Lemon Shaker Pie
If you like candied citrus peels, this pie is right up your alley. Sugary lemons macerate for 2 days, going from bitter and tough to bright and jelly. I love the slight chewiness of the rinds and the beautiful custard that surrounds them. Also, I found this pie crust to be incredibly easy to make and resulted in a very flaky texture - it make take my number 1 spot for pie dough recipes in my arsenal. Let me know what you think and if you made any tweaks to this pie. I may try a triple-citrus version of grapefruit, lemon, and lime next!
Lemon Shaker Pie
From Baked: Elements
THE SUGARED LEMONS - MAKE 24-48 HOURS AHEAD
2 cups sugar
2 large lemons, ripe and thin skinned (if you can find them with thin skin), washed and chilled in the freezer for 30 minutes
THE PIE DOUGH
3 cups all-purpose flour, chilled in a bowl for 30 minutes in the fridge
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
3/4 cup water, as cold as you can get it
THE FILLING
4 large eggs, plus 1 large egg white, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 oz (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 tablespoon raw (turbinado) sugar
MAKING THE SUGARED LEMONS - MAKE 24-48 HOURS AHEAD
Place the sugar in a large shallow bowl. Zest the skin of one of the lemons and mix in with the sugar. Set aside for now.
Set a large pot of water over high heat and bring to a boil. Get a large bowl of ice water ready and have waiting off to the side.
While the pot comes to a boil, use a mandolin or a very sharp knife to slice the chilled lemons as thinly as you can, discarding the seeds as you go.
Once the water in the pot is boiling, remove from the heat. Drop all of the lemon slices into the hot water and let blanch for about 2 minutes. Immediately remove the lemon slices using a skimmer and shock them in the ice water to stop the blanching process. Only let them shock for about 10-15 seconds or so, then removing with the skimmer and placing into the bowl of the sugar and zest.
Using your hands, gently toss the lemon slices around in the sugar to ensure each slice is coated. It will seem a little fussy and some of your slices may start to fall apart a little, but trust that it is perfectly okay if that happens! Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let macerate for 24-48 hours at room temperature, stirring gently every 12 hours or so.
MAKING THE PIE DOUGH
Whisk the flour, sugar, and salt together in a medium bowl. Toss the cubed butter in with the flour mixture, and then dump into the bowl of a food processor (or use a pastry blender if you don’t have a food processor). Pulse/blend in short bursts until the butter is roughly the size of chick peas, scraping down the bowl if necessary.
Pulsing in 5 second bursts, slowly drizzle the cold water through the feed tube. As soon as your dough comes together in a ball, stop adding water/pulsing.
Turn the dough out onto a work surface and divide in half. Pat each dough ball into a rough disk and wrap in parchment paper and then place each in their own ziplock bag. Chill the dough in the fridge for 1 hour.
You can make the dough up to 3 days in advanced, if needed.
MAKING THE PIE
When the pie dough has fully chilled and the sugared lemons have had time to macerate, you can begin making the pie!
Dust a large work surface with flour. Unwrap one of the dough disks and place on the floured work surface, sprinkling the top with flour as well. Roll out into a 12-inch round. Transfer the dough round to a 9-inch pie plate and gently work the dough into place. It will most likely have some overhang, which is fine - you will trim the overhang later.
Flour the work surface again and roll out the second dough disk into another 12-inch round. Wrap this round in plastic wrap, place it on a large dinner plate, and chill in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
Remove your sugared lemon slices from the bowl and place evenly over the bottom of the prepared pie crust that is in the pan. Most likely there will be some lemony liquid left along with granulated sugar in the bowl - this is exactly what you want so don’t skim off the sugar water! Set the sugar water and sugar sediment aside for a moment.
In a separate bowl, whisk the 4 eggs together lightly. Add the flour, cornstarch, salt, and cooled melted butter and whisk until combined. Add the reserved lemon sugar + sugar water to the bowl and whisk again until completely smooth. Pour the mixture over the lemon slices in the prepared pie pan and top with the chilled dough round from the fridge.
Trim the dough, leaving about a 1/2 inch overhang all the way around, and press/crimp the edges together. Cut 3 steam vents in the top of the crust, cover lightly with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 425℉ and make sure the rack is in the middle spot of the oven.
Remove the pie from the fridge. Whisk the egg white in a small bowl and brush it over top of the entire crust, followed by a heavy sprinkling of the raw sugar from edge to edge.
Bake the pie at 425℉ for 20 minutes, then rotate the pie 180° and reduce the temperature to 350℉, baking for another 25-30 minutes. The pie should come out golden brown and a hearing knife inserted into the center should come out relatively clean.
Allow the pie to cool completely on the counter on a wire rack. You can serve this pie at room temperature, but I happen to like it a little chilled (not ice cold). It’s heavenly as-is but a dollop of freshly whipped cream and a side of black coffee is very nice with it as well. Enjoy!
