When I saw the LA Hotel Black Bottom Pie recipe, I knew I had to try it to see how it checked out as compared to the ONLY one I had ever known, but it was not even remotely comparable to the Sam Coates' Black-Bottom Pie
recipe found in HOMECOMING (Waco, TX: Baylor U.
Alumni Assn, 1994), P. 236. This recipe survives the long-closed Sam Coates' Restaurant near the Circle in Waco, TX.

Sam Coates' Black-Bottom Pie

1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon margarine or butter
1 tablespoon rum extract
1.5 squares bittersweet chocolate, melted
1 baked (9-in) pie shell
Topping

Combine flour, sugar, salt, and milk in large saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until thickened. Beat egg yolks in small bowl. Gradually stir a few spoonfuls of hot mixture into egg yolks to warm, then add yolks back into hot mixture. Cook until very thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in margarine & rum extract. Divide custard in half. To one half, add melted chocolate. Pour chocolate custard into pie shell; add plain custard as second layer. Spread pie w/topping, & decorate with shavings of chocolate. Refrigerate until serving time. Yield: 8 servings.

Topping:
1 cup whipping cream, whipped. Add 2 teaspoons sugar & 2 teaspoons rum extract to whipped cream.

The above is the EXACT recipe as printed. N.B. As for myself, I chill the black bottom custard in the shell for perhaps 15 minutes before I add the lighter layer on top of it, for if too warm, you may lose the 2-tier effect. I also use half the rum extract to pie custard & omit it entirely in the whipped cream, where it has a tendency to separate & curdle ingredients if you are not very careful (you'll not miss it there!).I also take the 3 egg whites & make a meringue in lieu of the whipped cream topping.
I not only find this far superior to the LA Hotel
recipe with slightly different ingredients and method/procedure but find it easier to make as well.
Arden C. Hander