Mrs. Matt Boessen’s Chocolate Cream Pie

Ingredients

Filling

• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup cocoa
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 1/2 cups milk
• 3 egg yolks, beaten
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 (9-inch) baked pie shell

Meringue

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup sugar

Steps

1. In a 2-quart saucepan, mix the sugar, cocoa, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in the milk until smooth, then stir in the beaten egg yolks.
2. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly, and boil 1 minute.
3. Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla and pour into the baked pie shell.
4. In a small mixer bowl, beat the egg whites at high speed until foamy. Gradually beat in the 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form.
5. Spread the meringue over the filling to the edge of the crust. Bake at 400 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes, or until as brown as you like.
6. Cool at room temperature away from drafts.

Notes

Makes 6 servings.

Mrs. Matt Boessen of Westphalia, Missouri, said her mother made this pie when she was a little girl 73 years earlier – five or six pies at a time for a threshing crew of 30, served in shifts in the field or at the barn, morning and evening. She called it the most delicious “never fail” pie her whole family enjoyed.

From a Today’s Farmer magazine clipping (October 1986) that Rosie Lee saved; the whole page, with two other chocolate recipes, is shown below.

Photo: the pie pictured on the clipping.

Rosie Lee’s original recipe card

Tap the card to see it full size.