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For our first edition of Just Desserts, we decided
on a battle between the chess pies of culinary giants
Lee Bailey and the late James Beard. We tested pies
from both gentlemen. We share our results and a recipe
for a hybrid pie.
So what exactly is a chess
pie? Interestingly, we were hard put to find
a definitive recipe. Evidently, there's little agreement
on what a chess pie actually is. Some recipes, like
James Beard's, are very lemony, similar in flavor and
texture to a lemon bar. Some, like Mr. Bailey's version,
are more like a buttermilk pie: smooth, mild, and custardy.
Still others had varying amounts of pecans or other
nuts, which none of us had ever seen in a chess pie.
One tempting recipe looked like a cross between a buttermilk
pie and a pecan pie (but since we all agreed chess pie
is a nut-free phenomenon, we left that one for another
day). The only common component we could find was egg
yolks, which means chess pie is always a rich affair.
We decided to test the Bailey and Beard versions because
both authors are culinary heavyweights, and their two
pies were completely different, right down to the crust.
The contenders:
Lee
Bailey's Chess Pie (from Lee
Bailey's Country Desserts)
A rich, buttermilk-type pie with a graham cracker
crust.
James
Beard's Chess Pie (from the June 1963 issue
of House &
Garden, via Epicurious.com)
A super-sweet, ultra-lemony pie with a traditional
pastry crust.
The result:
Son
of Chess: the Beard-Bailey Chess Pie Hybrid
In the end, we loved elements of both pies, so we
combined the Bailey pie's texture and volume with
the Beard pie's pastry crust and lemony zing.
Whichever pie you choose, the fringe benefit is tomorrow's
breakfast: an egg white omelet.
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