The recipe is yours if you promise to read the story

This is an old story I’ve freshened. Like this pie, it’s a treat to consume every few years. Today is National Pie Day, writes Sunita Chakraborty, which makes this retelling a must, just as the Christmas season begs for our mother’s most famous dessert.

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Dody Gardner made three meals daily for three boys, Paul, Peter, and Pat, and our father, Paul Sr., in the 1950s and 60s. That’s roughly 24,000 breakfasts, lunches, and dinners.

The consensus favorite dish was her Chocolate Marvel Pie, which she served on Christmas Eve. Why Marvel?

That’s the name on this ancient recipe card, carbon-dated to 1953, give or take a year or two.

Her unique cursive handwriting style was taught briefly in Catholic Schools in southeast Iowa in the 1920s. You are right; it is hard to read. I was 15 before I could fake her signature on my report cards.

The translation is below. Patience is the pie’s secret ingredient. And yours, to earn the recipe. Santa’s watching.

When mom died in 2017, at 96, I said I wanted two things from the estate: This wax Santa Claus.

And the real McCoy recipe card.

Those are blood stains, by the way, as my late brother Pat did not give up the card easily. He always said I should listen to Donald Trump. So I did and hired The Donner and Blixon Law firm. Who uncovered a heretofore unknown precedent. The oldest son gets first dibs on the pie recipe.

Rebecca and I plan to serve it later this week to two Catholic nuns who will be visiting to see the annual Luther College Christmas Pageant. They are 80-year-old sisters, friends of my late aunt, Sister Marilyn Thomas, who died in 2017 at 103. Fawny, as we called her, last came to this concert in her centenary year.

I don’t know whether they’ve turned cheek on Martin Luther, but they do love Lutheran music.

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Because there is no national pie museum, I will donate Mom’s recipe card to Julia Child’s Kitchen at the National Museum of American History.

Her pie would come out of the refrigerator a little runny on a rare occasion. Whenever that happened, I’d helpfully quote Julia, who said the test was the taste, not the look.

Patience was not my mom’s strong suit. Nor mine. This pie requires it. I’m sure Buddha had something to say about pie and waiting.

You’ve cooled your heels long enough.

The Recipe

Melt and blend 1 cup of chocolate chips, 3 Tablespoons of sugar, and 3 Tablespoons of milk. (We use Nestle Tollhouse semi-sweet and half-and-half).

Cool.

Add four egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add one teaspoon of vanilla.

Beat until stiff four egg whites.

Fold into the chocolate mixture and pour into a 9″ baked pie crust.

Chill for several hours. (Channeling Buddha, we let it sit in the refrigerator overnight)

We garnish with a dollop of fresh whipped cream.

Raw egg whites, you wonder—your choice, of course. My family has been eating this pie for going on seven decades, with no fatalities or even tummy aches.

For your forbearance,

I’ve saved the last piece for you.

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