Pie #28: Left-Over Pie (Shaker Lemon Pie)

New Year's Day brought the extended Lantz family Christmas celebration.  Each year this is a gathering of a family that enjoys eating, laughing, and playing together.  I have a distinct childhood memory of this gathering.  All the adults were sitting around the dining room table talking after dinner.  I remember thinking that the adults were VERY funny, and I could hardly wait until I was old enough to be funny too!  The jokes this year did not disappoint, though many of them were directed at my poor pie.

This was the first time I have ever taken a pie to a dinner with a slice missing.  After tasting a bit of the filling to make sure it was finished baking, I realized that the pie may not be fit to serve my family.  Thus before we ate everyone was warned that the pie wasn't as delicious as it appeared!  This warning alone was enough to start the pie jokes; some of them included suggestions of names for the week's pie: A Pie of Resolution, Diet Pie, Pucker Pie, etc.  Though my family offered many great suggestions, my cousin Cody was the ultimate winner.

Cody came back to the table with his second plate of food, which included one fat slice of Lemon Pie.  He scooped up a large forkful, and declared, "Cheers!"  We all laughed, but that was Cody's last bite of this bitter pie.  Though he's a life-long member of the 'Clean-Plater Club', the pie prevented him from obtaining his award this year.

I selected this pie based on the beautiful picture of it in John Phillip Carroll's Pie, Pie, Pie: Easy Homemade Favorites. The picture called to me - I simply could not resist making it!  The initial flavor was delightfully tart - like fresh lemonade, but the after-taste was very bitter.  I'm not really sure what happened.  Perhaps it was the mini-lemons I used instead of the normal lemons; mini-lemons that yielded a higher skin to fruit ratio.  Perhaps the lemons were not sliced thinly enough; therefore they didn't have a chance to break down as they should have.  Perhaps the sugar and lemon mixture was not allowed to sit long enough.  Whatever the case, the pie's after-taste was terrible!

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Shaker Lemon Pie

Ingredients:
9-inch double pie crust

3 lemons
2 cups sugar
4 eggs, beaten

Pie Algorithm:
1. Wash lemons well, and then dry completely.  Cut off and discard ends of lemons.  Grate the lemons until you have 1-2 Tablespoons of zest.  Put the zest in a large bowl.

2. Slice 2.5 of the lemons as thinly as you can (at best you should be able to read through a slice), poking out the seeds as they appear.  Put the slices in the bowl with the zest.  Juice the remaining lemon half.  Add this juice along with the sugar to the bowl.  Toss to combine and coat lemon slices evenly.  Cover and let stand at room temperature for 3-5 hours.

3. Add eggs to lemon mixture and stir until evenly mixed.  Pour into bottom crust and then cover with top crust.  Brush top crust with milk and dust with sugar if desired.

4. Bake for 15 minutes at 450F, then for 30-40 minutes more at 375F.  Pie is ready when crust is lightly browned and a knife inserted comes out clean, or with just a translucent film of filling on it.  Cool to room temperature before serving.  Refrigerate any leftover pie.

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Part of me thinks I should never try this pie again, but another part of me wants to perfect it.  Needless to say I was delighted when I ran across another recipe for this pie today.  It only called for 2 lemons and you were to blanch them, not grate their peel, and you were to allow them to macerate for a minimum of 9 hours (stirring after the first hour).  Maybe there will be another Shaker Lemon Pie on my table in 2013!