Chess Pie: A sweet, Southern custard delight

In 19th-century Alabama, as one of many tales goes, a freed slave made a living selling pies to her neighbors. During a time when pecans and other nuts were hard to come by, she made a sugar pie, combining eggs, sugar, flour or cornmeal, butter, and spices or citrus to cut the sweetness. Asked what kind of pie she had made, the woman replied, "Oh it's jes' pie." And so, supposedly, the name "Chess Pie" was coined.

Rewind to England, hundreds of years earlier, where cooks and housemaids combined ingredients prone to spoilage with sugar, a thing that helps suffocate those thirsty microbes that make milk and unsalted butter go bad. The heavy custard consisted of the usual suspects: Eggs, butter, cream, so much sugar, flour, whatever spices you could find. The pie could be kept unrefrigerated in a "chest" for however long it lasted, and the longer it sat there, the better the flavor was said to become. And so, supposedly, the name "Chess Pie" was coined.

Chess pie and its many Southern variations - including vinegar pie, transparent pie and Tyler pie (a favorite of Edna Lewis', putatively named for President John Tyler and perfected by the women of Miss Lewis' hometown of Freetown, Virginia) - is my favorite pie.

All these pies are made from "not having" - using vinegar when citrus was hard to come by, cornmeal for flour, buttermilk in place of fresh milk. All with the same result: A sweet custard that can withstand the weather, using whatever you have on hand, whatever the larder or season.

CELEBRATION PIE

SERVINGS: (Makes two 9-inch pies)

This recipe makes two pies, pastry chef Lisa Donovan says, because you should always make more than one pie when going to any kind of effort to make pie at all. Plus, then you get to give one away, which seems to be the best and most important reason to make a pie in this life.

MAKE AHEAD: The pies can be held at room temperature for up to 24 hours, then refrigerate for up to 3 days.

From Lisa Donovan, pastry chef and food writer in Nashville.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup chestnut flour

• 6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or the scrapings from 1/2 vanilla bean

• 2 1/4 cups pure cane sugar

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons full-fat buttermilk

• 6 large eggs

• Finely grated lemon zest of 1/2 lemon

• Two single-crust 9-inch pie shells, frozen

Steps

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven; preheat to 425 degrees.

Toast the chestnut flour in a small skillet over medium-low heat for a few minutes, until its aroma starts to release and the flour becomes a light-tan color.

Go slow here, so as not to burn your flour; you are just looking to warm the flavor up. Pour the toasted flour into a mixing bowl, then return the pan to medium-low heat.

Add the butter to the pan; once it has melted, remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla bean paste. Cool slightly.

Whisk together the sugar, all-purpose flour and salt into the toasted chestnut flour.

Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs and lemon zest in a separate bowl or large liquid measuring cup, stir in the butter-vanilla mixture.

Add the buttermilk mixture to the flour mixture, stirring until well incorporated. There is no such thing as "overmixing" here, but be sure not to incorporate too much air. This is your pie filling.

Take the pie shells out of freezer and place each one on a baking sheet. Divide the filling evenly, pouring into each pie shell; the level of filling should be below the rim of the pies; do not overfill.

Transfer the pies to the oven (upper and lower racks); as soon as you close the oven door, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back after the first 30 minutes. When the pies are done, their filling should have only a slight wiggle at the center, but be mostly set.

Once they have cooled to room temperature, cover loosely and refrigerate for a few hours to chill thoroughly. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Nutrition per serving: 180 calories, 3 g protein, 26 g carbohydrates, 8 g fat, 3 g saturated fat, 55 mg cholesterol, 135 mg sodium, 0 g dietary fiber, 19 g sugar