Meyer Lemon Pie

Posted by: Peanut in MyBlog on Jan 25, 2012

Tagged in: Yellow , Baking

If you'd come by our house for a cup of tea on Sunday I'd have offered you a piece of pie and if you didn't like marmalade you'd probably have said "no". Because it is Ohio lemon pie. I made it with Meyer lemons. And I didn't follow the instructions.

I was pretty excited when I found the Meyer lemons in the grocery store on Saturday. Lots of the recipes I see in magazines and on blogs that call for lemons specifically say "Meyer lemons" and I've never, ever seen them in person before. Ohio lemon pie (as found in the Joy of Cooking) involves zesting and slicing lemons (after removing seeds and pith), mixing them with some sugar and a bit of salt, and leaving them overnight. The next day you beat some eggs, add them to the lemon mixture, pour it all into a pie shell, put a lid on it and slide the whole thing into the oven for an hour. It's a nice sweet-tart pie with a different sort of texture.

I was half way through slicing the last lemon before I remembered the zest-and-remove-pith part of the instructions. It would have been terrible to waste my lemons though so I placed my trust in the slightly-sweeter-and-with-less-pith-than-usual Meyers and finished the recipe. The lemon juice, sugar, salt mixture was much sweeter than usual and I hoped that it would balance out the bitterness of the pith once cooked. I was lucky and it (mostly) did. This pie has a little more bite to it than ones I've made previously but it is still very nice.

Especially with a dollop of whipped cream on top.