Chocolate Pie

Today I went head first back into my Grandma's recipe boxes, looking for something to bake.  It is a beautiful day outside and I should be out doors, but if I am going to make any progress in getting through these recipes boxes before the turn of the next decade, I better get going.  In my post Christmas post, I mentioned all the pies that  were baked and consumed, none of which, were a part of my doings, so I decided maybe I should bake a pie...thus, today's recipe.  There are plenty of pie recipes to chose from, none of which start with making a pie crust, so I leveraged that opportunity to forego making a crust from scratch today.  I had a pre-made crust in my freezer, so I decided to put it to good use. Now, if I am brutally honest, I doubt my Grandma had the convenience of going to the freezer and pulling out a pre-made crust and I believe that if she did, she would have done just what I did today.  I think she might have been the original "semi-home made" cook on this earth, before it was TV worthy and would have told me to do exactly what I did.  As I thumbed through the pie section, I came across this Chocolate Pie recipe, it sounded easy enough and just about matched my motivation level.  What I did notice as I read the instructions was the last step which said  "Cover with meringue and bake until slightly browned."  OK, now I need to find a meringue recipe, so I flipped on through the pie section and found a Meringue recipe that looked like it just might belong with this pie.  The hand writing was the same and the "faded" shade of the recipe card was almost exactly the same...so I combined these two recipes together to make my pie.  Once again, there are limited instructions with both the pie filling and with the meringue, so I had to use some of my basic cooking skills and the internet to fill in the pieces I thought were missing.  For example, I have never made a pie with a meringue before so I needed some help in determining the temperature to cook the pie and meringue (400 degrees for 5-6 minutes if your interested) and I think had I followed the directions "exactly" I could have ended up with scrambled eggs in a chocolate sauce. Instead, I folded some of the pie filling in with the beaten eggs and then added the eggs to the hot filling.

Chocolate Pie
2 tbsp cocoa or 1 sq chocolate ( I used cocoa)
3/4 c. sugar
3 tbsp corn starch or 4tbsp flour ( I used corn starch)
2 C. milk
2 yolks
1/2 tsp vanilla (just realized I forgot this)
speck of salt (didn't use any salt either)
Put milk in double boiler, saving some to mix with corn starch.  When milk is scalded add dry ingredients mixed together.  Add corn starch mixed to thin paste.  Stir until thickened and allow to cook 10 min.  Add beaten yolks.  Cook about 2 min. more.  Remove from fire and pour into baked crust.  Cover with meringue and bake until slightly browned.


Meringue
2 egg whites stiffly beaten
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1/2 tbsp lemon juice or 1/2 tsp vanilla (I remembered the vanilla for this part)

For what it's worth, I got Bubba to give this pie a rating and he gave it a "7", then I reminded him of the "S" and "U" scale and he gave it an "S".  The pie is good, meringue isn't my "thing" really, so if I made this again, I would just make the pie and put some whip cream on top!