Lemon Slice Pie
You know, sometimes I hear of or see a recipe that is just so bizarre, I simply MUST try it. I love to experiment in the kitchen and, for the most part, my family enjoys the results.
So when I saw a recipe for lemon pie with actual slices of lemon, I felt compelled to give it a whirl. I filed that thought in the back of my memory a couple of months ago.
Last week, when I was ready to test it out, I realized that I had forgotten to file into my memory WHERE I had seen the recipe, or what was in it except slices of lemon. (Do YOU ever wish you could upgrade your RAM, just like you can for your desktop computer?)
Anyway, the hunt was on. I knew there was a recipe for lemon pie out there, I just had to find it. Not surprisingly, with this amazing thing we call an internet, it took me under ten minutes to find A recipe for lemon slice pie. Not sure if it’s the same thing I saw a couple of months back, but I found one and I was happy. I made one small change - I prefer tapioca to flour as a thickener.
Gotta add a plug here for www.recipesource.com – if you are hunting a particular recipe, ethnic food, etc., check there. I almost never fail when looking at recipesource.
Well, I whipped this pie up this afternoon because - miracle of miracles, all my kids were done with school about 2:30 and I had an hour of baby’s naptime to kill. I warned everyone that I wasn’t sure how this pie would taste, it might be bitter, it might be sour, blah… blah… blah… Once I say the word pie, no one hears much else.
Anyway, I am happy to report it was good. Beyond Good. Way Good. Stupendously, Exceptionally, Amazingly Good. My six-year-old, who, to my memory, has never eaten pie — EVER, tasted it and ate a slice.
This pie gets a 7-thumbs up. (Sam says 14 thumbs, because we each have two 
.)
Lemon Slice Pie
makes a 10 inch pie
Crust:
Pie crust for a 10 inch, double crust pie
Filling:
1 1/4 c. sugar
2 T. quick tapioca
dash of salt
1/4 c. butter
3 eggs
one lemon
1/2 c. water
cinnamon and sugar
Roll out the bottom crust and line a 10 inch plate with it. For the filling, start by combining the sugar, tapioca, and salt in a medium bowl. Set this aside for a minute. Separate one of the eggs — you’re gonna save the white to brush onto the top crust later. Now add the two whole eggs to the one yolk and beat. Melt the butter and add it to the eggs. Now combine the eggy mixture to the sugary mixture and stir gently.
Next, zest the lemon. Now, I don’t have a lemon zester, so my 12-year-old just scraped it agains the finest part of my cheese grater. Worked fine. Just scrape the bright yellow part of the entire lemon off. This is the zest. Add the zest to the egg-sugar-butter concoction. Now I sliced off most of the thick white part of the lemon peel, although my orginal recipe did not say to do this. I happen to know that’s the bitter part and I figured I didn’t want that in my pie.
Finally, slice that lemon as thinly as humanly possible. I mean, you want floppy, see-through slices of lemon. Be sure to remove the seeds. Add the slices of lemon and the half cup of water to the gooey, sugary mixture. Stir well and pour this into the pie shell.
Finally, put the top crust on and seal as you would any other double-crust pie. Brush the top with the reserved egg white and sprinkle the cinnamon and sugar on top.
Bake at 375 until golden brown - about an hour. Now, this is not an overly aromatic pie but the flavor totally makes up for it. I may never make a lemon meringue pie again.
Add comment September 14th, 2006