This buttermilk Chess Pie recipe is a sweet custard pie made with eggs, sugar, milk, flour, cornmeal, and citrus. It was originally made popular in the South and there are many variations of it, as its ingredients are easy to adapt to use what you have on hand.
Do you love pie recipes? You have to try this German Chocolate Pie, Banana Cream Pie, Oreo Cheesecake, or Blueberry Pie!
If you’re from the South you’ve definitely heard of Chess Pie! I love old-fashioned recipes like this that use the simplest ingredients, because they were developed during a humbler time when you had to use what you had and make it work. Many traditional chess pie recipes call for vinegar, but since we live in a time where citrus is easily found year-round, I’ve used lemon instead, and I love the hint of tangy flavor it adds to the richness of the pie.
Ingredients Needed:
How to make Chess Pie:
Make Pie Crust: This easy chess pie recipe is cooked in one unbaked pie shell. My Perfect Pie Crust recipe yields two crusts so I like to freeze the other, or use it to make Lemon Sour Cream or Pecan Pie!
Make Filling: Cream butter and sugar in a medium mixing bowl then mix in flour and cornmeal. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. When the egg mixture is well beaten add the milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest beat until smooth.
Bake: Pour buttermilk pie filling into unbaked pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes. Check the pie after 30 minutes and tent a piece of aluminum foil over it to keep it from getting too brown. (I spray the foil with a non-stick spray to keep it from sticking to the top of the pie.)
Cool: Allow buttermilk chess pie to cool for 1 hour before serving. Store in the refrigerator for 1-2 days.
Make Ahead And Freezing Instructions:
To Make Ahead: The pie filling can be made 1-2 days in advance. Remove filling from fridge at least 30 minutes before baking to allow it to come to room temperature, then pour into pie shell and bake. Pie dough can be made 1-2 days in advance, stored in the fridge, or frozen for up to 3 months.
To Freeze: Allow baked lemon chess pie to cool completely then cover well and freeze for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge then reheat in 300 degree F oven for 15-20 minutes.
Recipe Variations:
- Honey Chess Pie: Substitute 1 ¼ cups honey in place of the 2 cups of granulated sugar.
- Chocolate Chess Pie: The ingredients are quite different, so follow this recipe.
- Cornmeal Substitute: Use ground oats or fine breadcrumbs.
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Recipe
Chess Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup salted butter , room temp
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- 1 Tablespoon all-purpose flour
- 1 Tablespoon cornmeal
- 5 large eggs , room temp
- 1 cup milk or buttermilk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- Dough for one pie crust
Instructions
- Make batter: In a medium mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Beat in the flour and cornmeal. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. When the egg mixture is well beaten add the milk, vanilla, lemon juice and zest beat until smooth.
- Assemble: Add unbaked pie crust to 9’’ pie plate and crimp the edges. Pour in pie filling.
- Bake at 350 degrees F for 55-60 minutes. Check the pie after 30 minutes and tent a piece of aluminum foil on top to keep it from getting too brown. (I spray the foil with a non-stick spray to keep it from sticking to the top of the pie.)
- Allow to cool for one hour before serving.
Notes
- Honey Chess Pie: Substitute 1 ¼ cups honey in place of the 2 cups of granulated sugar.
- Chocolate Chess Pie: The ingredients are quite different, so follow this recipe.
- Cornmeal Substitute: Use ground oats or fine breadcrumbs.
Nutrition
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I originally shared this recipe November 2020. Updated February 2024.
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Excellent recipe but for two 8” pies.
Tastes good but recipe is for a deep dish pie plate. It way over flowed in my oven and it was very messy looking and a lot of work to clean my oven
Way too much lemon. Taste like a lemon pie not a chess pie at all.
This website was… how do you say it? Relevant!! Finally I’ve found something which helped me. Many thanks!
Cup of milk is way too much. I’m cooking it now and it’s not setting up.
I am currently baking this pie and am so excited because it smells wooonderful and I am sure it will be fan-flipping-tastic. However, my biggest issue was that I had a deep dish nine inch pie crust and this amount of filling easily made two pies filled up to the rim. I didn’t make another pie crust, just used the filling in a crustless greased tin. Excited to try it both ways! Just make sure you have backup crust! 💖💖💖
Thank you for a walk down memory lane. My grandmother used to make this pie, but I have honestly forgotten all about it. I decided to make it for Thanksgiving this year and it brought back so many good memories…and the pie was better than I remember. So fun to have this recipe again. Delicious!