Happy Pi Day!

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Today is the oft anticipated Pi Day (3.14= March 14)! To celebrate, I decided to make a pie. As in the edible kind. Like a few weeks ago, I had some Meyer lemons to use. I contemplated a lemon meringue pie, but decided it was too much work. I stumbled across a Chess Pie recipe and couldn't decide if I should make it because it just sounded weird. Apparently it's a Southern thing. They do odd things down there. I finally figured I didn't have much to lose, and decided it was a bonus that I didn't have to leave the house to get any ingredients.



Chess Pie is very easy to make. My word, I whipped it up in a matter of minutes! It also was quite tasty. I was pleasantly surprised. It tasted a bit like a lemon bar. Ish. Not an exact match, but it's the easiest thing to equate it to.



By the way, I found some of my pictures being used on the internet without permission, so I'm starting to put the watermark on them now. Ridiculous!


Chess Pie

Ingredients:
For the crust (makes enough for two):
2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk

For the filling:
3 eggs
1 stick of butter (113.4 grams)
1 cup of sugar
1 tablespoon of yellow corn meal
1 teaspoon of vanilla
The juice from 1 and 1/2 lemons (about 1/2 cup)
1 teaspoon of lemon zest

Method:
For the crust:
Mix flour and salt. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. Can add more milk if dry. Separate into two balls (save one ball for another pie). Roll crust out between two sheets of wax paper, line a pie pan with crust.

For the filling:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the butter.
Mix the sugar in with the butter.
Beat the eggs and add vanilla, corn meal, lemon juice and zest.
Add egg mixture to butter and sugar, and mix well.
Pour filling into an unbaked pie shell and bake at 350 for 50 minutes.
Let cool for 20 minutes (so filling can set).

Filling makes enough for one pie.