Grandma's Cookie Pie

I had barely been in Maine for five minutes before my Aunt told me I couldn't leave without making a Cookie Pie. In this family, Cookie Pie is more than a favorite; it's a tradition, or possible so favorite that it exceeds tradition. At first I made it only every thanksgiving, and would delight Grandma by calling for the recipe which I could never seem to remember but always manage to misplace. But then I started getting requests for Christmas and then birthdays, and now this, as a trade for my freedom (as if I even wanted to leave...)

Grandma treated this recipe with great secrecy and would always hand it over grudgingly, making a great story of how she practically had to beat it out of an unsympathetic chef in a New England diner. But she eventually secured the cherished recipe...albeit from the back of a Hershey Bar!
So, thanks to that stubborn chef, or Mr. Hershey, but mostly thanks to Grandma, I, my family, and now the rest of the world are able to enjoy the warm, chocolatey, artery-clogging goodness that is cookie pie.

COOKIE PIE(makes 1 pie)
- 2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
- 1/2 c flour
- 1/2 c sugar
- 1/2 c brown sugar

- 2 eggs

- 6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
- pecans (optional)

Melt and cool butter. Mix flour and sugars in a bowl, add egg and mix, and then add butter. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts, if using, and bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until the crust is brown and the top of the pie looks crispy. Because of all the butter in the pie, it will not be firm when you take it out of the oven, and may not appear done in the middle, but if you leave it in longer, the crust will burn. What I've found is that it sets as it cools, and no one has ever complained of a Cookie Pie being too gooey... Serve warm with ice cream, or room temperature, or try it cold out of the fridge the next day. Just don't eat it all in one sitting, or at least have an EKG on hand...

variations: consider using peanut butter chips, butterscotch chips or white chocolate chips, depending on your fancy, and you can also try adding banana, raisins, or anything else you would think about putting in a cookie.

(I would love to try making an Oatmeal Raisin version of this, but no one in my family has let me so far. Let me know if you give it a try!)