Week 42: Chess Pie

Chess Pie

This is a pie that made it on Aubrey’s wish list. I thought it was weird since she is a cake person not a pie person but she was responsible for adding a few pies to our list and I wasn’t going to complain about more pie. I had never heard of a chess pie and after looking online, found that there are many different pies that go by that name. We had decided early on that traditional desserts would be made using the recipe from my Mom’s Best Desserts cookbook if said dessert was one of the recipes in that book. Turns out, this one was in the book, so we kept to our plans and used it. Bonus was we didn’t have to decide which version of chess pie we would select from the internet.

Mom’s Best Desserts states, “How did this Southern specialty get its name? A few stories circulate, none of which has anything to do with the ancient board game. Some claim that a chess pie was originally a “chest pie” that would keep in a cupboard without refrigeration. Some say that it is an adaptation of the English cheese pie. Then there is the story of the plantation cook who was asked what she was making. “Jes’ pie,” she replied. Whatever the origin, today there are many variations. One variation – called a Jefferson Davis pie – contains spices and dates. This recipe is similar to the Thomas Jefferson pie.”

For our ingredient substitutions, we used Swerve brown sugar instead of regular brown sugar and XyloSweet (we were out of Allulose) for the white sugar. The rest of the pie was made as written. We used our standard pie crust recipe that you can find on our Shoofly Pie post.

Ingredients

• Pastry for a 9-inch single crust pie
• 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoon yellow cornmeal
• 1 tablespoon unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt

Instructions

1. Prepare the pie shell according to the recipe directions. Partially bake the shell and let it cool on a rack before filling. (For partially baked shell: Make crust and put in pie plate and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 425 degrees with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Remove the unbaked pie shell from the refrigerator, but do not prick the crust. Line the pastry with a circle of foil and weight with dried beans or baker’s pellets to prevent buckling. Bake in the lower third of the oven for 10 minutes, or until pastry is set. Remove the foil and beans and bake for 3 to 4 minutes longer, or until the pie shell just begins to set.)
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
3. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the brown and granulated sugars and the butter until creamy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the pecans, cream, cornmeal, flour, vanilla, and salt, blending well. Pour the mixture into the pie shell.
4. Bake for 40 minutes to 45 minutes, until a knife inserted 1 inch from the outer edge comes out clean and filling is slightly firm.
5. Cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature, within 3 hours of cooking.

Our Experience

We managed to get a photo of our ingredients this time! This is kind of a “dump” pie because the ingredients and oven do the work of making the layers. We had already partially cooked the pie crust so it was ready to go when we finished the filling.

The filling started with creaming the butter with the sugars and then adding the eggs one at a time. Once the butter, sugar, and eggs were added, everything else was just “dumped” together. The

This pie went together very quickly. We mixed everything together, poured it in the pie crust and baked. Honestly, the pie crust took the longest. If we had purchased a crust, it would have been done in a flash!

We put the crust edge cover on right away since the crust had already been partially cooked. We have learned that when using whole wheat flour, everything gets a lot browner. Sometimes it looks burned even when it isn’t. It is difficult to judge doneness by color alone. In any case, we didn’t want the crust to get overdone here.

The finished pie had a shiny brown top that was crisp right after it was done (not as crisp a day later). We didn’t know that the pie would create “layers” so it was a surprise when we cut it open. That little detail makes it look like it was more difficult than it actually was. The top layer was the crisp brown “crust” on top, then a layer of the nuts, and then a custard like layer right above the pie crust.

What we liked.

This pie was never going to be a “family favorite” just because half the family doesn’t care for nuts in their desserts. This wasn’t just a dessert with nuts, the nuts were a feature of it. That being said, all for tasters agreed that it was “good”.

Kip thought it was way too sweet while Aubrey and I felt the sweetness was perfect. The weird thing about Kip thinking it was too sweet is he can eat a pound of peanut M&M’s in one sitting without a second thought! 🙂

My favorite part of the pie was the nut layer (as well as the pie crust which I always like since it’s a pastry). The layer was nutty (of course, and crunchy, and a little caramelized. The “custard” was my least favorite part. It didn’t have any specific flavor like cinnamon or caramel, it was just a sweet barely vanilla pudding. Almost like I took sugar water and thickened it with cornstarch.

Garrett and Aubrey just had a few bites and said it was good but it wouldn’t make it onto a favorites list (Garrett still professes that the pretzels and popovers are our best selections).

What we would change.

If I were going to change anything, I think I would add another flavor so the custard layer would have a distinct flavor. I imagine that a pecan pie has a caramel flavor mostly due to its color. (No, I have never eaten or made a pecan pie. Pecan and pumpkin tend to be available at the same functions and I am NEVER choosing the pecan over pumpkin. Ever! I think I could eat pumpkin pie every day no matter what time of year it is.)

I would possibly toast the pecans, even though this recipe sort of toasted them during the baking. Toasted nuts are always more flavorful and this pie could have used something more for flavor.

What we learned.

I think the biggest thing I learned on this pie is that I really need to toast all nuts ahead of time so that when I go to use them, they are ready to go. It wouldn’t be that difficult to do since I already do it with slivered almonds that I use for an Asian coleslaw. I keep nuts in the freezer because the oils in nuts can go rancid pretty easily and they are too expensive to be throwing them away just because I didn’t store them properly. If they’re in the freezer, I can toast them months before I need them. Goals!

Until next week, Happy Baking!