Chocolate Pie

Old-fashioned chocolate pie (famously seen in The Help) is one of my all-time favorite desserts. Luckily, it also happens to be one of the easiest things to make, and with Thanksgiving just around the corner, we all need a dessert trick up our collective sleeve, don't we? This version comes from my new favorite cookbook, The Homesick Texan, by Lisa Fain, the writer behind the very popular blog of the same name. I love it when talented bloggers get book deals that result in beautiful additions to my collection. It's her grandmother's recipe, and it's delicious. xo


Chocolate Pie
Adapted from The Homesick Texan, by Lisa Fain
Ingredients:
Filling ingredients:
4 tablespoons of cocoa or 1 1/2 squares of baking chocolate
3/4 cups of sugar
5 tablespoons of flour
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 1/2 cups of milk
1/2 teaspoon of vanilla
2 egg yolks, beaten slightly
1 tablespoon of butter

Meringue ingredients:
2 egg whites
1/8 teaspoon of salt
4 tablespoons of sugar

Crust ingredients:
2 cups of flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup canola oil
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Make the crust: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Thoroughly combine the flour and salt in a large bowl. Mix oil and milk. Pour oil and milk into flour and salt and stir until combined into a dough. You can add more milk if dry. Roll dough into a ball and the press into a pie pan, crimping the edges with a fork or your fingers for decoration. Do this firmly and confidently for the best results. Place in your hot oven for about 20 minutes, or until lightly browned.

In the meantime, make your filling: Mix sugar, flour, salt, cocoa, eggs and milk together with a whisk.
Cook while stirring on medium until it bubbles and thickens, about 5 to 10 minutes. If it becomes lumpy, just beat out the lumps. (It will not get any thicker in the oven so cook until it's as thick as you want it.)

Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla and butter.

Make your meringue: Beat egg whites with salt and when they start to get fluffy add the sugar. Pour the chocolate custard into the baked pie shell and top with the beaten egg whites. Bake it until the peaks on the meringue are lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Enjoy!