Happy Pi Day! "Aunt Julia's Chocolate Pie"

Happy Pi Day! My cute dad gave me a "Pi" plate for Christmas this year, and I couldn't let Pi Day pass without making a pie in my pi plate.

Unfortunately, as I've mentioned here before, I don't love pie. It's just about my least favorite form of dessert. Dudley likes pies that aren't fruit pies, but he gave up sweets for Lent. I was pondering Pi Day and pies and he started waxing poetic about his love for "chocolate meringue pie." We had such a funny conversation about chocolate meringue pies and the chocolate pie that I remember eating as a child, black bottom pie, that I decided I definitely needed to make a chocolate pie for Pi Day. I found several recipes that I'd like to try (if you're interested, I think I'm going to be on a bit of a chocolate pie kick for the next couple of months), but I settled on this recipe from Virginia Willis's cookbook, Bon Appétit, Y'all, because it seemed closest to the pie that Dudley loves so much. 

 

Sooooo, I don't know about you, but meringue pies and I do not get along. My meringue pies weep, they shrink, and I can never achieve the fabulous fluffy peaks of my dreams. I'll admit that I was a little sad to hear Dudley profess his love for chocolate meringue pie. Not chocolate cream pie or the aforementioned black bottom pie? Meringue . . . really? I passed over a couple of chocolate meringue recipes, but I stopped on this one because I love Bon Appétit, Y'all. If I'm being honest, I'm a sucker for the whole "southern cookbook" genre, but this particular book is a gem. Each recipe is introduced with a story, and it's actually a lovely cookbook to read. This recipe begins with Willis stating that this is "hands down my favorite dessert." I cried uncle right then and there. I was definitely going to make this pie . . . weepy meringue and all. 

Notes on this recipe:

- I used Willis's recipe for All American Pie Crust, you can find the recipe here. It's a superb pie crust (very similar to Dorie's "Good for Everything Pie Crust"), Dudley said that the crust "might be the best part of the pie."

- When boiling the milk-flour mixture before you add the eggs, make sure to stir this mixture! My cocoa powder settled as I was "multi-tasking" and I nearly had a custard catastrophe as if I'd left it much longer, I think it would have cooked to the bottom of the pan.

- So, Willis begins the recipe by stating that she tried to "improve upon" this recipe with techniques that she learned in culinary school, and none of these worked. Every improvement resulted in a custard that wouldn't set, and she says "If it's not broke, don't fix it." I couldn't get that out of my head as I was trying to figure out how to add the egg yolks to the boiling milk-cocoa mixture. Surely you can't just add the egg yolks without tempering them? But the recipe doesn't say to temper the egg yolks . . . I ended up tempering mine and I think it was a good decision. 

- My custard took about 30 seconds to thicken after I added the tempered egg yolks.

- I understand why a hand mixer is better than a stand mixer for beating egg whites, but I don't have a hand mixer. I used the KA and just started slowly and increased the speed after I added the powdered sugar. 

- This recipe, from start to finish, is a fairly simple recipe. I did have a lot of dirty dishes, though.

Well, if you're wondering . . . Dudley loved this pie. He declared it "amazing" and I think that it lived up to his childhood recollections of chocolate meringue pie. I had a small bite of the chocolate part of the pie and it's very tasty. The crust is excellent, and my merigue is sad. Yup, weeping present. I've done some research on meringue (Cook's Illustrated had an awesome article awhile ago) but if you have any meringue tips, I'd love to read about them!

Aunt Julia's Chocolate Pie
Bon Appétit, Y'all
makes one 9" pie

Ingredients:
1 prebaked 9" pie crust
1 cup granulated sugar
2 cups whole milk
3 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
3 large eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Pinch fine sea salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.

To prepare the pie filling, in a saucepan, combine 1 cup of the milk with the 1 cup of granulated sugar. Set aside.

In a bowl, combine  the remaining 1 cup of milk, the flour, and cocoa powder in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to combine. (Mama uses a shaker and shakes the mixture until it is well combined and frothy.) Set aside.

Heat the saucepan with the milk-sugar over medium-high heat until simmering. Slowly add the milk-flour mixture and stir to combine. Bring to a boil. Add the egg yolks, whisking constantly, until it returns to a boil. Once the mixture comes to a boil, add the vanilla and remove it from the heat.

Pour the mixture into the baked pie crust. Set aside.

To make the meringue topping, place the egg whites in a non-reactive bowl with a pinch of salt. Add the cream of tartar and, using a hand-held mixer, whisk on high speed until foamy. Sift over the confectioners' sugar a little at a time and whisk until the whites are glossy and hold stiff peaks when the whisk is lifted.

To finish the pie, spoon the meringue over the pie, making sure it touches the edges of the pie crust. Bake until golden brown, 3-5 minutes. Move to rack to cool completely and set, then serve.