Chocolate Espresso Silk Pie with Oreo Crust

Close your eyes. Imagine a pie that has a perfectly crispy homemade Oreo crust that requires minimal effort, then a whipped chocolate and espresso mousse that's super creamy and decadent. Top it all off with a pile of fluffy whipped cream on top and then some extra chocolate shavings for good measure. A little bit of patience required? Yes. Totally worth it? Triple yes. Say hello to the best Chocolate Espresso Silk Pie.

If you actually closed your eyes for a second, you're my best friend. Me and you both fantasize about desserts, and that's a good enough base for a solid friendship as anything else I've heard.

Chocolate and espresso: The perfect match

If you've been following my desserts for awhile now, you know that I really like to put espresso or coffee in my chocolate creations. Espresso powder is in this Healthy-ish Zucchini Cake, and a whole cup of freshly brewed coffee is in my Double Chocolate Bundt Cake with Chocolate Ganache, for example. Espresso heightens the chocolate flavor without leaving much (if any) espresso flavor. That's great for people who don't like the taste of coffee or espresso and fabulous for chocolate lovers everywhere because the chocolate is that much more noticeable, especially if you're using good quality chocolate.

This Chocolate Espresso Silk Pie is different in that it uses straight, freshly brewed espresso, which is much more concentrated than your regular coffee. The espresso in this pie is noticeable and absolutely delicious to make the flavor of the filling that much more complex and tasty.

I used a shot of espresso from a Nespresso machine capsule, but you could easily use whatever other espresso-making ability you have in your home. Just don't use espresso powder in this one. You'll need the espresso in liquid form for both texture and consistency as well as flavor.

Start with the Oreo crust

First, you'll want to prepare your crust -- which is the only baking you'll need to do! Rejoice! You'll process 22 Oreo cookies (including the filling) until they're small crumbs. Then pulse in your melted butter until the mixture has the consistency of wet sand. Spread this out on a 9" pie plate you've sprayed with cooking spray. Don't leave any part of the pie plate showing, and try to get the Oreos as even as possible. Don't worry...they will never turn out perfect, and that's okay. We call that "rustic" and that's all the rage these days. Bake the crust for about 10 minutes then let cool on a wire wrack.

If you weren't feeling so inclined to make the crust from scratch (although, I swear this is probably the easiest part), feel free to buy a pre-made Oreo pie crust from any grocery store. Just a note though: those pre-made store bought crusts are typically only 8" and very shallow, so you will likely not be able to use all of the filling. Save the extra filling and use it to dip strawberry in. Yum.

The whipped chocolate espresso mousse

While the crust is cooling, you'll make the whipped chocolate filling. This consists of cooking the sugar and eggs until bubbly, then removing from the heat and adding in the chocolate and vanilla extract. Then you'll stir in the espresso. If you put your finger in the mixture, it should be hot but not scalding.

While the chocolate mixture is cooling, you'll make a butter whipped cream that will then be folded into the chocolate mixture to create that light and fluffy texture. It's similar to building a mousse except you're building it in a different order, and this filling has butter in it. This makes the chocolate espresso filling silky and decadent.

This is a great video to watch to learn the technique of folding in whipped cream into the chocolate mixture, even if the lady is straight from 1999 and making enough chocolate mousse to feed a small army.

Once you're done, here comes the hardest part of the whole dessert: it needs to set in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours. It's going to be hard to do because you'll just want to eat the entire thing immediately, but the chocolate needs to set. When you're ready to serve, you'll whip up some fluffy whipped cream to spread on top like a big cloud.

How to make chocolate shavings

The chocolate shavings are optional, but I would highly recommend. I took a potato peeler and shaved a Valhrona chocolate bar.

If I had more time, I would definitely be into making chocolate ribbons. They're so gorgeous. Take a look at this video for how to make chocolate ribbons or curls for the top of your pie instead of the shavings.

Other no-bake desserts

Here are some other no-bake dessert favorites of mine if you're not into turning on the oven lately (especially after the holidays...I need a kitchen detox sometimes).

• These classic No Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies are the cookies you probably also had growing up. They're delicious...even at age 35.
• This No Bake Chocolate Raspberry Tart is one of my favorite desserts EVER. Check it out. It also happens to be refined sugar free and gluten free.
• Forgive the pics -- this was one of my first posts before I started realizing other people were reading, but these No Bake Oreo Bars are a kid favorite.
• Buckeyes are a holiday staple in the North. Y'all Yankees love your buckeyes! 🙂

xox