Recipe Testing: Shaker Lemon Pie

Fun fact about Shakers: They didn't believe in marriage.

This is way less fun than it sounds - they didn't believe in marriage because if you were married you might have Teh Sex!!1!, and that was bad. For everybody, all the time. (Can't imagine why this religion never caught on in a big way.)

The good news is, you gotta direct that energy somewhere. And it may as well be pieward. (No, not like that, pervs!) I mean getting all into that delicious smoothsweetcool lemonbitesexysexy of a good lemon pie, without all that second-date-car-makeouts fooling around with the double broiler. Like the Shakers did.

The big thing with Shaker Lemon Pie is using the whole lemon to avoid waste (sans seeds - they were serious about abhorring reproduction, eh?), and not making a stovetop custard (which is just a pain). This is quite the trick because while the juice is lemony deliciousness, and the zest is delicious as well as onomatopeic, the white stuff? The, well, the rind? Is bitter and tough. One way to get around that is by macerating the lemons overnight in sugar, but the latest issue of Cook's Country has a faster way, which I decided to try for Easter dinner. (Which is, come to think of it, ripped off of a fertility holiday. Huh. So I guess this was a pretty inappropriate choice. What can I say, I was high on jelly beans at the time.)

The trick Cook's uses is to squeeze out the juice and reserve it, and then boil the lemon slices. Doesn't really sound like it should work, huh? At least, I didn't think so. I called my mom to make sure she had some other dessert in the wings in case this was a total disaster.

Oh me of little faith!

Oh, man.

YUM.

MY GOD IT'S FULL OF YUM.

Does it work?! This is going immediately into the pie-rotation. It's gonna play first base. I'm gonna starting pointing to the outfield before I make this pie.

Look at it! (This is totally tangential, but look how nice this crust is! So pretty and browned and flaky! (You don't want to know how many crust oriented pictures I took.) Custardy and smooth and with a nice little added texture from the totally not bitter lemon peel. Strong, just sweet enough lemon flavor, and And AND? This is gonna forever solve the summertime Lemonade or Iced Tea war (that wages mostly in my mind). Sweet Tea to sip, Shaker Lemon Pie to snack upon. Coolocity achieved.

Shaker Lemon Pie
inspired by Cook's Country

Preheat your oven to 425 F.

Ingredients

3 lemons (get ones with good looking rind, you're gonna eat that later)
1.75 cups sugar
pinch salt
1 tbsp cornstarch
4 eggs
(Optional: 1 tbsp cream)
Pie dough for a two crust pie. (If you don't make your own, this kind works ok. The folded kind will break on you.)

Ok, step one. Slice the lemons paper thin, and remove the seeds as you go. (Uh, you also removed any produce stickers, right?) This is gonna be the hardest part by FAR if you're doing it by hand. I got eeeeever so slightly frustrated. Mostly because the lemon juice found a hangnail I didn't know I had. Squeeze the slices to get out the juice out and save that. Also, since you want the slices to look pretty when they're in the pie, try not to mangle them when you squeeze 'em. I picked up a few at a time and folded them in half so they wouldn't break. Cooks illustrated says to use a strainer over your bowl, but since you're putting everything right back in later, I don't see the point of it.

Put your squeezed slices into a a medium saucepan with about two cups of water. Bring them to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer them for five minutes. Drain the water. (I'm thinking there must be something fun to do with this lemony water, though I don't have an idea right now.)

Combine the lemon slices with 1/4 cup of the lemon juice from before, and all the sugar and salt. Stir gently until the sugar is melted.

In a separate bowl, whip the remaining lemon juice with the eggs and cornstarch. I deviated from the recipe here in that I let everything sit at this point for maybe fifteen minutes so the lemons could cool down a bit (so as not to cook the eggs on contact). So, go check your email.

Add the lemon mix slowly to the egg mix, and stir until combined. Then pop it into a pie shell, and put your second crust on. Cut some vents in the top. [Now, here's something Cook's said to do which I'd never tried before - if you want to get a nice browned crust (yay) without using an egg wash (boo), brush the top of the crust with cream. This worked really well for me, as you can see above. ]

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes, then drop the heat to 375 and let it go another 20 to 25 minutes.

[During this time, you may, as I did, start to freak out a little because you can only smell the eggs baking and no lemony goodness. Don't worry. I'm not sure what the deal is, but it didn't even smell like lemons when I took it out. We only got down to the citrus when I cut into it the next day. But then, it was plenty strong-tasting. Don't freak, is what I'm saying. ]

Let this one cool all the way before you serve it so it sets up correctly. The magazine says to store it in the refrigerator, but I found that eating it cold made it not quite sweet enough, so I'd recommend room temp. I've been storing it on my countertop and eating it for three days, and I'm not dead yet. Or possibly I am, and the pie is just so tasty it RAISES THE UNDEAD.

Huh. Maybe the Shakers just didn't need procreation.