Country Kitchen Chocolate Pie

By Beth Yarbrough

My mother-in-law was a no nonsense cook, a fact born more of necessity than choice. She worked a full-time job, raised two boys, faithfully tended to duties at her church, and ran a tight ship on what amounted to a small family farm with whatever hours were left in a given day. Housekeeper, chauffeur, cook and chief bottle washer were all hats that she wore with natural ease. How she managed to establish herself as a legendary cook on top of all this is beyond me, but the fact that her family still to this day speaks with reverence about her cooking is testimony enough. Yet for all the accolades, her dishes were notably devoid of pretense. Their merits rested entirely on taste.

I can never recall, for instance, a fluted edge on any of her piecrusts, but the memory of the pies themselves remains clear. Setting aside the modern culinary notion that we “eat first with our eyes”, which I don’t totally discount, I can say with certainty that taste is what endures.

When this pie came out of the oven tonight, I thought of her. It is a classic chocolate dish that my family and friends have enjoyed for fifty years. This recipe is simple, as is the crust that surrounds it, but then come the standing ovations.

In fact, there was one memorable weekend with Bronson as our houseguest. Driving through a February snowstorm to get here, he would text at regular intervals. “Tell me again about the chocolate pie…” These days his eating habits are much more health-conscious, but during the course of that visit, I watched him consume the entire pie all by himself.