Paige with gummi bears and a new Barbie!
	Official Derby Pie recipe

I don’t know how the recipe for Derby Pie entered my family’s dessert repertoire, but it was a staple and a personal favorite for many holidays and birthdays during my youth in the ‘80s and early ‘90s. I want some right now.

The original recipe hails from the 1980 edition of the “Fellowship Favorites” cookbook of First Baptist Church of Rossville Georgia, where my grandparents were longtime members. The recipe appears on page 154, care of Carolyn Helms, whose grandmother was a friend of my great-grandmother. (A nearly identical recipe for “No-Name Pie” appears on page 158, care of Juanita Kyle, whose name is all over this book. As one of the cookbook’s five typists, I suppose that’s her right.) A version with coconut appears on page 279. 

I frequently helped make this pie, which I think of as the pie equivalent of a chocolate chip cookie with pecans. And as my dad always says, “It’s better heated up.” What exactly makes this a “derby” pie was revealed in a Southern Living version of the recipe that included a tablespoon of bourbon. That version made an appearance at a memorable family dinner at my grandparents’ house where I was certain my grandmother would smell my mother’s heavy pour wafting boozily from the pie. My fear was unfounded; my grandmother Bettye Astin had a weak sense of smell. (Her recipe for Strawberry Fig Preserves appears on page 237.)


Derby Pie

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 unbaked pie shell
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 1 stick butter or margarine
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup pecan pieces

DIRECTIONS:

• Melt butter and pour into flour and sugar; add eggs and vanilla and stir well.
• Add pecan pieces.
• Place an even layer of chocolate chips on bottom of unbaked pie shell.
• Pour mixture into shell and bake at 325 degrees for 50 minutes. 
 
This recipe can also be made into little pies using muffin tins.