My friend Susie gave me a chess pie recipe a few weeks ago. Since everyone I know, at least here in the South, has their own “famous” chess pie recipe, I figured this one must be pretty good if she thought I should give it a shot. I was intrigued because it was a brown sugar chess pie and it had just plain old milk instead of evaporated milk. The recipe got filed away in my index of things I want to cook and generally forget.
One night last weekend around 5:30 my son reminded me that he had invited friends over and I was cooking “something Mexican”. Well damn if I remembered that, but like most moms who know how to get meals on the table fast, I can practically make enchiladas in my sleep. This house is rarely without an avocado or two to say nothing of rice and beans. Leftover grilled chicken was a lucky plus that made the dinner a little easier. I pulled together a pan of enchiladas, got out stuff for refried beans and a salad and was just sitting down to think about how clever I was when THE QUESTION arose from my son’s best friend – What’s for dessert?
I don’t even know why I remembered the recipe for the brown sugar chess pie but I did and realized that everything to make the pie was present and accounted for here in my kitchen. So I looked that sweet boy I’ve known since he was a toddler right in the eye and said - Mexican Pie.
I mean for heaven’s sake what is a chess pie but a flan in a crust…well maybe with a little (or a lot) more butter. So that’s what I made, a Mexican Pie, aka: Brown Sugar Chess Pie. It’s highly possible that I have eaten well over a thousand chess pies in my life. I mean, if you count one a month, a pretty low estimation in my opinion, that seems reasonable. But even as a jaded chess pie connoisseur, I have to admit, this chess pie was spectacular. The brown sugar gave it a rich molasses taste, I subbed half & half for the milk and that certainly didn’t hurt. A little whipped cream – ok – spiked with a touch of rum – and a few slices of strawberries completed the “look”, and a Mexican Pie was born. I guess that’s what it will always be know as in our house, and since I told “the pie lie” I suppose I’ll just have to live with it. I know you have your own chess pie recipe, but you’ve got to try The Pie Lie – Mexican Pie. Si muy bueno!
Mexican Pie (i.e. Brown Sugar Chess Pie)
Ingredients
2 Tbsp flour
1 cup brown sugar (I used light)
½ cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter (1 stick)
2 eggs, beaten
½ cup Half & Half (or milk)
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
1 pie unbaked shell - purchased or make your own You’re Grown-Now You Can Cook pg. 63
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk first seven ingredients together in a large bowl.
Pour into the pie shell.
Bake for 35 minutes or until pie tests done.
(It will be puffy when it comes out of the oven, but will settle as it cools)
Cool before serving.
Whipped cream and strawberries earn extra points, but are not required!
