A Mountain Visit, with French Silk Chocolate Pie

...always does a body good. Especially at my parents' house.
(Scroll down for the French Silk Chocolate Pie recipe! Although the mountain photos aren't bad either - haha!)

This was the view from my bedroom window this morning.
Just a few minutes before I took the photo, the indistinct mist in the foreground wasn't there, and the more-solid, white mist in the back was very distinct, like a pale lake.

My mother's daffodils are putting on quite a show this year.

Remember, I wrote about my mother's desk? Well, this isn't it. This is her other desk, for talking on the phone. But isn't it lovely, with the glass doors? A dear friend in Jackson, MS gave it to her.

When I was a girl, one of my favorite desserts was French Silk Chocolate Pie; my mother made it quite frequently. In fact, I think for a while in high school, she made it for me every Sunday! What decadence!
It's soooo good -- smooth (as silk), pure chocolate, and it seems to melt on the tongue. I hadn't eaten it for years, and she made it for Tuesday evening.

Here's the recipe:

French Silk Chocolate Pie:

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 squares (1 oz each) unsweetened chocolate (or, 6 Tbls cocoa plus 2 Tbls oil, mixed together)
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 8-inch pastry shell

Cream softened butter, add sugar, beat with mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in chocolate and vanilla. Add eggs, one at a time, beating three full minutes after each addition, on medium speed. Turn into pastry shell. Chill several hours. Garnish with whipped cream & chocolate curls, or toasted almonds.

(You may double the recipe, and use a 9-inch pastry shell, for a deep-dish pie, as in the photo.)

We clearly dispense with any garnishes, and prefer to take our chocolate straight.

You see this is an unbaked pie, so it doesn't have that brownie taste of most other chocolate pies.  It's smooth. But it does have eggs, so if you're nervous about uncooked eggs, avoid this recipe.  It's a sad loss for you, though!