• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Email
  • Instagram
  • RSS
  • TikTok
  • YouTube
TVV-Logo-for-bright-bg

The Viet Vegan

Vegan. Feminist. Nerd.

  • Home
  • About
    • Privacy Policy
  • Recipe Index
    • TikTok Recipes
    • Instagram Feed
  • eBooks
  • Work With Me
    • Press

Vegan French Silk Pie

March 14, 2014 by Lisa Le 43 Comments

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

This vegan French Silk Pie is one of the easiest and most luscious pies you can make!

Vegan French Silk Pie. Such delicious. Wow raspberries. Much chocolate. | Je suis alimentagese | #vegan #pie #piday

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.

Vegan French Silk Pie. Such delicious. Wow raspberries. Much chocolate. | Je suis alimentagese | #vegan #pie #piday

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.

Vegan French Silk Pie. Such delicious. Wow raspberries. Much chocolate. | Je suis alimentagese | #vegan #pie #piday

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.

Vegan French Silk Pie. Such delicious. Wow raspberries. Much chocolate. | Je suis alimentagese | #vegan #pie #piday

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

Nutty Irishman Pie Two Bite Apple Pies Chocolate Mousse-Roasted Banana Cream Pie Irish Capookie Blood Orange Chess Pie Coconut Cream Cheese Pie Strawberry Balsamic Pies Cherry Cupcake Pie Biscoff Marshmallow Pie Strawberry Cream Pie Sour Cream Apple Hand Pies Blueberry Pie Tarts Fluffernutter Pie Creamy Cranberry Pie No-Bake Peanut Butter Twix Pie White Chocolate Peanut Butter Mini Pies Cherry Chocolate Pecan Hand Pies Easy Frozen Peanut Butter Banana with Chocolate Pie Lattice Top Apple Pie Peanut Butter & Chocolate Brookie Pie Peanut Butter Pudding and Brownie Pie Vegan French Silk Pie Frozen Tiramisu Pie Chocolate Cherry Crumble Pie Shoo Fly Pie Easy Vegetable Pot Pie Banana and Chocolate Creme Pie White Chocolate Banana Cream Pie Image Map

Print Recipe

Vegan French Silk Pie

Prep Time30 minutes mins
Cook Time15 minutes mins
Inactive Time4 hours hrs
Total Time45 minutes mins
Author: Lisa Le

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:

  • 200 g 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.
Spread the love:
error
fb-share-icon
Tweet
fb-share-icon

Filed Under: Baking, Dessert, Vegan recipes Tagged With: chocolate, coconut whipped cream, piday, pie, silk, vegan

About Lisa Le

Lisa is the thirty-something, nerdy, procrastinating, feminist blogger and photographer behind The Viet Vegan. She loves spicy foods, noodles, and food in bowls.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Kelley says

    March 14, 2014 at 9:43 AM

    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.

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2014 at 9:44 AM

      Hahaa thanks Kelley. The pie is pretty awesome. Probably more awesome than I.

      Reply
  2. Heather @ French Press says

    March 14, 2014 at 11:37 AM

    this is the most gorgeous french silk pie Lisa! we’re not vegan, but i am totally making this pie for my family

    Reply
  3. Lisa@ Cooking with Curls says

    March 14, 2014 at 1:46 PM

    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

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2014 at 10:32 PM

      Thanks Lisa! Trust me, Chris is an engineer too and honestly, when he talks about integrals or something… my eyes just glaze over ><

      Reply
  4. Martha @ A Family Feast says

    March 14, 2014 at 3:54 PM

    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!

    Reply
  5. Ashley says

    March 14, 2014 at 6:32 PM

    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.

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2014 at 10:27 PM

      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 =)

      Reply
  6. Hezzi-D says

    March 14, 2014 at 7:54 PM

    This looks amazing! I can hardly believe it’s vegan!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2014 at 10:24 PM

      Thanks girl! You’d be surprised how many things are vegan ;)

      Reply
  7. Katie @ Produce on Parade says

    March 14, 2014 at 9:03 PM

    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.

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 14, 2014 at 10:24 PM

      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!

      Reply
  8. Kathleen @ Fearlessly Creative Mammas says

    March 14, 2014 at 10:47 PM

    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!

    Reply
  9. Julianne @ Beyond Frosting says

    March 15, 2014 at 2:08 AM

    Gorgeous pie!

    Reply
  10. Nicole says

    March 15, 2014 at 11:23 PM

    This pie is Gorgeous! Pinned :)

    Reply
  11. ang says

    March 17, 2014 at 11:49 AM

    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

    Reply
  12. Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen says

    March 17, 2014 at 4:17 PM

    I love vegan desserts, your pie looks so silky and dreamy!!

    Reply
  13. Lauren says

    March 17, 2014 at 5:01 PM

    I love French Silk Pie! Pinning :)

    Reply
  14. Elin Andersson says

    March 19, 2014 at 6:03 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 19, 2014 at 6:36 PM

      Hahha thanks Elin, this comment made my day. You rock =)

      Reply
  15. Adelina says

    March 31, 2014 at 5:56 PM

    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. :)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      March 31, 2014 at 6:01 PM

      Hahah if it counts at all I played flute and piccolo in symphony orchestra at band camp? Yay nerds!

      Reply
  16. Aya says

    June 7, 2014 at 2:36 PM

    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?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      June 7, 2014 at 8:52 PM

      Eeeee that’s hard. The silken tofu is what gives this tart its texture. Maybe vegan yogurt? It might not set as nicely though.

      Reply
  17. Eveliina says

    August 17, 2014 at 10:55 AM

    Hi ! I was wondering how much is that one block of silken tofu exactly? Or what brand did you use?:)

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      August 18, 2014 at 9:35 AM

      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.

      Reply
  18. Ashley says

    September 1, 2014 at 6:00 PM

    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.

    Reply
    • Ashley says

      September 2, 2014 at 12:11 PM

      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.

      Reply
      • Lisa Le says

        September 7, 2014 at 2:29 PM

        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.

        Reply
  19. Megan says

    September 2, 2014 at 2:23 AM

    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 :)

    Reply
  20. Crystal says

    February 23, 2015 at 5:25 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      February 23, 2015 at 10:29 PM

      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

      Reply
  21. Berber says

    May 20, 2015 at 5:34 PM

    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?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      May 20, 2015 at 6:34 PM

      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.

      Reply
    • Sarah (appifanie) says

      November 19, 2015 at 4:50 PM

      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: )

      Reply
  22. Monique says

    December 15, 2016 at 4:40 PM

    What size pie does this recipe make?

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      December 16, 2016 at 1:48 PM

      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.

      Reply
  23. Dee says

    August 19, 2018 at 5:01 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      August 27, 2018 at 7:31 PM

      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 :)

      Reply
  24. Jan says

    April 19, 2019 at 10:33 PM

    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.

    Reply
  25. Margaret says

    November 27, 2020 at 10:56 PM

    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!

    Reply
    • Lisa Le says

      November 28, 2020 at 9:55 PM

      I’m so happy to hear that!

      Reply
  26. Bill says

    July 5, 2021 at 10:07 AM

    Truly phenomenal pie, my girlfriend is vegetarian this was perfect, and everyone at the bbq I went to loved it. Thank you so much!

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome!

Lisa

Xin chào! Welcome to my food blog. Thanks for visiting, reading, and enabling my obsession with food and photography.

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

looking for something?

Get recipes straight to your inbox!

Subscribe

* indicates required

Recipe index sidebar

Soup Season eBook

Soup Season ebook cover
Vietnamese recipe index button

Vegan Fish Sauce

nuoc cham with vegan fish sauce bottle, surrounded by lime, garlic, and chili pepper

Footer

recipe index

Looking for something?

Find me in other places :)

  • Bloglovin
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Find me on YouTube!

TVV logo

Copyright© 2025 · The Viet Vegan · All rights reserved

  • Recipe Index
  • Privacy Policy
  • Work With Me
  • Press