Guest Author - Katherine Tomlinson
At Thanksgiving, and Christmas too, it’s traditional to have pie for dessert and that pie is traditionally either pumpkin or mince. This year, though, why not break with tradition and serve something a little different but just as delicious—chocolate pie. And since you’re breaking with tradition, why not make that chocolate pie a “chess” pie?
If you’re not from the south, you may not have heard of “chess” pies, which are single-crust pies with translucent fillings. (Think of a pecan pie without the pecans and you’ll have an idea of the consistency of a chess pie.) They’re rather plain-looking pies but they are so rich and sweet that just a small wedge will satisfy any sweet tooth. Leftover chess pie is also quite good served cold for breakfast.
Culinary historians disagree on how the pie got its unusual name but in most places in Virginia, the theory is that it is a corruption of “cheese” pie, even though there’s no cheese involved (and never has been).
Chocolate Chess Pie
1 ˝ cups granulated sugar
1 heaping tbsp. flour
1 ˝ blocks of unsweetened baking chocolate
Pinch salt
˝ cup milk (2 percent is ok)
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla extract
˝ stick butter
1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell.
Mix the sugar, flour and salt.
Melt butter and chocolate.
Add the eggs and milk to the dry ingredients.
Add the chocolate/butter mixture and mix well.
Add the vanilla extract.
Note If you like, you can substitute 2 heaping tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa powder for the melted chocolate. If you do that, simply mix the cocoa powder in with the other dry ingredients.
Pour into the unbaked pie shell.
Bake at 375 for 40 to 45 minutes.
The filling may crack a little in the middle, that’s normal and will just tell people it’s home-made.
As with any traditional recipe, individual cooks have altered and fiddled with the original to make the pie their own. You’ll see a lot of chess pie recipes calling for evaporated milk and sometimes instead of flour, cooks will add corn meal as a thickener. There’s also a subset of chess pies known as “vinegar” pies because the filling includes enough vinegar to give it a tang. (Vinegar-raisin pie is a particularly popular variant of this pie style.)
Chess pies come in buttermilk and lemon as well as chocolate but it goes without saying that the chocolate version is the best!
