Lemon pie

by Marina Feygelman

Lemon pie recipe for my own record. An impromptu extension of "if life gives you lemons", since lemons was the only thing I had. Turned out great.

Hosted by:
Stanislav Shalunov

Four medium size lemons, a half of a butter stick, up to two cups of sugar, three eggs, 1/2 cup of buttermilk, kefir or plain yogurt, 2 1/2 cups of flour, a pinch of cream of tartar. Makes an 11" pie -- 12 to 16 servings.

To make filling: cut lemons in pieces, remove seeds, and grind in a meat grinder. Alternatively, grate whole on a rough side of a grater, removing seeds as you go. Add a cup of sugar, stir it in and let the filling simmer, stirring occasionally, while you make dough and wash dishes, about forty minutes.

To make dough: separate eggs. In a medium bowl, add buttermilk to egg yolks. Cut butter in hazelnut-size pieces and add to the yolks and buttermilk. Add 1/2 cup of the sugar. Mix it all with the fork, add flour and mix it in. I used bread flour because it was the only one I had. This recipe doesn't call for any specific flour virtues. I added 1 1/2 cups of the flour to the bowl, mixed it in, and turned the wet mixture onto the board with the rest of the flour to knead/cut in the rest. Shape the dough into the ball and roll it into the circle.

To make a fluted circle out of parchment paper, bring the short edge of the paper to the side to fold it diagonally. Cut off the folded square. Fold it again several times, as if making a snowflake. Cut the edges petal-shape. Unfolded circle will have a fluted edge, that looks good and conforms to the spring form better than smooth circle.

Place the dough on top of the paper one and put both into the 11" spring form, or any oven-safe skillet. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes, reduce to 350F and keep baking for another 25-30 minutes. Beat the whites with a pinch of cream of tartar and the rest of sugar. Don't overbeat. Remove the crust from the oven, put the boiled down filling in the crust, spread the beaten whites on top of it, return to the oven for another 20 minutes. The whites should get warm pinkish. Turn the heat off and let the pie cool in the oven.

Looks like a rather long process, but it was all done between other tasks and didn't take particular concentration. It has no milk and very little fat, so the sweet, sour and zesty taste is very intense.