I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Chess Pie

Brown Sugar Chess Pie

Brown Sugar Chess Pie-1

Oh, I am so glad it’s Friday!!!

It has been such a busy week, but such a great week.

Brown Sugar Chess Pie-2

On Monday I went to dinner with my friend Allie, who also had a baby last year. On Christmas to be exact! It was such a good night with dinner, drinks, and lots of catching up. It’s always so good to be able to share news, ideas, and funny stories to the point where you have tears in your eyes.

Allie is the kind of person who you feel you’ve known for decades but have only know each other a short period of time. She is wrapping up her degree to be in social work. I think she’ll he really successful as she has this great charm about her, which will help her communicate with her clients.

We’re both heading back to our guys’ hometown for the 4th of July so I’m sure we’ll get to hang there. And probably have some wine. And laugh until we cry again.

Oh, how is it already the end of June?!?! The month has breezed by! This just means that this is  the last of my chess pies for the month of June!

 Brown Sugar Chess Pie-3

So every week Price asked me what Chess Pie was and I’d say “I dunno, but it sure is sugary!” Super helpful, no?

Well, a little wiki later and ta-da! I know what a Chess Pie is! It’s a sugary custard pie that has it’s roots in England but has now become a Southern thing. And when you read the recipe and think ‘cornmeal, really?’ you’ll now know that it’s no mistake, there is cornmeal in the filling. But I swear you wouldn’t even know it.

All of the Chess Pies that I made were sweet but this was swaaaa-eeeaaattt! Got it? I’d say that you should skip the 8 slice cutting, and just go to 12-16 slices. Because gang, sugar. But it’s so good that you can get over the cavity you’ll have after eating it.

The brown sugar gives it a nice caramel flavor that isn’t over the top. It’s subtle so you know it’s there but it’s not all up in your face. I think it’s nice that it sets it apart from the other pies for that reason.

Brown Sugar Chess Pie-4

Brown Sugar Chess Pie

Makes a 9″ pie

Ingredients

  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup of butter
  • 1 tablespoon cornmeal
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 unbaked pie shell

Process

  1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the sugar.
  3. Melt the butter and add it to the sugars. Beat well until light and fluffy.
  4. Stir in the eggs, cornmeal, vinegar, and vanilla extract until fully combined.
  5. Pour the filling into the pie shell. Bake for 45 minutes or until set. If edges are browning too quickly, cover with foil. Remove from oven, place on wire rack to cool.

Sourced from Twirl and Taste

Lemon Chess Pie

Lemon Chess Pie

Yesterday was such a great busy day.

I worked from home in the morning. Then Autumn had a Physical Therapy follow-up appointment at Children’s Hospital for her Torticollis that flares up when she is not feeling great (a cold, teething, etc.) Then we drove out to Newton to do a big drop off at Mother’s Milk Bank Northeast. (I’ve now donated just over 1,300 oz (10+gallon) to help out premies!) A quick trip to the grocery store and then we head off to watch The Big G’s softball game. While I don’t play, Price plays along with my office as his office doesn’t have a team.

Lemon Chess Pie-1

Autumn loved hanging out on our picnic blanket with a fresh juicy peach for a snack while everyone fawned over her blue eyes. And overall cuteness. 🙂

The game was a success! The team forged a comeback and ended up winning 16-17! We all went a little nuts as everyone was proud of the come back win. Plus, our team has had a bit of a history with the other team. They beat us pretty much beat us every time, but the worst is that they beat us 2 years ago in the championship game so this was such a sweet win!

Ah, it all makes me just love summer so much.

Lemon Chess Pie-4 Lemon Chess Pie-5

Lemon Chess Pie-6 Lemon Chess Pie-7

Perfect for summer is this Lemon Chess Pie!

The color and flavor is jsut to bright and happy to me. I would love to serve this at a BBQ or picnic with some fresh berries and whipped cream.

Lemon Chess Pie-2

The pie is very light and very lemony. While it’s tart it’s still pretty sweet so there is a nice balance there. The whole thing takes about 5-10 minutes to mix up and then just 40ish minutes to bake. I do suggest that you give it several hours to cool and set up. I know it’s hard to resist the wait but you’ll get a perfectly set, creamy pie then.

Enjoy!

Lemon Chess Pie-3

Lemon Chess Pie

Make 1 9″ Pie, 12-16 servings

Ingredients

  • 1 unbaked pie crust
  • 3 eggs, separated
  • 1-1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
  • 1/4 cup Meyer lemon juice (preferably use Meyer Lemon)
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 1 Tablespoon white vinegar
  • 1-1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Process

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Place the crust in a pie pan and the crimp edges. Set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Set aside.
  4. In a large bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, melted butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, vinegar, and vanilla extract until blended. Once combined, gently fold in the egg whites until there are no more white streaks.
  5. Pour the filling into the pie crust.
  6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until knife inserted in the center comes out clean and is browned on top.

Slightly Adapted from The Spiffy Cookie

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Buttermilk Chess Pie-03

Florida here we come!

Buttermilk Chess Pie-02

Autumn and I are heading down to Florida today to visit my mom and grandmother. This will be Autumn’s first flight. I’m up for the challenge but I’m really hoping that it goes well. She typically takes a nap mid morning and that is when we are flying so I’m hoping she will get snuggily and sleep. But you never know how it goes until you’re just stuck at 35,000 ft with a screaming baby. She is teething now (her 2nd tooth broken through yesterday morning) so she had a fever last night. At least now I can really drug her for the flight and it would be legitimate! ha!

This will also be my grandmother’s first time meeting Autumn. It will be a lot of fun for them to meet. I’ll be sure to get a lot of photos of them together. Plus have someone take a picture of all 4 generations. awww!

Since I’m heading to thee South I’ve made a Southern Classic to share today!

I’ve always wanted to try a Chess Pie so I’ve decided this is going to be a month of Chess Pies. I picked Buttermilk Chess Pie to kick things off. It was a good decision!

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been lazy about making pie crust dough (with the exception of graham cracker/cookie crusts) but this was so easy that I’ve become a convert. Soo easy. and it felt so satisfying to make the whole thing myself. Believe them I am all about convenience but this didn’t take much effort so I will be making more pie crusts from now on.

Buttermilk Chess Pie-01

This pie is super rich! I typically cut 8 slices in a pie but I think 12-16 slices would be fine since it’s so sweet and buttery. Oh the butter!! There are 2 sticks of butter in this pie between the crust and filling. So yeah, this is Southern!

I hope you enjoy a slice this weekend while I soak up the sun. Oh, I can’t wait!!

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Buttermilk Chess Pie

Makes a 9″ Pie

Ingredients

For the Crust

  • 1 Cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) COLD unsalted butter
  • 3-4 Tablespoon ice water

For the Filling

  • 1 1/2 Cups sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 5 large eggs
  • 2/3 Cup buttermilk
  • 1/2 Cup unsalted butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla

Process

To make the crust

  1. Cut the butter into small pieces. Put back the freezer for at least 10 minutes.
  2. Place the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse the mixture couple times. Add the butter to the mixture and pulse until the butter is cut into the size of peas. Add 3 tablespoons of ice cold water and pulse until the mixture looks like tiny pebbles. If needed add 1 more tablespoon of water.
  3. Pour out the crumbly dough out onto a well floured work surface and press into a disk. Roll flat until 1/2″ thick, then fold the dough into thirds, towards the center. Roll flat again and fold into thirds again toward the center. Roll out again and then fold in thirds, then in thirds in the other direction, so the dough looks like a little cube. Press into a disk and wrap in plastic.
  4. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To make the pie

  1. While the crust is chilling, preheat oven to 350.
  2. Lightly beat the eggs in a large bowl. Add the buttermilk and light mix to combine.
  3. Add the sugar and flour and mix again until combined.
  4. Stir in melted butter and vanilla extract until combined.
  5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator. On a well floured surface, evenly roll out the disk until it is large enough to fit into a 9″ pie plate. Transfer into the pie plate, and then trim and crimp the edges as needed.
  6. Pour the filling into the unbaked pie crust.
  7. Bake for 45 minutes or until just set. Cool the pie on a wire rack at least an hour prior to serving. Store leftovers, well-wrapped in the refrigerator.

Crust sourced from A Spicy Perspective, Filling Sourced from A Cook and Her Books