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Lemon and Corn Pie - Old Southern Favorite - Chess Pie

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Lemon and Corn Pie - Old Southern Favorite - Chess Pie

I'm pretty sire you won't find this pie in New York City - at least not a good one or one made with this recipe.  Like pecan pie, this is a very old Southern recipe and no two are the same - the chocolate version is Lucy's favorite even though chocolate is poison for dogs.

Ok.Lucy cheated by putting in an extra pat of butter at the very end to float around, melt wherever and adding more buttery goodness.

Mine is an easy one packed with less sugar and more flavor than the usual.  Some don't have corn, some don't have lemons, most have much less corn and lemon and most have way more sugar.

Since we we got the mill we put hole grains in everything and grind things we normally wouldn't for a recipe.

The crust of this one has 1/3 cup of whole grain mix of spelt. rye and farro to go with 1 C of AP, 1/8th tsp salt, 1 T of sugar, 4 T each of butter and shortening with 6 T of Ice water - no vodka this time.  Cut the fat into the flour and salt and then add the ice water but stop at 5 T to see if it needs the 6th one,  Make a disk, wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 45 minutes.  Roll it out into and right size for your pie pan and the refrigerate again while you make the filling,

4 T of butter and 1 C of sugar are creamed together and then 4 eggs are added and whisked until pale yellow.

1 tsp of vanilla, 1 can of condensed milk,  1 can of Media Creama, 3 T of yellow corn meal ( I ground whole popcorn), the zest and juice of 3 lemions.  Wisk away until well combined.  Put the fillng in the pie shell and place in a pre-heated 350 F oven ( I used the mini oven) for 20 minutes, rotate 90 degrees and bake another 20 minutes.  Rotate 90 degrees and bake 5 more minutes and then rotate one last time and bake 5 more minutes - 50 minutes total,  until the top souffles and rises an inch above the rim of the crust and lightly browns - amazing how high it puffs up..

 

Let cool and serve at room temp.   If you want Chocolate Chess Pie, then remove the lemon juice and zest and sub in  2-4 T of cocoa powder, Lucy  I uses over 3, to make it as chocolaty as you like.   

Comments

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

Bless my soul, that looks sooo gud!  

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

said no thanks, went back to her normal; non fat yogurt and fresh berry desert .....proving that there really is a God who cuts the wheat from the chaff...... preserving the great deserts just for me in the process!

You would like this one MO.

Happy Baking

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

I keep thinking about and smelling the buttery caramel crunchy crystallised top.  

When you bake this again, what do you think about the tweak of pre-baking the crust just a little bit?  Would that brown it too much?  

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

I might start at 400 F for 10 minutes before reducing to 350 F?   I think the bttom might get burned if it was par baked. Here is a picture of the bottom crust, had one piece left, It is very brown and looks perfectly done.

We love this pie. 

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

of the true crust colour, Yum!  Yep, I get our point.  :)   

Got back to Austria in one piece.  Tell Lucy, Dolly was a real trouper behaving herself so well,  loved to stick her head out of her carrier to get cool.  She had ice cubes during the flight and first thing she did when we got home was to look for her water dish and raid mil's bread bin.  She's bread "pup whupped" for sure!

Mini

emkay's picture
emkay

 and Lucy's creation is no exception. Funny that you should mention New York City, because you can find chess pie in Manhattan! It's called Crack Pie and Momofuku Milk Bar definitely charges NY prices for it.

http://www.examiner.com/article/tracking-down-the-identity-of-crack-pie-and-how-you-can-make-one

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

$55 a pie in NY isn't enough - bet it is $10 a slice too. I guess they have more Crack Heads In NYC than the entire South can muster.  Lucy will have to try crushed brownies and Oreo cookies for the crust on the chocolate one so she doesn't feel like being outdone by a Yankee Foo Foo Chef :-)

It is also nice that a Tucson, AZ Hispanic woman was writing the article on Crack Pie for examiner.com too.

Lucy's version is a take on our standard flan recipe that my daughter loves so much.  I always have a problem with adding citrus or vinegar to milk or cream  but there is no worries with curdling with evaporated or condensed milk and Media Creama (Nestle's Mexican table cream in a can) and a can of each is in the flan, but it only has a bit of the zest of a lemon and orange in the flan.

This a an easy pie to make and the taste is uniquely delicious.

Happy baking

nmygarden's picture
nmygarden

Plain and simple, Southern Cooks make comfort food and love. Thank goodness this is a healthy Chess Pie, with whole grains. No chocolate needed for me, it looks perfect as is. Love the shots where it's still puffed and hot!

Cathy

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

is also very good with 3 T of cocoa powder, and now that we have the idea of a brownie and Oreo Cookie crust for it.....!  We love the way this one puffs itself up too.  Makes for a lighter pie I would suppose and no having to whip the egg whites separately like a souffle - but that is an idea.  I've also seen some Southern cooks substitute a scoop of grits cooked in milk in place of the corn meal too.  How the corn got in there is still a mystery - probably long forgotten.

Glad you liked the 'Just Pie' Cathy and

Happy Baking

Isand66's picture
Isand66

Looks amazing DA!  You and Lucy have outdone yourselves as usual.

Ian

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

to Long Island and your apprentices :-)  Your relatives in NC may have seen this around where they live.  A  simple really easy pie to make.  The lemon cuts the sugar some just like cocoa powder does for the chocolate version.  Glad you like it Ian and

Happy Baking

Kiseger's picture
Kiseger

At the "extra pat of butter"!!  Looks like it wouldn't last an hour in our house! gotta love Southern food!  Well done Lucy!

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

She will throw things into recipes when ever you turn your back for a minute.  Sometimes i don't publish recipes because I don.t know what the heck she has tossed into the mix.  It is a thing of hers.... like wanting to pumpernickell every bread recipe she.  Still she sleeps most of the time and can't remember what happened from one nap to the next - sort of like me!

Glad you liked the 'Just Pie'  and

Happy Baking

CAphyl's picture
CAphyl

I am starving as I am at the  doctors for my annual physical and have had to fast for the blood test. Would love a slice right now!  Thanks for sharing Best, Phyllis

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

perfect pie to break a fast with and it is a rule that a fast has to be broken with PIE!  We love pie of all kinds around here and never fast   A week without pie is a week without any love:-)  Glad you liked it Phyllis.

Isand66's picture
Isand66

I agree!  I think also when you give blood instead of giving you a cookie they should give you a slice of pie :).

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

the blood banks!   :)