When you want an easy sweet treat that will impress well beyond the effort spent, choose a chess pie, the Southern staple that will always satisfy your sweet tooth. A simple single crust filled with a custard made of butter, sugar, eggs, and flour, on its own, the dessert is undeniably delicious. Adding a bit of cocoa powder to the mix will elevate a basic chess pie into an unforgettable chocolate chess pie.
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to dress up this Southern classic that are guaranteed to wow — one of which comes courtesy of a fan-favorite celebrity chef. Describing it as, “The best chocolate pie I’ve ever tasted,” on his website, Alton Brown came up with an amazing mixture of meringue and pecans with which to top the confection for an even fancier look and taste.
Known to have a penchant for innovation as well as an intense personality, Alton Brown is certainly not one to shy away from outdoing himself with desserts. Per his recipe, the thought process that went into this very extra pie topping was no more than the question of, “Why not?” His rationale was to accentuate an already excellent pie with a meringue and fold pecans into this whipped topping as a nod to what calls, “the most famous of all chess pies, pecan pie.” Sometimes, the best innovations come from a big imagination and a willingness to try something new and see how it goes.
Adding meringue and pecans to your pie
Preparing a chocolate chess pie starts with either a homemade or store-bought pie crust to which you will add a filling of cocoa powder, sugar, and cornstarch mixed with beaten eggs, melted butter, milk, and vanilla before baking in the oven. To add an Alton Brown-inspired meringue topping with pecans, make sure that you’re well-versed on tips for making a bakery-worthy meringue at home, which include using a clean bowl and room temperature eggs and exercising a fair amount of patience with getting the right consistency.
In Brown’s recipe, he recommends letting your baked chocolate chess pie cool completely first before starting the process of making the meringue. The addition of pecans will come as the final step, gently folding them into the prepared meringue after it has already been whipped to the point of reaching stiff peaks. After everything is properly combined, you can place dollops of the meringue and pecan mixture atop your fully-cooled chocolate chess pie before using a culinary torch, such as a Sondiko Butane Torch Lighter (available on Amazon), to carefully brown the meringue peaks before serving.
