Grandma's Chocolate Pie

Yes, I know, veggies and dip should have been enough, but I really wanted to bring something else to the "picnic," so, after band practice last night, I whipped up this Chocolate Pie that Wanda had found on Homesick Texan's blog.

Grandma’s chocolate pie

Filling ingredients:

• 4 tablespoons of cocoa or 1 ½ squares of baking chocolate
• ¾ cups of sugar
• 5 tablespoons of flour
• ¼ teaspoon of salt
• 1 ½ cups of milk
• ½ teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 egg yolks, beaten slightly
• 1 tablespoon of butter

Meringue ingredients:

• 2 egg whites
• 1/8 teaspoon of salt
• 4 tablespoons of sugar

Your favorite pie crust

Method:

1. Mix your sugar, flour, salt, cocoa, eggs and milk (all except vanilla and butter) with a whisk.
2. Cook while stirring on medium until it bubbles and thickens, about 5 to 10 minutes. If it becomes lumpy, just beat out the lumps. (It will not get any thicker in the oven so cook until it's as thick as you want it.)
3. Remove from heat and stir in your vanilla and butter. Meanwhile, poke holes in your pie crust with a fork and bake it at 350 until it’s brown, about 20 minutes.
4. Beat your egg whites with salt and when they start to get fluffy add the sugar. Pour the chocolate custard into the baked pie shell and top with the beaten egg whites. Bake it until it the peaks on the meringue are lightly browned, about 10 minutes.

Note: All that's happening in the oven is the browning of the meringue. So be sure and keep cooking the custard in the pan until it's your desired consistency.

Well, my chocolate was full of little lumps that wouldn't beat out, and I definitely messed up on the meringue, because it would not get fluffy. After consulting with Betty Crocker, the tiny bit of egg yolk that I got in the egg whites, that I thought I had removed, may have been the culprit with the meringue. Tom and I both thought that the taste was a little off, too, even though other people who tried the pie said it was good. I'm thinking that it's because the cocoa I used was extremely old, I bought all of the other ingredients pretty recently. I will try this recipe out again, but with new cocoa, and report back.

***Update*** I gave the pie another try and it looks much better. The meringue fluffed up a lot more, and the flavor was so much better. I guess fresh cocoa and no yolk in the egg white made all the difference in the world.