The best pie

French silk chocolate pie, adapted from America’s Test Kitchen’s Cook’s Country:

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 cup chilled heavy whipping cream
• 8 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1 stick softened unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 pie crust
• 2 tablespoons vanilla

Steps

1. Make crust: top contenders are a homemade graham cracker crust, the frozen Trader Joe’s pie crust, or whatever fits your needs. Prep, bake, set aside.

2. Whip cream with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until you see stiff peaks. Cover and refrigerate.

3. In a saucepan, simmer about 1/2 inch of water and cover with a heatproof bowl. Add the eggs, sugar, and water to the heatproof bowl, then beat with an electric mixer on medium-high until the egg mixture is thickened and registers 160 degrees (about 10 minutes). Remove the bowl from the heat, then keep beating the egg mixture until cooled to room temperature and is still fluffy (another 10 minutes).

4. With the mixer still beating the eggs, add chocolate and vanilla slowly until it’s been fully mixed in. Then add the butter 1-2 pieces at a time. At this point the mixture will look silky and dark from the chocolate and butter. Stop the mixer, then take the whipped cream from the fridge. With a spatula, fold in the whipped cream until no streaks of white remain.

5. Scrape filling into the pie crust and refrigerate until set, at least 3 hours and up to 24 hours. Serve with whipped cream and berries, or as is.