I’m in the kitchen and cooking again, inspired by National Pie Day. It’s been quite some time since I’ve made a chocolate meringue pie, and I love them, so that is what I chose to attempt. The recipe comes from The Good Housekeeping Illustrate Cookbook I received over 27 years ago as a wedding gift. It is a well worn and loved book – complete with food splatters and pages that are falling out.
Chocolate Meringue Pie
- 1 9-inch baked piecrust
- ½ cup sugar
- 1/3 cup flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 2 cups mild
- 2 squares unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 3 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)
- 3 Tbl butter
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- Bake piecrust and let cool.
- In saucepan, mix sugar, flour and salt. Add milk.
- Stir in chocolate. Cook over low heat stirring constantly, until chocolate is melted.
- Increase heat to medium. Cook, stirring until mix is thickened and boils – approximately 10 minutes. Remove from heat.
- In a small bowl, beat egg yolks with a small amount of the chocolate mix.
- Slowly pour eggs into the chocolate saucepan – stir quickly. Over low heat, cook, stirring until very thick (do not boil).
- Remove from heat, mix in butter and vanilla. Pour into piecrust.
Meringue Topping
- 3 egg whites
- ¼ tsp salt
- 6 Tbl sugar
- Preheat oven to 400.
- Egg whites will work best if at room temperature. Beat egg whites and salt with a mixer until soft peaks form. *This can take some time – a stand mixer with a strong motor works best.
- At high speed, add sugar 2 Tbl at a time, beat until sugar dissolves (meringue will feel smooth to the touch.) Meringue should appear white and form stiff, glossy peaks.
- Spread meringue over filling. Texture top of meringue with the back of a spoon.
- Bake 10 minutes.
Chill pie in refrigerator approximately 4 hours until chocolate filling sets. Start the recipe early in the day if you want to have enough time to chill the pie and eat the same day!
ENJOY!
The results: Yum! I am definitely enjoying the eating part of my ‘everyday life’ challenges. As I was making the recipe, I realized this is not the same recipe I had used in the past, but it had honestly been so long since I made a chocolate meringue pie, I didn’t remember. It tastes wonderful – very smooth. Next time, I may experiment with a different recipe, because I would have liked the chocolate to set up more firmly. We eat with our eyes first, and when I made this pie, it was slightly runny. Although – it may have been the cook and not the recipe! I also over mixed my meringue. Before, I have only had a hand mixer and making meringue was quite a challenge, but with my stronger stand mixer, I went too far. The meringue was nearly to stiff to spread on the pie – oh but it tasted wonderful!