Old Fashioned Buttermilk Chess Pie

By plilhig

Often referred to as a pantry pie because it can be made from pantry basics, chess pie is an old fashioned, southern favorite. I like to cut the sweetness of my chess pie with just a bit of buttermilk instead of sweet milk and fresh lemon juice and zest, instead of vinegar.

Ingredients

• 1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
• 1 rounded tablespoon of cornmeal
• 2 rounded tablespoons of all purpose flour
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup of butter, melted and cooled
• 1/2 cup of buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs
• Zest from one lemon, chopped fine
• Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
• 1 unbaked pie shell, homemade or commercial (Pillsbury recommended)
• Homemade whipped cream
• Freshly grated nutmeg

Details

Servings 8
Preparation time 10mins
Cooking time 45mins
Adapted from deepsouthdish.com

Preparation

Step 1

Prebake the pie shell if desired, according to package directions. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Whisk together the sugar, cornmeal, flour and salt. To that add the butter, buttermilk, and vanilla; mix. Beat the eggs, add and mix. Stir in lemon zest and juice. Place pie crust into a 9 inch pie plate and pour mixture into the pie shell.

For a classic chess pie, increase sugar to 2 cups, increase cornmeal to 2 tablespoons, omit the buttermilk and replace it with 1/4 cup of milk, omit the lemon juice & zest, and add 1 tablespoon of vinegar. All other ingredients are the same. For a chocolate version

For a traditional buttermilk pie, eliminate the cornmeal, reduce eggs to 3 and separate them - you'll beat the egg whites separate and fold those into the filling before putting it into the pie shell. Increase the buttermilk to 1-1/2 cups - everything else stays the same, except you fold in those beaten eggs whites at the end, then turn the filling into pie shell. Bake in the middle of the oven at 325 degrees for 1 hour (instead of the 350 degrees).