I thought every Kentuckian knows and loves stack pie. It turns out that most of the Kentuckians I recently polled had never heard of stack pies. Which means that if a Kentuckian doesn’t know, most of the world doesn’t know. So I am duty-bound, as an Official Kentucky Colonel, to share this recipe with you. And because I am not a food photographer or food blogger, I’m just going to start with the pictures, and you’ll have to figure out where they fall during the process.
Pies: 5 shallow pie shells – 10 egg yolks – 3 cups of sugar – 1-1/2 cups melted butter – 1 cup heavy cream (Sound familiar? Yes, these are chess pies.)
Caramel icing: 2 cups brown sugar – 1 cup heavy cream – pinch of salt
Pies: Beat egg yolks until lemon-colored and fluffy. Cream in the sugar and beat until light. Drizzle in butter while still beating. Drizzle in cream while still beating. The mixture will be creamy-foamy and light. Pour equal parts into the shallow shells and bake until golden brown and set. When pies are cool, remove from tins and stack them.
Icing: Cook together the icing ingredients until the soft-ball stage. Remove from heat and start whipping it by hand. Lordy, it takes forever, but when it is lighter in color and beginning to set up, start icing the stack of pies. Top first, and let it drip down the sides. Just keep helping it stay on the sides until it sets and sugars.
Some noodling around on the internetisphere suggests that stack pies were once common in North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee. Rather than carry a whole buncha pies to a social event, ladies would stack a whole buncha pies and tote just one dessert. And because a stack pie is so rich and dense, a (normal) person would only eat a sliver. A stack pie can feed at least 20 (normal) people. Now, stack pies seem to be a Mercer County specialty. And maybe some ladies in Washington County still make them.
Oh look! A stack pie was just born! Do you know what that means?
An angel just got her first cavity.
ginnygram 
Looks pretty special! Especially that caramel icing! Our go-to dessert in the eastern Kentucky coal country was cherry Jello with bananas floating which always ended up on top! And I am not kidding. Didn’t matter what the holiday – that was dessert. I like yours better. :-)
Best regards,
T.
Wouldn’t you know, even with a grandma from Tennessee, I had never heard of a chess pie until about 3 years ago when we moved to our current neighborhood in Chicago. There is a little pie shop around the corner from us called Hoosier Mama. Being a Hoosier, this piqued my interest. I’ve been going to Hoosier Mama once every week or two since, and the chess pies are my favorite (especially the vinegar chess)! We even bought their cookbook. http://www.amazon.com/The-Hoosier-Mama-Book-Pie/dp/1572841435
Turns out, my aunt’s mother-in-law, Vera, has coffee with one of her friends weekly. And Vera’s friend just so happens to be the “mother-in-law” mentioned in the “My Mother-in-Law’s Hoosier Sugar Cream Pie” recipe! Small world. Hope all is well and take care.