Lemon Chess Pie

Lemon Chess Pie from Vintage Pies : Classic American Pies for Today’s Home Baker by Anne Haynie Collins.

My friend Anne Collins’ love affair with pie began over forty years ago, at a family picnic. She recalls, “When I was eight or nine, one of my grandmother’s uncles said he “wisht” he had a piece of Pearl’s amber pie.” You’ve never heard of amber pie? Anne’s grandmother Pearl, who was known for her pie making, explained to her that amber pie was made when the pecan crop was poor. It’s basically a pecan pie without the pecans. The crust is lined with a layer of tart jelly to offset the sweet base of butter, eggs and sugar. Born out of thrift and ingenuity, amber pie was a classic pie found in Southern kitchens a hundred years ago.

Old-fashioned pies and family history inspired Anne to write the new cookbook Vintage Pies: Classic American Pies for Today’s Home Baker. The book features her great great grandmother’s piecrust recipe from the 1860s and forty-five vintage pies. Today I am going to share with you one of Anne’s favorites, Lemon Chess Pie.

Anne remembers family stories spilling out like flour while she and her grandmother rolled dough and trimmed crusts together. As a child she began asking everyone she met the same question: “What kind of pie did you make or eat when you were growing up?”

She would always get the best stories.

Anne collected her pie stories and recipes on notecards; pies with funny names like Tears on Your Pillow Pie, Gravel Pie and Bob Andy Pie.

One day her sister said: “You have a book” in that stack of recipe cards.

A hundred years ago women did not have much money or extra time to bake pies. They baked with common ingredients found in their pantries like butter, sugar, eggs and spices. Pies were served at all three meals of the day; packed up and taken to potlucks and family parties, weddings and funerals.

Vintage pies, like the recipe below, require simple techniques and are relatively easy to reproduce.

Don’t worry if your crust shrinks or your filling bubbles over. Anne says: “A pie’s purpose is not to be beautiful; rather, to be eaten and savored.”

So get out your rolling pin. You’ll need an unbaked piecrust and just five vintage ingredients: lemon, butter, eggs, sugar and cornmeal. Recipes for both Lemon Chess Pie and Anne’s Single Piecrust are below. And checkout the recipe for Anne’s Apple Pie. Short on time? Buy an already made pie crust and dig in to Lemon Chess Pie!

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