Celebrating Easter with Maw-Maw’s Chess Pie

Connie McLeod’s stories about her family keep us fascinated. Here she shares a recipe that’s been enjoyed for decades. Read more from Connie on her blog.

Easter in Louisiana is yet another season when family and friends surround themselves with delicious food. My Uncle Dudley, my mom’s only sibling, has been having a family reunion at his home out in the countryside for several years. Cousins have connected for the first time and others have rediscovered each other at this annual event. The majority of family attending are connected through my Grandmother. Most of them have never tasted her baking. So this year I’m bringing her chess pie. I imagine she baked this extra sweet egg-custard pie for her family for Easter.

My Paw Paw, Maw Maw and Uncle Dudley

Her hand-written recipe just lists the ingredients on a small stained scrap of paper, now yellowed and brittle with age. I looked up the cooking details from several cookbooks.

Maw Maw’s Chess Pie

1-cup sugar
3 eggs
2 teaspoon butter (unsalted)
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons flour
2 teaspoons corn meal
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
9” pie shell

Crust: (I buy ready made though I’m sure my Maw Maw made her own.) Preheat oven to 300°. Prick bottom of shell several times with fork. Add mixture of sugar and flour and rub into the holes. Bake shell for 10 minutes. This keeps shell from becoming soggy.

Filling: Mix flour and corn meal. Add softened butter, beaten eggs, vanilla, salt and sugar. Mix well. Slowly pour in milk. Mix until blended. Pour filling into pie shell.

Bake at 350° for 45 minutes or until set.

Goes well with vanilla ice cream (but what pie doesn’t)

Other recipes you may like:

Maw Maw’s Hot Milk Cake
Maw Maw’s Cocoon Cookies
Maw Maw’s Fresh Apple Cake

I honor my maternal lineage: I am Connie Lee, daughter of Jimmie Dee, daughter of Jimmie Corrine, daughter of Minnie Mae; mother of Jade Lee-Mei.