Learning 2 Bake from Scratch XLIX

Chess Pie

I asked the crochet group what sort of pie they wanted for Pi Day. They said “chess”. The picture is the ingredients for the chess part.

I used the recipe from The Pioneer Woman for the “chess” part. I used my pie crust recipe.

Because I want a copy/paste version with multiple sizes – as opposed to scribbled on the printout which gets smudged more every time I make one – here’s the crust recipe:

2/3 is good for a bottom crust, only. 1 is good for a thin top and bottom. 1.5 is good for four 4″ pot pies.

2/3	1	1.5	ingredient
160 g	240 g	360 g	pastry flour
2 tsp	1 Tbl	1 1/2 Tbl	sugar
2/3 tsp	1 tsp	1/2 Tbl	salt
150 g (11 Tbl)	226 g (2 sticks)	339 g (3 sticks)	butter
46 g	65 g	105 g	water
1 tsp	1 tsp	1/2 Tbl	lemon juice

Yes, I freely mix metric and spoons. If I need to dig it out of a container, spoons are required to get it out, so I may as well use a measuring spoon.

Crust lesson from this attempt: Glass pie pans suck. And glass pie pans suck. They don’t heat properly. Who makes baking dishes out an insulating material? I took the beans (aka pie weights) out of the blind-baking crust far too early. I had just made bread, so the oven was at 425. 15 minutes should have been at least 20. The crust poofed a lot and the edges sunk. On the bright side, that meant I had extra chess, which I baked in custard cups. I might make that on its own one day.

The chess recipe:

1 stick of butter, melted
2 c. granulated sugar
4 large eggs
3 tbsp. yellow cornmeal
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. milk, room temperature
1 1/2 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla extract
Pinch of salt

Blind bake the crust (she wants it to start frozen – yikes! that would have taken even longer!)

In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter and sugar. Whisk in the eggs, then the cornmeal and flour. Add the milk, lemon juice, vanilla extract, and pinch of salt; mix to combine.

Carefully pour the filling into the crust. Bake at 350 until the edges and center of pie are set completely, 45 to 50 minutes. (Tent the pie with foil towards the end if either the crust or surface of the pie look darker than golden brown.) Let the pie cool completely, about 2 hours. Top with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, if desired.

I’m not sure how the fondant on top is going to taste, but it is now a chess pie!

Update: I received a very complimentary text message: Oh the pie! Oh. The. Pie!

Update: I was going to leave a review with a link back here, but lo and behold, The Pioneer Woman is not what she appears to be. The login: “Choose an account to continue to Hearst Magazines”. Thanks, but no. While I understand that people want to monetize their site, I’m not giving my information to media conglomerates as thanks for a recipe. See also, Irish Potato Candy.