Now that the pumpkin pie is all gone, it’s time for Christmas pie! For my family, that means chocolate pie. Every year on Christmas Day, my Granny used to serve us her homemade chocolate and coconut pies. The chocolate was the one favored by my mom, sister, and several other family members. I, personally, liked to get a half slice of the chocolate and a half slice of the coconut and eat them together for a Mounds pie!

Naturally, when I began writing The War Song Series, I had to include chocolate pie in my writing as a good, old-fashioned, southern dessert. For an early Christmas present, I give you my Granny’s chocolate pie recipe. Eat up!

Gwen’s Chocolate Pie

Pie Ingredients:

½ cup plus 2 tablespoons cocoa

1 ½ cups sugar

½ cup cornstarch

2 cups milk

2 eggs

2 tablespoons of butter

dash of salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cooked pie shell

Directions:

Mix the cocoa, sugar, cornstarch, and salt together. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. You will need both parts of the eggs! Add milk, the egg yolks, butter, and vanilla and mix well. Cook the mixture in a double boiler until it is very, very thick. Pour into the cooked pie shell.

Pie Topping Ingredients:

2 egg whites

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

2 tablespoons sugar for each egg white

Directions:

Beat two egg whites with the cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Add two tablespoons of sugar for each egg white. Beat until stiff peaks form again. Pour on the pie. Bake the pie until golden brown at 350 degrees in the oven.

Rosemary spread out all the recipes her mother had sent her on the kitchen table.

“Sweet potato soufflé, pecan pie, chocolate pie, dressing, corn pudding,” she read with her hands on her hips.

Song of Return, Chapter 37