A Pie for Pi Day

The math lovers out there know that today, March 14, is Pi Day. This day has been designated to honor the circle constant, Pi which = 3.14159. It is also Albert Einstein's birthday, according to our local newspaper. As an added bonus, this year is the Pi day of the Century, because of the date, 3/14/15, being the first five digits of Pi. Although I am not a certified math lover, I do appreciate the significance of this day, and have made a pie in honor of it. It was a good excuse, anyway, as I have been wanting to try the "Black Bottom Oatmeal Pie" from the Four and Twenty Blackbirds cookbook.

The Black Bottom Oatmeal pie had my interest because it has chocolate in it. As much as I enjoyed baking and eating the pies from this cookbook, I will say that there are very few that include one of my favorite foods, chocolate. In this pie, the chocolate is on the bottom, and this is covered with a mixture of brown sugar, eggs, dark Karo syrup and oatmeal. This pie kind of reminds me of a pecan pie without the pecans. In fact, the Elsen sisters refer to it as "poor man's pecan pie". The crust is the usual delicious butter crust.

I think that I made one mistake with this pie. The cookbook sisters clearly state that you need to let a pie cool 2 to 3 hours before cutting it. I could not wait 2 hours this time - I just had to cut into that fragrant pie. As a result, the pie was rather runny and gooey. Runny and gooey tastes good, but is not so easy to cut into slices!  I decided to stop at one small piece, and I put it in the fridge overnight. The next day, the pie was nicely set up. It does have a pecan pie taste and I love the chocolate flavor. The verdict is that this pie is very rich and very tasty.

I have extra pie crust, so I think I will make another pie to celebrate Pi day. Certainly a day as important as Pi day of the century could use another pie. And so could my sweet tooth!