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Chess Pie is one of the best pies in the world: it’s a creamy custard pie with a crunchy top. I add chocolate chips because everything is better with chocolate! This pie is good warm, cold, or straight from the freezer (yep, it’s that good).
Chess pie is a classic custard-like pie recipe – and this is the BEST Chess Pie Recipe ever! The filling is more gooey custard, not firm like a sugar cream pie recipe. You can’t go wrong with the delicious buttery taste. Similar to my buttermilk pie recipe, this recipe calls for a lot of butter, sugar, and of course I added chocolate chips! This easy pie recipe is gooey and sweet and so easy to make – it will become your favorite pie recipe ever!
Ingredients for Chess Pie
- Pie Crust- You can use homemade pie crust or store-bought, whatever you prefer! It should be 9”.
- Butter- Melt the butter before use, you can use salted or unsalted butter depending on whether or not you want to add actual salt to the recipe.
- Sugar- Use granulated sugar.
- Cornmeal – this is a classic binder in chess pie.
- Vinegar- Use white vinegar, if you don’t have white vinegar you can use lemon juice instead.
- Milk- Whole milk works best.
- Chocolate Chips- You can use any chocolate chip you would like! White, dark, milk, whatever you think would taste yummy in this chess pie.
How to Make Chess Pie
- Whisk together melted butter, sugar, and eggs until it is smooth. Then, add salt (if necessary), flour, cornmeal, vanilla, and vinegar. Then, whisk in milk and stir in the chocolate chips until the filling is completely smooth.
- Place pie crust in a 9-inch pie plate and place on a cookie sheet. Fill pie with the filling. Cover the edges of the crust with aluminum foil or a pie shield to avoid burning it. Bake until the top is golden brown and mostly solid.
Expert Tips
- Bake on the low rack so the pie doesn’t get too brown quickly. This will help the top to not crack or get burnt. Use a pie shield so the edges don’t get done too quickly. If it starts to brown too much on top, tent it with foil.
- Let the pie cool completely before slicing. If you put it in the fridge it will be easier to slice, but the pie tastes better at room temperature than right out of the fridge. You can serve chess pie by itself but top it with whipped cream, or ice cream for some extra goodness.
- You know chess pie is done when it’s puffed and no longer rolls in the center when the pie plate is tapped.
Storing
You can make this pie up to 24 hours ahead – store cooled pie wrapped with plastic wrap in the refrigerator. Leftovers should be refrigerated. Slices or the whole pie can be frozen for several months if wrapped well with plastic or placed in an airtight container.
FAQs
There are a few stories as to how chess pie got its name. The first one says that chess pie originated in the south from a cook on a plantation. When asked what kind of dessert it was she said “just pie”. Because of her southern drawl, when delivered, it allegedly sounded like “chess pie” hence the name was born. The second says that the name originates from before the advent of the fridge. Before this people had to use other methods of keeping food fresh. For pies, there was a specific pie “chest” that was used to keep them fresh over periods of time. Because of this, people used to call it “chest pie” and supposedly over time the name morphed into “chess pie”.
You can leave out the chocolate chips and make a classic plain chess pie with this same recipe.
Chocolate Chip Chess Pie Recipe
Recipe Video
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch pie crust , (homemade or store-bought)
- ¼ cup (57g) Challenge Butter , melted (salted or unsalted, see note)
- 1 ½ cups (300g) granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- Pinch salt see note
- 1 tablespoon (8g) all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon (10g) cornmeal
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon (15ml) vinegar
- ¼ cup (59ml) whole milk
- 1 cup (170g) chocolate chips see note
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F.
- Place your crust in a 9” pie plate and crimp edges as desired. Chill until ready to fill.
- Whisk melted butter, sugar, and eggs until smooth. Add the salt, flour, cornmeal, vanilla, and vinegar, whisk until smooth, then whisk in milk. Stir in chocolate chips.
- Place the pie crust on a cookie sheet and fill with filling. Cover the edges of the crust with a pie shield or strips of foil to reduce browning. Bake for 38-48 minutes or until the top is golden and is mostly solid.
- Cool completely before slicing (it slices best cold, but tastes better room temperature). Serve plain or with whipped cream or ice cream.
Recipe Notes
- You can leave out the chocolate chips for a classic chess pie.
- Use your favorite chocolate chips – semi-sweet or milk.
Recipe Nutrition
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Easy Chocolate Chip Chess Pie is the best old fashioned chess pie recipe with chocolate chips! Such a classic creamy pie recipe – it’s SO good!
Could I use oat milk instead of whole milk? And what kind of vinegar? Thanks!!
Any milk will work and you can use white or distilled vinegar (or lemon juice).
I adore this recipe! For Christmas I combined it with a recipe for orange chess pie. Outstanding! This recipe at Crazy for Crust was a great find!
Thank you again!
It says see note about chocolate chips but I don’t see a note anywhere.
Sorry about that – my recipe plugin deleted all my notes when I switched providers. The note was just that you can use your favorite flavor chips (semi-sweet, milk or white)
Thank you for posting! This is a wonderful and easy recipe. Have made it twice! Takes a little planning on timing though. We like it best on the first day, so to bake it and let it counter cool is a few (3-4) hours. It’s good after refrigeration too but different than first day.
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