It's J'ess pie.

Supposedly that's what a modest baker responded with when asked by friends what kind of pie they had brought to the party. Or, at least that's my favorite version of how Chess pie got its name. No one really knows for certain how this decidedly southern treat was named or what exactly it has to do with the contents of said pie (the variations of this pie are vast). What is agreed upon is that it is pretty tasty.

Before you set out to make this pie, go ahead and get your crust ready. A quick Canola Oil crust makes this pretty easy, but word on the street is that Whole Foods also makes pre-made GF crusts.

I tried the following recipe on my family and it went over really well. My mom is currently eating her second piece as we speak (she's claiming this is now her new favorite pie) and my Dad (the pickiest of eaters) even gave it a resounding, "That's a pretty good piece of pie." Personally, I found it a little dry and the middle a touch grainy. I'm going to try it again when it cools a bit more (I've a terrible habit of trying food before it cools fully. I've never been the most patient of people).

Old-Time Chess Pie

Ingredients
1 9" pie pan and crust
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoons brown rice flour
1/2 tsp xanthan gum
1/2 tsp arrowroot
1/2 cup butter, melted
4 eggs, beaten well
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.

Place your pie pan and crust onto a baking sheet*.

In a large bowl combine the sugar, flour, xanthan gum and arrowroot**. Stir with a fork to mix them well. Add the butter, eggs, and vanilla. Using a fork or a whisk, stir well to combine everything into a smooth, thick filling. Pour the filling into the pie crust.

Place the pie on the bottom shelf of the oven. Bake for 10 minutes.

Lower the heat to 350 degrees and bake until the edges puff up and the center is fairly firm -- wiggling a little is okay. 30-40min depending on oven. The top should be a nice golden brown without looking/smelling burnt. If you're concerned about burning the edges of your pie crust you can take a piece of tin foil and cut it out in thin circle to cover the edge of your pie but leaving the center open. This will allow your crust to cook but prevent it from burning while the rest of your pie bakes.



*If you use aluminum pie pans instead of hard tin or glass ones, I find that putting it on a baking/cookie sheet will prevent you from spilling the contents all over the counter.

**Part of cooking GF is playing detective. In a recipe that usually only contains 2 tbsp of flour for the normies, what does that mean to those of us that eat alternatively? The best Chess pie, in my opinion, has a thick and creamy middle. And since GF flour doesn't thicken the same way that traditional flour does, this calls for us to put on our experiment hat. I've found that arrowroot acts a lot like cornstarch and will thicken up just about any recipe nicely if you use it in moderation.

Pie and Other Southernisms

It's frustrating to go through the holidays and go without. Most of the time I don't even think about it, but there are certain things that just drive me up the wall. Pie is one of those things.

I remember going to my grandmother's house for holidays and having the fridge packed with different sorts of homemade pies. Pumpkin and pecan are two of my absolute favorites. So, when I happened upon a book called Southern Pies: A Gracious Plent of Pie Recipes, from Lemon Chess to Chocolate Pecan by Ms Nancie McDermott I decided that God did not mean for me to go through life without ever tasting pie again. And, if I did, I certainly wasn't going to be out for the count for a week or more.

So I plan to go through this book and try to make Becca-safe alternatives for all these classics. Now, with grad school still breathing heavily down my neck, I don't know how quickly this will be accomplished...but here is my start.

Canola Oil Crust

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of your favorite GF baking mix

( I use 1/3 cup garbonzo-fava bean flour, 2/3 cup brown rice flour, 1/4 cup potato starch, 1 tsp xanthan gum)

1 1/2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup canola oil

2 tablespoons cold milk (or milk alternative-- I find hemp milk works nicely with baking)

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and salt. Use a fork or a whisk to stir them together well.

In a small bowl, combine the oil and milk. Use a fork to mix them together into a frothy mixture. (Or put them in a jar with a lid and shake well to combine them.)

Scoop out a well in the flour mixture and pour the oil-milk mixture into the flour. Use a fork to bring the liquid and dry ingredients together into a crumbly mixture.

Press the dough into your pie pan, using your fingers to build up the sides of the dish.

You can wrap and refrigerate the crust for up to 2 days or freeze for up to 3 weeks if you don't want to use it immediately.

Egg Custard Pie

Ingredients

1 9" pie pan & crust

1 1/4cups milk (or milk alternative)

4 Eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp G/F vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Because you don't cook this pie for very long, you need to partially cook your crust before you get started. Take the crust that you created from the above recipe and cover it with a sheet of parchment paper. Use dry rice or beans to fill pie pan on top of the parchment. This keeps the crust from shrinking as it cooks and holds the paper down. Bake in the oven at 375degrees for 10 minutes then remove and set aside.

Preheat your oven to 350degrees.

In a medium sauce pan heat the milk (or milk alt) until it steams. Look for tiny bubbles at the sides and rising steam from the milk. Remove from the heat before it comes to a boil. Also, resist the urge to immediately add this hot mixture to your eggs because it will cook your eggs too quickly and give it a scrambled egg texture.

In a medium bowl beat the eggs well. Stir in the vanilla, sugar and salt. Stir well to dissolve the sugar and combine everything well.

Slowly pour the milk, stirring with a whisk or a big wooden spoon.

If you are using an aluminum pie tin and not a glass one, place it on a cookie sheet before the next step.

Pour the custard filling into the partially baked piecrust (now free of rice/beans and parchment) and sprinkle nutmeg over the top.

Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven. Bake until the custard filling is mostly firm but still wiggly in the center. 25 to 35minutes (depending on oven). Let the pie cool to room temp before serving.

Things that are Awesome

Belated thoughts on Lost in Austen

Having snared an elusive few minutes to myself while I wait for my ride home instead of huffing it in the freezing Chicago night, I'm going to touch on the movie that I promised to review very nearly a month ago. I know you probably have forgotten about it by now; I nearly did.

I warn you, there will be spoilers.

That said, Lost in Austen is the sort of movie that you'll enjoy if you like fluffy British things. It's cleverly written (for the most part) and can certainly appeal to any Austin enthusiast. After all, which of us hasn't fallen for the elusive Mr. Darcy or envied Elizabeth's dry wit? And, having indulged in my own fair share of fanfic (not to mention MUSHing), the idea of a story revolving around upsetting a classical work of literature seems...natural. Necessary, even.

The problem is that Amanda Price goes about the whole thing entirely wrong. That, of course, is most of the basis of the story. Every girl is simply not going to fill Elizabeth Bennett's shoes. Hell, practically no girl will. That said, for the first part of the movie I'm completely and utterly hooked. I squirm when Amanda can't wrap her head around the social etiquette. I wince when she wanders around in her 2008 clothing, painfully aware that she looks like a whore even if she isn't. The whole thing keeps you on the wracks, twisting and turning the whole time. And the one thing you think you and she have right (the one thing!) is swept away from you in one unexpected instant when Mr. Wickham becomes not only likable but reputable.

And then they go and muck everything up by getting Darcy a little too involved with this all-too-common girl. ugh. Sure, Amanda is supposed to be every girl. She is living out the dream. But the problem is that not only is she not you (nor I), but she runs in the exact opposite direction of the chemistry onstage. Never in my life did I think I would root for Mr. Wickham, but life is full of curveballs. Eesh. It doesn't hurt that Tom Riley isn't terribly painful to look at, either.

So, while I am left with a luke-warm feeling about the ending of this movie I think it's worth watching if you have nothing else to do. The characters are all very well done and the dialogue is clever and real. I find it very believable that the characters have stepped out of Austen's novel and I'm even willing to swallow some of the twists and turns that these Brits offer us in exchange for what we know as Truth.