My mom’s birthday was last weekend. She recently discovered that she can’t eat dairy. (Big shock – she’s my mom, after all.) I wanted to make something for her for her birthday, and one of her favorites is French Silk Pie. Of course, traditionally, French Silk Pie is loaded with dairy. And all the vegan recipes I could find featured tofu. Yuck. Never fear, Dairy-Free (and Soy-Free) Deanna is here!
(Note that her other favorite is cream puffs. If you want an excellent dairy-free, though not vegan cream puff recipe, check out this one at Simply Gluten-Free. It’s mom-approved.)
I'd show you a slice, but I gave away the whole pie....
Vegan Soy-Free French Silk Pie
1 9″ pie crust, baked and cooled. (I used this grain-free Spunky Coconut recipe. I cooked it longer than she suggested as it wasn’t done yet on the bottom.)
12 ounces chopped dairy-free dark chocolate
4-6 T. coconut oil
1 1/2 cups unsweetened almond milk
Put the chocolate and 4 T. coconut oil in a heat-proof bowl. In a small sauce pan, heat the almond milk to just barely simmering. Pour the almond milk over chopped chocolate. Do not stir. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Then, carefully stir until the mixture is completely smooth. It will be liquidy. Put it in the fridge to cool for 20-30 minutes.
Fill your sink a few inches with ice water. Place the bowl of chocolate in the ice bath, and whip with electric beaters. The mixture will thicken and begin to whip. If it does not, melt coconut oil, a tablespoon at a time, and add to the mixture. Continue whipping until the mixture is as thick as you’d like. Be careful – it will continue to harden as it cools. When smooth and light, spoon it into the prepared crust, smooth and serve. Keep chilled.
Traditionally French Silk Pie needs whipping cream. I was hauling this 3+ hours in a car. So, I skipped that. But, Ricki’s Coconut Whipped Cream would be excellent on top!
While this recipe is definitely more than slightly indulgent, you can find other slightly less sinful recipes over at Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays.
The Mommy Bowl 
Deanna, LOVE this recipe. One of my favs growing up was this very same pie. I’m loving this no-soy, dairy free version. My b-day is coming up and I was contemplating eating a small bowl of ice cream (the real stuff), but maybe I’ll coax the husband into making this for me instead so I won’t feel like I have been hit by a truck all week 🙂 It looks like a recipe he can handle.
Go for it! If he needs help, have him send me an email. Don’t eat the ice cream! No one wants to get sick on their birthday!
Just wanted to let you know I will be making this for Thanksgiving for the whole fam. We now have 8 dairy-free family members so people are really excited about it 😉
Ooo – that’s big pressure. I hope you like it! 🙂
Good to know you can make desserts like this without silken tofu! Seems like every pie/mousse/cheesecake calls for silken tofu, and I am just not a fan.
I can’t eat tofu – it makes me sick. I didn’t figure that out until the last year or so. But, I was never a huge fan of tofu in sweet things anyway. There’s all sorts of ways to do things, if you’re willing to mess around and eat a few failures on the way. 🙂
any pointer for making with stand mixer? Not sure how to do cold water bath you mentioned??
Hi Heather,
It’s entirely possible that if you’re more patient than me, and let it chill longer in the fridge, with stirring/whisking it every 10 minutes or so until it’s good and cold, that you could do it without an ice bath at all. I’m so not THAT patient. 🙂 The ice bath just helps to chill it while beating. You don’t want to just let it chill completely in the fridge without stirring, because you want to whip air into it while it chills. Otherwise, it gets too hard. Make sense?
Also, be advised that it’s a messy kind of mixing process. Until it gets thick, it splatters. A lot. Use a bowl shield if you have one.
If I’m understanding, I am alternating 10 minutes in fridge with whipping air into it with stand mixer…not sure that it is getting thicker…but only have done this 2 times so far…should I go ahead & add more coconut oil or not? hmmmm…
Yes, if it’s not thickening and it’s cool to the touch, then I would add more coconut oil. How much you needs depends on the fat percentage of your chocolate. I used 2 different kinds of chocolate and one required quite a bit more than the other. You’ll know when it’s thickening. It will happen sort of all of a sudden.
I’ve never tried “real” French Silk Pie, but this one sounds divine! What would you think of adding some coconut milk? (You could use whatever is left over from the whipped cream–ha ha! And thanks for the mention). Oh, and Kelly’s grain-free pie crust is one of my all-time faves! What a great combo. 🙂
You can use full fat coconut milk and you wouldn’t need to use any coconut oil. But, your pie will taste like coconut. I’ve made the filling with just chocolate and coconut milk a bunch of times before. It definitely works. My mom isn’t a huge coconut fan, so I wanted to try it with almond milk instead for her. With straight up coconut milk and without whipping, this is a great pour-over ganache, too.
This looks soo good!
I’ll make it for my cousin’s welcome-home party 😀
Excellent. You’ll have to tell me how it turns out for you. 🙂
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