 g of silken tofu.
Ashley says
Huge disappointment. A “block” of tofu? What size block? I used a 15 oz block and got a huge bucket of tan colored slop that tasted nothing like chocolate or french silk. Maybe more time on the recipe and less on the kid geek story. People spend time and money on recipes, so please be careful with what you post.
Ashley says
I wish I could edit that. Way out of line. I apologize – I let my frustration get the best of me. And, I see, ironically, just above my post, someone else asked the question on how much tofu and you had answered. And further, I have to admit that my boyfriend, level headed man that he is, was standing by while I was ranting and raving like a fool over the pie filling and he suggested I just pour it in and chill it and wait and see how it turned out. I said that was ridiculous because the flavor wouldn’t change that much. But, as it happens, when combined with the crust, even though it had too much tofu and it wasn’t very chocolatey, it was still pretty good. So I was wrong, wrong wrong, all the way around. Again, my apologies for being a total brat. I hope you can delete my comments and maybe forgive me. A little. Thanks.
Lisa Le says
Hi Ashley,
Thanks for your comment, honestly I really do feel terrible about not keeping track of the actual size of the tofu block I was using. I’ll probably have to remake the recipe at some point to double check that it was the 300 g one, but where I live, I only have one option, and it’s like a 4x4x2 inch block of tofu. There’s a photo of all the ingredients above, and the tofu is all in a bowl.
Thank you for coming back to apologize, honestly I appreciate both negative and positive feedback. It helps improve the recipe, it helps the other people using the recipe, and it helps me from making the same kind of mistake in the future. On a side note though, I’m not sure how often you visit my blog, but I almost NEVER talk about just the recipe. I absolutely love food, and I could talk about it all day long, but I don’t want to write about it all the time. I don’t expect people to read the post, but it’s nice when they take a moment before they scroll down to the recipe.
Megan says
This looks fantastic! I’ve just worked out I’m dairy intolerant so vegans are my favourite people at the moment!
And it’s always fun to find like minded people…you basically just listed all of my favourite things! Including maths, and I’m about to start studying French and Latin at uni, and hopefully delve into the world of translating.
Thanks for the recipes :)
Crystal says
Hi! Just discovered your blog and am quite excited about it! I too am a female Canadian super-nerd and I am vegetarian. This pie looks great, and I intend to make it soon. HOWEVER, I need need NEED to tell you that your point above: “DC Comics (because let’s be real, Batman, Superman, and Spiderman have way better back-stories than all of Marvel’s comic book heros combined.)” has an error. Spiderman is MARVEL not DC (also, the plural of hero is heroEs, not ‘heros’). just sayin’ :)
Looking forward to discovering more in your blog!
Lisa Le says
OH MY GOD. I feel mortified that I mixed up Spiderman in the wrong universe. Thank you for pointing that out. That’s so silly of me, I totally know that Spiderman is a Marvel Character too. I will make those changes, thank you for taking the time to comment! =D
Berber says
This looks amazing, I’m thinking of making this pie for my birthday! Is it possible to substitute the coffee liquer with regular coffee or espresso though?
Lisa Le says
Hi Berber! It might work, I haven’t tried it myself. I used liqueur to keep it silky while it chilled. The texture and flavour might be slightly different with coffee or espresso.
Sarah (appifanie) says
Hi! Did replacing the liquer work? I have to make a chocolate silk pie and can’t use any (though someday, I’m totally using kahlua and eating too much pie: )
Monique says
What size pie does this recipe make?
Lisa Le says
I made it in an 8-inch tart pan—but there’s a bit of extra filling so you could make a 9 or 10 inch pie if you had that size pan.
Dee says
This looks delicious! I’ve always wondered what a desert made with tofu tastes like – this is the perfect recipe to try it out :) Will there be any difference in the taste if I left out the coffee liqueur? Also do you reckon it will work out with a cookie crust? Thanks!
Lisa Le says
Leaving out the coffee liqueur would be fine! You might want to replace some extra vanilla or cocoa powder, but it’d probably be fine without it. And a cookie crust would work just fine :)
Jan says
French silk pie is amazing!!!! So creamy velvety chocolate tasting. Rich and decadent with the coconut cream on top. Thank you for a fantastic dessert recipe.
Margaret says
This is excellent! I made it for my chocoholic father who’s veg-friendly but skeptical of vegan dessert. He loved and went back for seconds after a decent sized dinner. The Kahlua really elevates the flavor. I topped it with coco whip and chocolate shavings and it really looked and tasted like French silk pie. Thank you so much, I will definitely be making this again!
Lisa Le says
I’m so happy to hear that!
Bill says
Truly phenomenal pie, my girlfriend is vegetarian this was perfect, and everyone at the bbq I went to loved it. Thank you so much!