Chocolate Pie

My first actual recipe post, and I am already cheating (sort of). This isn’t technically from my mom’s recipe files. It came from an old church cookbook that (I think) came from my Grandmother on my dad’s side. I am not sure when my mom started making this recipe, but I can tell you that once my husband, Danny, and I started dating it quickly became his favorite dessert. When I started going to Danny’s holiday family events, my mom would make this recipe (it makes 2 pies) and I would swing by her house before heading to the event to take as my contribution to the meal.

“Take this one,” she would say. “It doesn’t have any cracking on the top and it looks better than the other one.” She never did quite grasp just how informal my in-laws holiday get togethers were and she always wanted to make sure that whatever I took was just perfect.

When my mom started getting sick, we weren’t totally sure what was going on with her at first. She was mostly having trouble keeping appointments and following directions. Hosting gatherings became difficult for her, but, she always did it up so big for the holidays that she insisted on putting something together for us as a family.

 I remember going over to her house for Christmas the year she was officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and something with this pie tasted off. I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong with it, but, I did realize from that point on the holidays would likely never be the same.

I only make this a couple of times a year – at Thanksgiving and Christmas. In 2024, I took it to a Friendsgiving and it was a shock to all in attendance when they found out that I made it from scratch. (This is fair, for the entirety of my 20s and 30s my go to party move was to bring a 3 ingredient taco dip and store bought salsa to whatever we were being invited to attend.)

Sidenote: When I made the pies for said Friendsgiving gathering, I did have an incident that involved spilling melted butter all over my hoodie thus resulting in having to throw away said article of clothing.

• 4 eggs
• 2 1/4 C. Sugar
• 1 Tbsp flour
• 8 Tbsp Cocoa
• 1 stick melted margarine
• 1 can evaporated milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• Pinch of salt

Mix ingredients in order (eggs, sugar, flour, cocoa, margarine, milk, vanilla, salt). Bake at 325 for 35-40 minutes or until set. Makes 2 pies. Can be served with whipped topping.

I usually have to cook this for a little longer than the recipe says to get it set. Otherwise, I don’t have any notes on this one. It always comes out great.