Checkmate!

I had never even heard of chess pie until about two years ago. Betsy and I were picking out a caterer for our wedding and when we finally selected one, we told him that we were going to make our own desserts.

He was totally cool with this, but he did recommend that we at least try his chess pie. Considering I had never even heard of chess pie, I was pretty skeptical.

After taking one bite, we ordered a bunch of them. I had no idea what was in it, but it was good. Some sort of deep rich custard mixture in a pie shell. I had to immediately apologize for eating half of the poor man’s pie before he even knew what happened.

While traditionally chess pie has a lemon base, I decided to change it up a bit and try one with a chocolate and orange flavor. It kind of turned out like one of those chocolate oranges you can get over the holidays, except in pie form.

In other words, freakin’ good.

It’s a really rich pie and one could easily serve 10-12 people. It would be a great and unique pie for the holidays!

Chocolate Orange Chess Pie

Yield: Serves 12.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Crust:
3 cups graham crackers, crushed
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon sugar
1 pinch of salt

Filling:
8 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 orange, zest only
1/4 cup orange juice
4 large eggs
1 pinch of salt

Helpful Equipment:
Zester
Tart pan with removable bottom

Directions:

1) For crust, crush graham crackers until they are finely ground. The easiest way to do this is to pulse them in a food processor, but you can break them up by putting them in a plastic bag and rolling them with a rolling pin also.

2) Mix melted butter in with graham crackers and add sugar and salt. Mix well.

3) Press crust mixture into a 10 inch tart pan with a removable bottom. You can also use a normal pie pan if you don't have one of these.

4) Bake the crust at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Then let it cool.

5) For filling, melt butter and chocolate in a pan over low heat.

6) Stir in sugar, cornmeal, vanilla, salt and orange ingredients. Make sure mixture is roughly room temperature and then beat in the eggs.

7) Pour filling into prepared crust and bake the pie for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

8) Let pie cool on a wire rack for 15-20 minutes before serving.

Making the Crust

I used my standard graham cracker crust for this recipe. When you’re crushing up your graham crackers, you can use a food processor or take it as an opportunity to get some aggression out!

Just stick all the crackers in a large plastic bag and whack them with a rolling pin until they are finely ground.

Then mix them with your other crust ingredients. Be sure to measure out your 3 cups of graham crackers after you crush them into bits.

Making the crust.

I used a cool tart pan with a removable bottom for this pie, but you could use any pie dish that you have.

Just add your graham cracker mixture to the pie dish and pack it evenly around the bottom and up the edges of the dish. I use a combination of my hands and a measuring cup to make sure the crust is really packed in evenly. Take your time with this step. You want a nice even crust.

Take your time here...

Once you’re happy with your crust, bake it at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes and then let it cool.

Meanwhile, you can…

Make the Filling

This filling is really close to fudge. It doesn’t have flour in it though so it’s more custard-like I guess. Whatever you want to call it, it’s very rich and perfect for a pie.

Start by melting your chocolate and butter together in a pan over low heat. I actually use a metal bowl over some boiling water (double boiler) just to make sure my stuff doesn’t burn.

Hard to go wrong here...

Once it’s melted, there’s a few key ingredients that need to get whisked in to the filling. You can take it off the heat after everything is melted.

Sugar, vanilla, and salt are all pretty standard ingredients, but one that really makes this filling is orange zest.

You’ll need a zester for this obviously.

Balance!

When you’re zesting, try to just get the orange part of the zest. If you get a lot of the white part of the peel, then it starts to get a bit bitter.

You will only be able to get a teaspoon or so of zest off of one orange, but the zest is really flavorful. It will be plenty to flavor the filling.

Aggressive zesting.

I also stirred in a small amount of orange juice just to round out the orange flavors.

The other secret ingredient that you might not think about is cornmeal. One tablespoon will do the trick, but it just gives the filling some body.

It’s the ingredient that will give the filling a texture that people won’t expect. You could leave it out and the filling would still work, but it’s a nice touch.

Secret ingredient alert!

Finally, make sure that your filling has cooled down to around room temperature and then mix in your eggs.

Stir this all together and your filling is done!

A filling... a soup... whatever.

Baking the Pie

Pour your filling into your prepared pie crust. Keep in mind the filling will puff up as it cooks so make sure you have 1/2 inch of space at the top. Don’t fill the pie all the way up even if you have enough filling to do so.

Looking good.

Bake this bad boy for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees.

It’ll come out of the oven puffed and beautiful.

Looking better!

Chess pie is really just fudge pie in my opinion. The top of the pie gets a bit crunchy, but the filling is just like a delicious fudge.

This should go without saying but the chocolate and orange flavors are awesome together. That was just a no brainer!

This is a dense slice!

If you’re sick of the classic pumpkin pie every year, try out chess pie. It’s rich just like a pumpkin pie and can be served with whipped cream.

I was really happy with how this turned out.

Any chess pie fans out there? Leave a comment!

Layers of delicious.

Ok. So I cheated on cookie week. These aren’t technically cookies. But they are dessert that you eat with your hands and they also happen to be really good.

So I hope that you’ll forgive me that I abandoned my own cookie week on Day 3 to bring you a bar instead of a cookie.

These bars are filled with a creamy coffee mixture that is pretty awesome for anytime you need a little pick-me-up.

Coffee Cream Bars

Yield: 16 bars.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 4 hours

Ingredients:

Crust:
1 Cup graham crackers, crushed
2 Tablespoons sugar
3 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 Teaspoon gelatin
2/3 Cup strong coffee
8 ounces cream cheese
1/2 Cup sugar
2 Eggs
Pinch of salt

Chocolate toppings:
3 ounces bittersweet chocolate
4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

Directions:

1) Line an 8x8 baking dish with foil, laying a sheet in both directions.

2) Combine crumbled crackers, butter, and sugar in a bowl and mix well. Pack mixture into baking pan and use a flat instrument (measuring cup) to press the crust down until it's flat.

3) Bake at 325 degrees for 10 minutes and then cool.

4) For filling, add room temp coffee and sugar to a mixing bowl. Sprinkle gelatin over liquid and let sit for 5 minutes.

5) Add other filling ingredients and mix either with a hand mixer or stand mixer with whisk attachment until the filling is smooth.

6) Pour filling into graham cracker crust.

7) Bake in a hot water bath for 45 minutes at 325 degrees.

8) Cool at room temperature for 2 hours, then cover and chill in fridge for an hour.

9) For topping, melt chocolate and butter together over a double boiler or in the microwave if you're careful. Let chocolate cool a bit and then pour over cream bars and spread out evenly.

10) Chill until chocolate hardens, 30 minutes to an hour.

11) Lift up foil to remove bars. The foil should peel right off.

12) Slice with a hot knife and wipe the knife clean between each slice if you're concerned with having really clean slices.

13) Serve in cupcake cups.

Adapted from a Smitten Kitchen recipe.

The First Layer

These bars have three basic layers to them. The most intimidating layer is probably the middle one, but let’s start at the beginning.

These lovely bars sit on a graham cracker crust which, if you’ve never made before, it’s dumb simple to do.

Start with these three simple ingredients.

Makings for a crust.

Then line an 8 inch baking dish with foil. It’s best to lay overlapping sheets of foil going in opposite directions. Make sure you get the foil pressed nicely against the dish walls.

In a small bowl, combine the crumbled graham crackers with the sugar and melted butter.

Next, pour down all your graham cracker mixture into the bottom of the pan and use a flat surface like a measuring cup to pack in the crust really well.

Bake the crust at 325 degrees for about 10 minutes.

The crust should end up lightly browned around the edges. Let this cool before you do anything with it.

Lightly browned.

The Second Layer

This is the layer that’s worrisome. It seems like there’s a lot that could go wrong, but have no fear, the custard/gelatin mixture is really sturdy and will hold up just fine.

You just need a few ingredients for this layer, the most important of which is very strong coffee. Note that if you’re using gelatin, then these guys become a non-vegetarian deal. It might be possible to make a custard that’s sturdy enough without the gelatin, but it would be tricky I think.

Strong coffee is important.

Add your coffee (room temp) and sugar into a mixing bowl and sprinkle gelatin over it. Let the gelatin dissolve for 5 minutes. Mix together with a hand mixer or stand mixer with the whisk attachment. You could also just use a whisk, but you might be in for a workout.

Next, whisk in the cream cheese and eggs together and add a pinch of salt. Mix this until the mixture is really creamy and there are no lumps. This might take a few minutes but it should eventually smooth out.

Then just pour the mixture into your graham cracker crust!

Action shot!

Slow Food

Getting the bars ready for step 3 requires a bit of time. Here’s the procedure I used to make sure the coffee/cream layer is set nicely.

1) Bake the dish in a water bath for 45 minutes at 325 degrees. Your 8 inch baking dish should fit perfectly into a 9×13 inch dish so just add that setup to your oven and then pour boiling water into the larger pan until it comes halfway up the side of the smaller pan.

2) Remove the dish and let it cool at room temperature for 2 hours.

3) Then cover it and chill it in the fridge for an hour.

If you’re keeping track, that’s about 4 hours of stuff. It’s pretty important though if you want your bars to be set nicely. So watch a movie or something while you wait for these guys to set up.

Layer Three

Once the center layer is chilled and set, you can prep the top layer of chocolate.

The chocolate layer is really easy to make. Just add chocolate and butter to a double boiler (I use a metal bowl over a pan with some boiling water in it) and whisk until chocolate is melted.

Let the chocolate cool for a few minutes just so it isn’t too hot and then pour it onto your bars!

Chocolate on top.

Spread this out and let it chill thoroughly for another 30 minutes to an hour so the chocolate and set up firmly as well.

Slicing the bars

I got a bit sloppy with my slicing, but if you use a sharp hot knife (heat it under hot water and then dry it off), it should slice right through the bars. Be sure to take your bars out of the pan and foil before slicing them!

Be sure to wipe off the knife after every slice. I did a four by four slicing pattern which yields 16 good sized bars.

If you’re traveling with these bars, it helps to have some cupcake tins to keep them in because they are kind of messy.

Cupcake papers are important.

Even though the filling looks light, it actually ended up having a pretty rich coffee flavor. There’s not a lot of other flavors going on so you can really taste the coffee.

Sure, these things do take some time, but they are a pretty unique treat I think. If you’re baking cookies or something on a weekend, you could make these while you work on other stuff.

Sorry for cheating. I’ll be back tomorrow with an actual cookie!

Don’t get me wrong, I can do healthy, but if I’m going to make a pie or a tart or something, I generally want it to be delicious and not half-assed. So I’m very skeptical about light recipes, but it did look really good so I gave it a shot and tried to restrain myself from making too many adjustments to the recipe.

Not quite as light as the original recipe...

There were a few changes that I couldn’t help but make though. First, they call it a tart. To me, it’s a cheesecake. Semantics I guess. Second, I’m sorry but their crust recipe was just not going to work for me. I tried it and I couldn’t get it to stick together.

Also, I don’t believe in low fat cream cheese. Sorry, but that’s just the way I feel!

Pumpkin Bourbon Cheesecake

Yield: One Pie.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes + cooling time

Ingredients:

Crust: (From How to Cook Everything)
1.5 cups graham cracker crumbs (about two sheets crumbled)
4 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/4 Cup sugar

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1/2 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 (15-ounce) can unsweetened pumpkin
2 large eggs
2 Tablespoons bourbon (plus some for drinkin'!)
2 Teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 Teaspoon salt
1/2 Teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 Teaspoon ground allspice

Whipped Cream:
1/3 Cup cold heavy cream
1 Tablespoon sugar
1 Teaspoon vanilla

Helpful Equipment:
Springform Pan

Directions:

1) Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

2) Start loading crust into springform pan. Use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together. Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

3) Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

4) For filling, beat together cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all other ingredients.

5) Once pie crust has cooled down, you can pour filling into crust!

6) Set pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pour 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven to create a water bath.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side.

8) Cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

9) Whisk all the whip cream ingredients together and then dollop it on top!

Adapted from Cooking Light.

Making the Crust

I really did try to make the crust from the original recipe and I couldn’t get it to work out. I didn’t want to risk it falling apart so I just used a recipe that I’ve used before. It’s pretty surefire.

A simple, normal graham cracker crust.

Crush up your graham crackers (or you can buy crumbs if you want) and then add your sugar and drizzle in your melted butter. Mix everything together with a fork. It should be loose, but if you press on it, it should clump together.

Clumping is good.

Start loading it into your springform pan (or you can use a normal pie pan I guess). One trick I learned, I think from Alton Brown, is to use a measuring cup to press down the crumbs. Work around the edge with the measuring cup until all the edges are about the same thickness and pressed firmly together.

Work slowly and make sure it is all really packed down well. It’s very important to have a good sturdy crust.

Get it?

Bake this crust in a 350 degree oven for 8-10 minutes. Then let it cool completely on a wire rack. It should harden up nicely as it cools.

Making the filling

I used nice bourbon for the recipe not because I think it’s necessarily important for the pie, but because I intend to drink the leftovers and so I bought the good stuff.

You’ll need a variety of other ingredients as well. The only other change, besides the crust, that I made to this recipe was to sub in real cream cheese. I don’t trust low fat cream cheese! Give me the real stuff please.

Filling ingredients.

Start by beating together your cream cheese and sugars. Once they are well incorporated and light, add the eggs and pumpkin (be sure to buy 100% pumpkin and not the pumpkin pie filling). Mix that all together and then add all your other ingredients.

It’s a pretty quick filling to pull together actually. I used whole spices and ground them up myself, but feel free to just use ground stuff if that’s what you have available.

Yum.

Once your pie crust has cooled down, you can pour your filling into your crust!

Don't worry. The filling is pretty runny at this point.

Baking the cheesecake

You need to bake this in a water bath to ensure that your filling sets and stays moist. I did this by setting my pie pan on a large baking sheet and then pouring 1 Cup of boiling water around the pan right before sticking it in the oven.

The water will form steam and help the pie set up nicely.

Water bath!

Bake this creation at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the center barely wiggles when you tap the side. Again cool the pie to room temperature on a wire rack and then refrigerate it for at least 4 hours.

Eating the Cheesecake!

Ok. There aren’t really any instructions on how to eat it. You know how to do that. What’s nice about the springform pan is that you can take out the entire cheesecake which makes it really easy to cut and serve.

Some tiny pieces of my crust fell off in the process, but in general it held together fine.

Spring form pans are pretty sweet.

If you are making your own whipped cream, just whisk all the above ingredients together and then dollop it on top! Honestly, the cheesecake is pretty good without the whipped cream also so if you’re looking to really save some calories that might be the place to do it.

How pretty is that?!

Ok… so I stayed pretty true to the recipe. I think my changes definitely improve the final product (especially the crust). Granted I didn’t taste them side by side, but I just have a feeling that my version is worth the few extra calories.

I can say this because, well, my version turned out delicious.

I think this would be a pretty great alternative to the classic pumpkin pie for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving feast.