Why Chess Pie Might Be the Best Summer Dessert You Haven’t Tried

If you’re an avid NYT Connections player, you probably saw it too: chess pie, nestled in a satisfying purple category a day ago—right alongside whoopie and honeycomb (still thinking about that last one… best I can offer is our salted honeycomb candy recipe). But it got me thinking: what actually is chess pie?

I’ve always heard it mentioned in fall contexts—usually in a lineup of Thanksgiving pies, often described as Southern. Apparently, even the name is a bit of a mystery. Most say it’s a custard-style pie thickened with cornmeal instead of flour. According to our own deep-dive from someone who literally grew up in a pie shop, that’s the standard explanation—but not always accurate. What chess pies will always have is butter. Buttermilk or evaporated milk are usually in it. And that name? Maybe it’s from “just pie,” charmingly misheard in a Southern drawl. I hope it is, so I’m not looking into it any further (ignoring that cornmeal could be referred to as ground chestnut).

What I am sure of: it’s a pantry pie. Sugar, eggs, butter, cornmeal—aka, the kind of thing you could make at a moment’s notice. And while it’s usually a dense, chocolatey option come fall, this whole Connections-fueled resurgence felt like the perfect excuse to resurface our lemon chess pie recipe—a bright, tangy twist that makes it feel like a summer staple. Yes, you’ll need cornmeal. But otherwise it’s just lemons, baking basics, and a buttery crust.

Here’s our Summery Chess Pie Recipe

And if you’re now deep in the pie mood, we’ve got more chess pie takes below.