Chess Squares Recipe | Simple Southern Dessert Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the origin of the chess cake? ›

Another story that points to chess pie's English roots says that English cooks combined spoil-prone ingredients like butter and eggs with sugar to keep them from going bad and used that to create a pie that could be kept unrefrigerated in a chest. “Chest” became “chess,” and the rest is pie history.

Compared to other custard-based pastries, the chess pie holds up relatively well at room temperature. Often, it was stored in something called a "pie chest." The word "chest," some say, eventually became "chess." Southern gentlemen liked to enjoy the dessert after dinner while they played chess.

Queen Elizabeth cake is a lightly sweet, moist, and low-fat date cake, topped with a brown sugar, butter and broiled coconut mixture. "Queen Elizabeth cake" is named after the Queen of Canada, Elizabeth II, and may have first been made in 1953 for her coronation.

A two-tier Godfather themed cake featuring all hand-modeled and edible elements from the classic movie. The cake is lemon chiffon with a delicious raspberry butter-cream filling, covered in dark chocolate ganache and LMM fondant.

Is chess pie the same as pecan pie? Nope, there's no nuts in chess pie! The two Thanksgiving pies do, however, share a similar caramelized, custardy base that's decadently rich and sweet.

And so, supposedly, the name “Chess Pie” was coined. Chess pie and its many Southern variations — including vinegar pie, transparent pie and Tyler pie (a favorite of Edna Lewis's, putatively named for President John Tyler and perfected by the women of Miss Lewis's hometown of Freetown, Va.)

“After reading through one of my older cookbooks, it's important to note that while most chess pies — especially the ones we see today — have dairy in them, some do not. Cornmeal as a stabilizer in the filling is distinct to chess pie.” Buttermilk is the main factor in differentiating the two pies.

What is the difference between this pie and custard pie? While both pies have a custard filling, the main difference is that chess pie has cornmeal in the filling. There is also acidity added (from the cider vinegar) to balance out the sweetness of the chess pie.

However, chess pie is made with cornmeal to thicken the filling, whereas buttermilk pies generally only use all-purpose flour.

The filling is typically produced by folding meringue into a mixture resembling fruit curd (most commonly lemon) that has been thickened with unflavored gelatin to provide a light, airy texture; it is thus distinguished from a cream pie or mousse pie, which achieve lightness by folding in whipped cream rather than ...

What is chocolate chess pie made of? ›

The custardy filling is made with eggs, sugar, milk, butter, cornmeal, vanilla, and unsweetened chocolate. The filling gets baked into an all-butter pie crust until it's just set in the middle and crackly on top, just like your favorite brownies! What's the cornmeal do in chocolate chess pie?

During a time when pecans and other nuts were hard to come by, she made a sugar pie, combining eggs, sugar, flour or cornmeal, butter, and spices or citrus to cut the sweetness. Asked what kind of pie she had made, the woman replied, “Oh it's jes' pie.” And so, supposedly, the name “Chess Pie” was coined.

Chess pie is a dessert with a filling composed mainly of flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and sometimes milk, characteristic of Southern United States cuisine.

The Takeout likens the texture of chess pie to whipped honey, and the surface of it to crème brûlée. Because buttermilk or vinegar is sometimes added, there can also be an undercurrent of tartness. Many recipes also call for lemon juice, and the result is a texture and flavor that can resemble old-fashioned lemon bars.