Turning a Chocolate Pie into a Chess Pie.

[TristanSynth]

This is a pretty long post, so I'll post the goals up here in case anyone wants to skip the filler. My main goal is to create a chocolate pie recipe that is less like a custard/pudding, and more like a chess pie. I don't understand how the ingredients work, so I'm having a difficult time accomplishing that. The ingredients I work with are sugar, cocoa powder, whole eggs, egg yolks, evaporated milk, vanilla extract, cornmeal, and flour. Thank you for your help and time!


I'm sure you're all familiar with the traditional southern chocolate pie...

1 1/2 cups of sugar,
3 Tbsp of cocoa powder,
1/2 stick of butter
2 whole eggs
1 small can of evaporated milk
and 1 Tsp of vanilla extract

It's an excellent pie, and I've been making it for years. I got the recipe from my Great-Grandmother's recipe book. There's just one problem. It's not a chess pie. I don't know a lot about baking(have never taken a culinary class), but I do know that I adore my Great-Grandmother's Chess Pie recipe...

1 1/2 cups of sugar,
1 Tbsp Cornmeal
1 Tbsp of Flour
1/2 stick of butter
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 small can of evaporated milk
and 1 Tsp of vanilla extract.

...and that I like the texture of the Chess pie significantly more than I like the texture of the Chocolate pie. The chocolate pie is very light, like a custard or pudding. I don't appreciate this lightness. I like the full, rich, texture of the Chess pie. It just has more bite to it. The thing is, I also love chocolate. A lot. Even pie, in general, is my favorite dessert. So it's important to me that I figure out how I can turn this custard pie into a chess pie.

I've tried 2 experiments. This is where my lack of experience shows itself. 1st, I tried adding the "missing" ingredients from the Chess pie recipe to the Chocolate pie recipe; The cornmeal, and the flour. It was a disaster. The pie was almost inedible. The taste of the chocolate, and the sweetness, were severely diminished. And there were weird tiny chewy bits. I almost had the texture I wanted, but the taste just wasn't there.

So I try a 2nd time. This time I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa(6 total), 1/2 a cup of sugar(2 cups total), the tablespoon of cornmeal, and the tablespoon of flour, and also added 2 egg yolks(because I didn't know what I use doing, it just sounded right). Even though it was convoluted, this pie came out better... taste wise. The problem with this one was, the top coating ended up burning because the pie filling wouldn't set. The top coating was hard like a burned cookie, and it was also thick. And that top coating didn't taste great at all on it's on. The filling on it's own was eh'. But the filling and the top coating together were surprisingly pretty good. Edible, but nothing to be proud of. Also, those annoying tiny chewy bits were back. That burned top coating was also separated from the filling, looking at it from the side. So again, not a great pie.

(Note: One time I ended up using light butter instead of regular butter, for the Chess Pie, because we were out of regular butter. A similar hard, thick, top coating formed in a large circle in the middle of most of the pie. This top coating wasn't separated from the filling though, and it tasted a lot better than the chocolate one did. Like sweet little chess pie chips. The filling was also fine.)

I've entertained the idea of doing a science experiment where I isolate a single ingredient and add/remove it to see how it affects the pie. As fun as it sounds, it would be a lot of work over several weeks, and I'm kind of obsessing over this now so I'm trying to avoid that. Again, thank you all so much for your time and effort.

 

[Norcalbaker59]

This is a pretty long post, so I'll post the goals up here in case anyone wants to skip the filler. My main goal is to create a chocolate pie recipe that is less like a custard/pudding, and more like a chess pie. I don't understand how the ingredients work, so I'm having a difficult time accomplishing that. The ingredients I work with are sugar, cocoa powder, whole eggs, egg yolks, evaporated milk, vanilla extract, cornmeal, and flour. Thank you for your help and time!


I'm sure you're all familiar with the traditional southern chocolate pie...

1 1/2 cups of sugar,
3 Tbsp of cocoa powder,
1/2 stick of butter
2 whole eggs
1 small can of evaporated milk
and 1 Tsp of vanilla extract

It's an excellent pie, and I've been making it for years. I got the recipe from my Great-Grandmother's recipe book. There's just one problem. It's not a chess pie. I don't know a lot about baking(have never taken a culinary class), but I do know that I adore my Great-Grandmother's Chess Pie recipe...

1 1/2 cups of sugar,
1 Tbsp Cornmeal
1 Tbsp of Flour
1/2 stick of butter
1 whole egg
2 egg yolks
1 small can of evaporated milk
and 1 Tsp of vanilla extract.

...and that I like the texture of the Chess pie significantly more than I like the texture of the Chocolate pie. The chocolate pie is very light, like a custard or pudding. I don't appreciate this lightness. I like the full, rich, texture of the Chess pie. It just has more bite to it. The thing is, I also love chocolate. A lot. Even pie, in general, is my favorite dessert. So it's important to me that I figure out how I can turn this custard pie into a chess pie.

I've tried 2 experiments. This is where my lack of experience shows itself. 1st, I tried adding the "missing" ingredients from the Chess pie recipe to the Chocolate pie recipe; The cornmeal, and the flour. It was a disaster. The pie was almost inedible. The taste of the chocolate, and the sweetness, were severely diminished. And there were weird tiny chewy bits. I almost had the texture I wanted, but the taste just wasn't there.

So I try a 2nd time. This time I added 3 tablespoons of cocoa(6 total), 1/2 a cup of sugar(2 cups total), the tablespoon of cornmeal, and the tablespoon of flour, and also added 2 egg yolks(because I didn't know what I use doing, it just sounded right). Even though it was convoluted, this pie came out better... taste wise. The problem with this one was, the top coating ended up burning because the pie filling wouldn't set. The top coating was hard like a burned cookie, and it was also thick. And that top coating didn't taste great at all on it's on. The filling on it's own was eh'. But the filling and the top coating together were surprisingly pretty good. Edible, but nothing to be proud of. Also, those annoying tiny chewy bits were back. That burned top coating was also separated from the filling, looking at it from the side. So again, not a great pie.

(Note: One time I ended up using light butter instead of regular butter, for the Chess Pie, because we were out of regular butter. A similar hard, thick, top coating formed in a large circle in the middle of most of the pie. This top coating wasn't separated from the filling though, and it tasted a lot better than the chocolate one did. Like sweet little chess pie chips. The filling was also fine.)

I've entertained the idea of doing a science experiment where I isolate a single ingredient and add/remove it to see how it affects the pie. As fun as it sounds, it would be a lot of work over several weeks, and I'm kind of obsessing over this now so I'm trying to avoid that. Again, thank you all so much for your time and effort.

You actually had the right idea about adding the missing ingredients. But add the missing ingredients to the chess pie not chocolate pie.

Chocolate chess pie is in fact a variation of chess pie. Just Google chocolate chess pie. There’s a zillion different recipes out there. Look for a recipe that is very similar to your grandmothers recipe both in ingredients, mixing, and baking methods. Then incorporate the chocolate chess pie ingredients into your grandmother’s recipe.

 

[TristanSynth]

You actually had the right idea about adding the missing ingredients. But add the missing ingredients to the chess pie not chocolate pie.

Chocolate chess pie is in fact a variation of chess pie. Just Google chocolate chess pie. There’s a zillion different recipes out there. Look for a recipe that is very similar to your grandmothers recipe both in ingredients, mixing, and baking methods. Then incorporate the chocolate chess pie ingredients into your grandmother’s recipe.

I've been looking through different recipes, and I've found one that uses salt and flour. It doesn't use any unfamiliar ingredients, and I guess it's as close to the chess pie recipe as it can get. Because of the added flour, it needs more cocoa, and it uses another egg. Some of the ingredients were also written in a different system, so I'll have to measure them before seeing if they are the same amount or not. Thank you so much for your reply, on both threads!