Hambleton Chocolate Meringue Pie

Hambleton Chocolate Meringue Pie

As I have previously confessed, I am a chocoholic. I choose to blame it on genetics and claim the older living members of my Hamilton bloodline,  my Uncle Jimmy and my cousin Clay, as exhibit A and B in my defense.

So this is my favorite recipe from my Dad's side of the family. It has been passed down from the women in the family (from my Dad's grandmother Mallie Hambleton, to my Dad's mother (Frances) and her sister, my great-Aunt Ruth, to Aunt Ruth's daughter Carol and then to myself, my sister, and the women who married into our family).

Frances Hambleton Garner, Mallie Hambleton and Ruth Hambleton Lollar (from L to R)

Daddy attempted to make and improve the pie. But bless his heart, it didn't work. His recipe just doesn't taste the same. Though to be fair, I don't think any of us can compete with Aunt Carol's pies.

Whenever I come home for the holidays, Aunt Carol always makes it for me. If I make it home for my birthday, then she make one for Clay (her brother) and I to split since we share the same birthday as well. Ok, so it isn't just our birthday that we get to split a pie. It is every holiday I make it home for. Otherwise, Clay has to share with the rest of the family. I tell Clay that this is proof that Aunt Carol loves me more than him. But he doesn't believe me.

Obviously Clay and I wouldn't eat the whole pie in one sitting but we do take the leftover pie home and jealously guard it. My sister still whines to this day about how I allegedly stole her pie when we were kids, even though she wasn't old enough to remember when this alleged incident MAY have occurred. All she recalls is a story that has been greatly exaggerated with each retelling, not unlike the stories fishermen tell of the fish that got away where the minnow becomes a great white after a multitude of retellings. So according to the grossly one sided and outlandishly exaggerated story, when we were young (she being toddler age and I being maybe 7-8) we had each been given a slice to take home after the holiday. I had quickly eaten my piece but Katie had not touched hers. My family claims that my parents had left us in the care of my Grandmomma Cunningham (my Momma's Mother), who was visiting, and that I convinced her that the remaining piece was mine, not Katie's, and ate it without giving Katie a single bite of her own slice of Chocolate Meringue Pie. Therefore causing Katie to cry because she didn't get any more pie. Now I don't recall this happening and there is no remaining proof to prove me guilty or innocent. So I think it is unfair to throw around these libelous, unfounded accusations based on hearsay from 25 years ago. But some members of my family still can't let it go. 

But moving on from my family's ability to hold a grudge  over real or imagined events and onto the pie. The original recipe doesn't specify the amount of vanilla. So feel free to add more or less. It is too taste, but I felt 1 tsp would be a good starting point.  Also, in the original recipe, it did not say to reserve 2 teaspoons of sugar for the meringue. Nor did it say to spread the meringue over the chocolate mixture. But I went ahead and added those clarifications.

Hambleton Chocolate Pie Recipe

From Carol Turner and Mallie Hambleton

Ingredients:
2 cups milk
1 1/4 cups sugar + 2 teaspoons of sugar for each egg white used
6 level tablespoons flour
2 (or 3 small) eggs, with the whites separated from the yolks
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa
1 tsp. vanilla
A pie shell that has already been baked

Directions:
Mix flour, sugar, cocoa, a small amount of the milk with the egg yolks in a sauce pan. Beat until smooth.
Add remaining milk, stirring constantly until thickened.
Add the vanilla and pour into a baked pie shell.
Beat egg whites until stiff, adding 2 teaspoons of sugar to each egg white, to make the meringue.
Spread the meringue over the chocolate mixture making that the meringue touches all the edges of the pie shell. (Otherwise the meringue will shrink away from the edges because it has nothing to cling to in order to prevent the shrinkage.)
Bake at 375 until lightly browned. (15-20 minutes. 30 minutes at the most.)

Serve the pie chilled or at room temperature.