Lemon Chess Pie

With Marilynn and Sheila Brass

This is a simple, quick, economical recipe for a delicious lemon pie and is a perfect example of what the Brass Sisters can do with an heirloom recipe. They found it written on the back of a church cookbook from the forties or fifties. Lemon Chess Pie originated in the southern United States around 1875. It is adapted from an English recipe, which referred to it as a “cheese pie” because the filling formed a lemon curd like a cheese. You will need just a bowl and whisk to make this recipe. You could even use a spoon. This is a very delicate pie, and because you’re baking it at a fairly high temperature, 375ºF, you may have to tent it with foil to prevent the crust from browning too quickly.

Ingredients

1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
4 eggs
2 cups sugar
¼ cup butter, melted
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon corn meal
¼ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (1 lemon)
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup lemon juice (1 lemon)
Sprinkle of nutmeg on top (optional)

Instructions

1. Set the oven rack in the middle position. Preheat the oven to 375º F. Coat a 9-inch ovenproof glass pie plate with vegetable spray.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, corn meal and salt and set aside.
3. Using a whisk, beat eggs in a bowl. Add sugar and butter and whisk into eggs. Add dry ingredients and combine. Add grated lemon zest, milk and vanilla to mixture. Add lemon juice and whisk quickly to combine. Pour into prepared pie shell. Sprinkle with nutmeg if desired.
4. Bake pie for 20 minutes and cover with tented foil or ring made of foil if crust is browning too quickly. Do not allow foil to touch the filling. Continue baking for another 25 minutes and check to see if center is still loose. If loose, (not wobbly) cover again with foil and bake another 5 minutes.
5. Remove pie from oven and place on wire rack to cool. Place pie in refrigerator, uncovered, for at least three hours before cutting. 6. Filling will form custard-like curd. Decorate with puffs of sweetened whipped cream around the edge of pie before serving.

Leftover pie should be loosely wrapped with wax paper and stored in refrigerator.

Recipe courtesy of Marilynn and Sheila Brass, The Brass Sisters, 2009.

Authors of "Heirloom Baking With The Brass Sisters" and "Heirloom Cooking With The Brass Sisters;" â?¨Hosts of "The Brass Sisters: Queens of Comfort Food"

From their web site:

We are two roundish bespectacled women in our sixties who have a combined total of 114 years of home baking and cooking experience. We have always felt comfortable in the kitchen because we learned to bake and cook at a very early age. Our mother, Dorothy, was an inspired home cook, and the meals she produced when we lived on Sea Foam Avenue, in Winthrop, Massachusetts, more than 60 years ago are still memorable.

More than thirty years ago we discovered manuscript cookbooks, those collections of personal recipes compiled by home cooks. Handwritten notes on crumbling scraps of paper or the pages of old, well-worn cookbooks led us to “lost” family recipes. Recipe collections that survived were typically gathered together in small bundles, stitched, tied, stapled, or boxed, and handed down to the next generation. These forgotten bundles of culinary history turn up at yard sales and flea markets, in used bookstores, and on the pantry shelves of friends. Over the years, we have acquired more than 150 of these collections of living recipes.

Writing Heirloom Baking and Heirloom Cooking has been a labor of love. We are dedicated to recovering, updating and — above all — enjoying the best home recipes from America’s past. By presenting these recipes simply and with a contemporary flair, we are hoping to help a new generation of cooks and their families discover and enjoy the special tastes of the culturally diverse American kitchen.