Chess Pie
From Serious Eats

Yields: 1 nine-inch pie
Total Time: 3 hours, 40 minutes (including crust chilling/cooling times)

For the crust:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
8 tbs unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and chilled
cold ice water

For the filling:
4 large eggs, room temperature
5 tbs whole milk
1 tbs vanilla extract
2 cups sugar
8 tbs unsalted butter, melted and cooled (1 stick)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs medium or finely ground cornmeal
1 tbs all-purpose flour
1 tbs white vinegar

Assembled the crust:
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, and sugar. Scatter the cubed butter in the flour.

Gently use your fingers to rub the flour into the butter. The heat from your hands will soften the butter (but if it’s straight-up melting because you run hot, pop the bowl into the fridge once in a while to keep the butter solid). Be steady and methodical with this, scooping the flour from the bottom of the bowl and rubbing it into the butter until all the flour looks a bit yellow and like damp sand. It’ll clump a bit too, and that’s fine!

Get the water and carefully drizzle in 2 tablespoons of it into the flour. Mix it with your hands, but don’t attack your dough too much — just work it enough to get the water distributed into it. You’ll likely need to add more water, so just add it one tablespoon at a time until the dough holds together and is slightly tacky. You definitely do not want to add too much water! Once it reaches the “holding together and slightly tacky” stage, pat it into a disc and wrap it in cling wrap. Pop it in the fridge to firm up for at least an hour.

After that’s done, heat the oven to 425*F and move the rack to the lowest setting.

Pound out your dough and roll it to no more than 1/4-inch thickness. Line your pie pan with it however you please. Then line that with foil or parchment and fill it with pie weights (I use dried beans).

Bake it for 5 minutes, then lower the temperature to 325*F. Bake for another 5 minutes, and then remove the liner and weights and bake again for another 3-ish minutes until the crust is a nice light color.

Cool completely before filling.

Assemble the pie:
Preheat to 325*F and move the oven rack to the second-from-bottom position.

Whisk together the eggs, milk, and vanilla in a large bowl. Whisk the sugar in until it is thoroughly incorporated and slightly foamy. Add the milk, butter, vinegar, flour, cornmeal, and salt and whisk until the mixture is completely smooth.

Pour this into the cooled pie crust and bake for 45-55 minutes, or until the filling has set (but it should still be a little wobbly in the center) and has puffed up around the sides. The top should also look flaky and golden brown.

Cool the pie on a wire rack completely, and serve either at room temperature or chilled.