Not the Prettiest Pie, but that’s on me

Time: 2 hours 40 minutes + Cooling

Ingredient Availability: 1/5

Difficulty: 2/5

My Birthday was last month, I wanted to make myself a dessert to celebrate. Those who know me well know that cheesecake is my favorite dessert, but I had just made a cheesecake for Christmas. I really like lemon, so I decided to go with a lemon chess pie from the King Arthur Baking Companion. Sure, lemon meringue may be a more popular lemon pie, but this recipe seemed pretty simple.

Key Ingredients & Omissions:

The only ingredient that I didn’t use was the buttermilk powder. In the picture, you can see that I have buttermilk, but that’s just because I bought it thinking that’s what the recipe asked for. I didn’t realize until I was actually making the pie crust that it called for the powder instead of the real thing. Other than that, I used everything the recipe asked for and didn’t have any problems finding anything.

Tools:

• Pie Pan

• Rolling Pin

• Mixing Bowls

Cooking Review:

Mix dry ingredients & fat: 11 minutes

I mixed together the dry ingredients then added the butter, pressing it into the dry mixture. Next, I added the shortening and did the same thing until there were irregular clumps int he mixture.

Bring the dough together: 8 minutes

Using a fork, I tossed the dry mixture as I added some ice cold water. I ended up using a total of 4.5 tablespoons of water to get the dough to start to come together into a somewhat cohesive dough. I wrapped it and plastic wrap and transferred it to the refrigerator

Refrigerate and fold Dough: 36 minutes

After the dough rested for 32 minutes in the refrigerator, I took it out and rolled it into a large rectangle on a floured surface before letter folding it in both directions. I rewrapped the dough and refrigerated it again.

Refrigerate dough and make Filling: 45 minutes

While the dough rested, I went ahead and mixed together the ingredients for the filling. I added the melted butter to the sugar, cornmeal, cornstarch, and sugar. The lemon juice was whisked in next. I held off on adding the eggs until after the dough had been rolled out and put into the pie pan.

Finish and Fill Pie Crust: 12 minutes

I rolled out the pie dough into as large of a shape as I could, using a floured surface to reduce sticking. It’s not easy for me to roll a square into a circle. Once I got the dough as large as I could, I used the rolling pin to roll the dough around it so I could transfer it to the pie plate. I let the dough fall into the corners of the plate, trimmed the excess, and folded the edges where possible. I added the egg to the pie filling, whisking it until well combined and poured it into the pie crust.

Bake Pie: 58 minutes

I baked the pie for 58 minutes. It’s hard to tell when the filling is actually set, because the whole pie will still move a lot when you shake it. Just pay careful attention to the color of the top of the pie and the change from a more liquid wobble to a more uniform wobble. I removed the pie from the oven and let it cool for about an hour before tasting.

Analysis:

I really love the lemon flavor in this pie. It’s clearly the star of the show. The second most prominent aspect of this pie has got to be the sweetness. I think it’s actually a little too sweet for my taste. It’s not quite uncomfortably sweet, but I know for some people it would be too much. Another thing that I want to bring up is the cornmeal. You can certainly feel the grains of cornmeal and I’m not the biggest fan of it. Most of the cornmeal ends up browned on the top of the pie and just adds an out of place texture here. I like the crust, which holds up well to the filling and being refrigerated and reheated. It’s pretty flaky and has nice layers to it. If we’re ignoring the cornmeal, the filling is actually very smooth and buttery, which I really thought complimented the lemon flavor well. Despite the oddities of this pie, I really enjoyed it. However, I can’t totally overlook it’s shortcomings (and some overshooting), so I’m going to give it a 7/10. If you love lemon and can tolerate something extra sweet, you’ll enjoy this pie. If you’re on the fence about lemon, this may be too much for you.