Go for the Oreos to make low-calorie pie?

By KATHY MANWEILER

MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS

I love getting recipe requests from readers, and many of you have asked me to lighten up a decadent chocolate dessert.

So for all of my fellow chocolate fans, this one’s for you. Today, I’m sharing my healthier version of French Silk Pie.

Instead of pastry, I like using a chocolate cookie crust here. But just one serving of a common cookie crust recipe contains 144 calories and more than 8 grams of fat.

To slim down that crust, I start by substituting light butter. Next, I use chocolate graham crackers in place of most of the Oreos. The chocolate graham crackers are lower in fat and calories, but when the graham cracker crumbs are mixed with the cookies, the Oreos are all that you can taste.

For the filling, I use some reduced-fat cream cheese in place of one-third of the butter to save fat and calories. I experimented with a version that contained half butter and half reduced-fat cream cheese, but that filling didn’t come out as light and fluffy as I wanted.

And while light butter works well for this crust, it’s not a good fit for the filling because it changes the texture too much.

The original filling calls for unsweetened baking chocolate and a cup of sugar, but I slash the calories and keep the sugary flavor by choosing semisweet chocolate chips and adding a little extra vanilla to 1⁄4 cup of sugar.

I top my filling with some Cool Whip Lite instead of sweetened whipping cream, saving plenty of fat grams and calories.

To make portion control easier, I put this recipe in muffin cups. My alterations to this dessert cut the calories by 37 percent and trimmed the fat by 42 percent.

You can have one of my Mini French Silk Pies for 261 calories and 16.8 fat grams.

KATHY’S MINI FRENCH SILK PIES

For crust:

7 Oreo cookies

8 chocolate graham cracker squares

1 tablespoon sugar

4 tablespoons light butter, melted

Cooking spray

For filling:

1⁄4 cup sugar

1⁄2 cup butter, softened

1⁄4 cup of 1⁄3-less-fat cream cheese, room temperature

1⁄2 cup semisweet chocolate chips, melted and cooled

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3⁄4 cup egg substitute, such as EggBeaters

11⁄2 cups Cool Whip Lite

Lightly coat a nonstick standard-size muffin tin with cooking spray. To make crust, seal the Oreos and graham crackers in a zip-top bag and use a rolling pin to crush them into fine crumbs. Put the crumbs in a medium bowl. Add melted light butter and sugar until mixed well. Divide the crumb mixture evenly among 12 standard-size muffin cups. Press the crumbs firmly into the bottom of each muffin cup, then place the muffin tin in the freezer for 20 minutes.

While the crust is in the freezer, in a medium bowl, beat the butter, light cream cheese and sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla and melted chocolate. Gradually beat in egg substitute on high speed for about 3 minutes, or until light and fluffy. Spoon the French Silk filling into the chilled crusts and refrigerate for at least two hours or until well chilled. To serve, run a knife around the edge of each muffin cup and remove the mini French Silk pies. Just before serving, top each mini pie with 2 tablespoons of Cool Whip Lite.

Serves 12.

Per serving: 261 calories, 16.8 fat grams, 26 carb grams, 28 mg cholesterol, 204mg sodium, 0.5 fiber grams, 2.5 protein grams

Filling adapted from a Betty Crocker recipe. Crust adapted from a Good Housekeeping recipe.