Classic Chess Pie

Gooey, buttery, and supremely sweet, chess pie has been a staple of the Southern dessert table for a couple hundred years. Classic chess pie calls for butter, sugar, and eggs, but bakers differ when it comes to the thickening agent: Some prefer flour, while others prefer cornmeal, but ours uses both.

Why is it called chess pie? There are plenty of versions of that story. Some say the dessert evolved into the Southern classic we know today from the "cheese pies" the English and early American colonists made using cheese curds and custard. Others say the name came about because it was kept in pie "chests." Then, there are the tales of a wife (or waitress, or cook) responding to a question about what she was baking or serving up that day by saying "I don't know, it's ches' pie" in a thick Southern drawl.

Whatever the true origins of the name, there's absolutely no disputing that a chess pie will be a crowd-pleaser every time you serve it. Even better? Our recipe uses premade piecrust, so pulling one together for last-minute celebrations is a breeze.

What Makes a Chess Pie a Chess Pie?

Classic chess pie pairs a traditional butter pie crust with a sweet, custardy filling made with sugar, butter, and eggs. Flour and cornmeal thicken the filling and vanilla enhances the creamy custard. And did we mention that the unlikely secret ingredient of this sweet and gooey pie is vinegar?

Ingredients for Chess Pie

Besides the vinegar, most of these ingredients are standard for baking recipes, so this is really an easy one to make when you're in need of a great dessert in a hurry.

• Pie crusts, aluminum foil, pie weights: We made things easy with a refrigerated piecrust, but you'll still need to do the fitting and crimping. For even easier results, use a frozen pie crust that's ready to go.
• Sugar: Adds sweetness and thickness to the custard.
• Cornmeal: Along with flour, cornmeal helps thicken up the chess pie's custard.
• Flour: For thickness and body in the custard.
• Salt: A little salt balances the pie's sweetness.
• Butter: Use unsalted, but if you only have salted, cut back on the salt you add.
• Milk: Adds to the custard's richness.
• White vinegar: The secret ingredient. Vinegar helps to balance the sugar's sweetness.
• Vanilla extract: All baking recipes benefit from a little vanilla extract to elevate the flavors.
• Eggs: You'll need 4 for a solid custard.
• Powdered sugar: Optional, but it's a nice addition to the pie right before you serve.

Why Does Chess Pie Call for Vinegar?

Just a tablespoon of white vinegar in the filling balances out the sugary sweetness.

"Necessity is the mother of invention," as the saying goes. This was likely the reason vinegar was used a couple hundred years ago, when fresh lemon juice that we frequently use to cut sweetness in baking recipes today would have been in short supply. You won't really taste the vinegar, though—it just rounds out the taste of the sugar.

This recipe calls for white vinegar, but you can swap in any another light-colored vinegar you have on hand, like rice, apple cider, or white balsamic.

How To Make Chess Pie

For new bakers and experienced ones, chess pie is an easier baking endeavor, so know that though there are a few steps, they're all fairly easy and require very little technical skill.

The full recipe with step-by-step images is further below, but here's a brief recap to get you started:

• Step 1: Prep the crust: Fit the crust into your pieplate and fit, fold, and crimp the edges. (If you buy packaged pie shells, they've already done this work for you.)
• Step 2. Add pie weights to crust: Next, cover the crust with aluminum foil, and fill it with pie weights or dried beans, which will keep it from puffing up as it bakes.
• Step 3: Blind bake the crust: Blind baking refers to baking a crust before any filling is added. By baking the crust on its own until flaky and crisp, you prevent the filling from leeching into the crust and creating the "soggy bottom" that you always hear the contestants anxiously dreading on baking competition shows. Blind baking this crust doesn't take long, just four to five minutes in a 425°F oven. Then remove the pie weights and foil, bake for two more minutes, and set aside to cool.
• Step 4: Make the filling: Combine the sugar, cornmeal, flour, salt, melted butter, milk, white vinegar, and vanilla extract in a medium mixing bowl and stir until blended. Add the eggs, stir well to combine.
• Step 5. Add filling to pie crust: Pour the filling into the cooled crust.
• Step 6. Bake: Bake the filled pie at 350°F for 10 minutes. Then take it out of the oven and fold lengths of aluminum foil around the fluted crust. This will protect it from becoming overly browned. Return the pie to the oven and bake an additional 40 to 45 minutes.
• Step 7. Cool: Remove the aluminum foil and let cool before dusting with powdered sugar.

Southern Living Community Tips and Praise

"Followed this to a T and it came out great!," wrote one Southern Living community member. "It was just set, the top the perfect doneness…Definitely a repeat!"

"So glad finally to see the recipe for chess pie with vinegar. Been looking," wrote another reviewer. "As a 111 lb woman I eat entire pie by myself. Of course not at once."

More Chess Pies

If you love the flavor and texture of a classic chess pie, try one of these variations next:

• Apple Chess Pie
  
• Pumpkin Chess Pie
• Lemon Chess Pie
• Chocolate-Pecan Chess Pie
• Orange Chess Pie With Cranberry Gelée

Editorial Contributions by Elizabeth Brownfield.