Chocolate Chess Pie

I have the great honor and privilege of living close to my brother and his three amazing children. Time to time, when I babysit them, I let them help me cook and try to pass on my knowledge to their young, eager faces. This was a perfect opportunity to bake a pie: their father's birthday.

Now in the south, a Chess pie is a tradition. It's one of the first recipes I learned, passed down from my grandmother along with this story. The old saying goes, that a yankee was enjoying a delicious pie baked for him by a southern cook when he asked what kind of pie it was. The cook, in a heavy accent, said, "It's jes' pie." Thus, the name, "Chess Pie." What's better than a pie full of sugar and butter? A pie full of sugar, butter and chocolate. So here's the variation on the old favorite.

Ingredients
3 cups sugar
7 tbl cocoa powder
3 tbl flour
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1 stick butter
1 tsp vanilla
2 regular pie shells or 1 deep dish.

Directions
Heat oven to 350, place pie shells on a cookie sheet. prepare a crust shield (directions in Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake).
In a small saucepan, heat butter on low just until melted, remove from heat and add cocoa until melted.
In a bowl, mix sugar with flour, then add remaining ingredients. Add butter/cocoa mixture. Pour into crusts.
Bake for 30-40 min, until a crust has formed on top of the pie. (it will be cracked and not sticky to the touch)
Remove crust shield during the last 15 min of baking.
Cool completely before slicing. We call this "Settin' up."  (trust me, resist temptation or it will be pure liquid inside!)

Funny side note: After baking this and putting the sweet darlings to bed, I couldn't resist tasting my creation. So, I confess I nibbled a bit :) It made Twitter with a picture of the creator/culprit.