Deep Dish Chocolate Silk Pie

Ingredients:-

For the Pastry Crust:

- 3 cups all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)

- 1 teaspoon kosher salt

- 1 tablespoon sugar

- zest of 1 mandarin

- 12 tablespoons very cold butter, diced into small pieces and kept chilled

- ⅓ cup cold crisco

- 6-8 tablespoons ice water

- For the Chocolate Filling

- 1 cup sugar

- ¼ cup flour

- 1 tablespoon cornstarch

- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt

- 3 cups milk

- 2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

- 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped

- 4 egg yolks, beaten

- 1 tablespoon cold butter, diced small

- 1½ tablespoons grand marnier

- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- For the Whipped Topping

- 2 cups heavy cream

- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar

- 2 teaspoons grand marnier

Directions:

For the Pastry

Into the bowl of a food processor, add the flour, salt, sugar and mandarin zest. Pulse several times to combine ingredients. Add the diced butter and chilled crisco. Pulse about 12 times or until the mixture resembles coarse peas.

With the processor running on low speed, drizzle in the ice water in tablespoon additions. Stop adding water when the dough comes together and forms a ball.

Dump the ball onto a floured surface or counter mat and roll into a uniform ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Remove the dough after chilling and cut in half. Reserve one half for a later use. Roll the other half into a circle quite a bit larger than your pan, allowing room for the pastry to form to the bottom and all the way up the sides of pan. Gently press the pastry onto the bottom of the pan and into the sides. Use a rolling pin to crimp the top and remove excess pastry, saving it for later.

Poke holes around the pastry with a fork, then cover the inside with parchment paper and pie weights to avoid excess shrinking of the pastry.

Bake the pastry for 20 minutes with the pie weights, then remove the weights and parchment and bake an additional 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely.

Using a small decorative cutter, stamp out shapes from the scraps of pastry. Bake on a silicone covered tray for 8 minutes, flip the cut-outs and bake an additional 8 minutes. Remove from oven and immediately brush cut-outs with grand marnier and sprinkle with coarse sugar.

For the Chocolate Filling:

Place the beaten egg yolks in a medium bowl near the stove. Combine sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt in a heavy bottom saucepan. Add the milk and whisk until completely combined. Place the saucepan over medium-low heat and add the chopped chocolates. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens and comes to a boil. Boil for one minutes then remove from the heat.

Add a few teaspoons of the hot chocolate mixture to the bowl of egg yolks and stir constantly. Add an additional tablespoon of chocolate to the eggs at a time, stirring well after each addition. This will temper the eggs before adding them to the pan. You want to add a total of ½ cup of the hot chocolate mixture to the eggs, stirring constantly.

Next, add the egg mixture to the pan and set over med-low heat. Stir for 2-3 minutes to allow the mixture to thicken. Remove from the heat and add the diced butter, grand marnier and vanilla. Stir until the butter is melted and incorporated.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cooled pie crust and cover the entire surface with plastic wrap. Make sure the plastic wrap is pressed onto the chocolate to avoid getting a 'skin' on the chocolate during chilling. Chill the pie for 24 hours.

For the Topping:

Using an electric mixer or beater, whip together the chilled cream, powdered sugar, and grand marnier. Remove the plastic wrap from the pie and pile on the whipped topping. Decorate with extra bittersweet chocolate on top.