“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each.”
— Henry David Thoreau
Debra of Three Well Beings wondered if I needed an assignment to get me going again on blogging about seasonal food. She asked if I had any more lemon recipes. Well, there is one lemon recipe I have been wanting to try ever since hearing about it: Shaker lemon pie, a pie of thinly-sliced lemons marinated in sugar overnight before being mixed with eggs, butter and flour and baked in a two-crust pie. You heard me right: two crusts. Every other lemon pie I make is a one-crust affair and even though I am temporarily out of unbleached flour I have pie crust in my refrigerator because we always make four crusts at a time. You can find my mother’s pie crust recipe here, if you need a recipe.
You can’t get any more local than going outside the front door to pick Meyer lemons off your own tree. Our tree is organic, too, meaning we give it very little: coffee grounds, tea leaves, water and a little copper now and then. Mom has been pruning it relentlessly to try to get it to bear its fruit high above the ground, hoping that snails all have fear of heights, so it is not the most prolific lemon tree on the block, but it had enough lemons for the pie (the recipe I used called for two, but that looked so pitiful in my glass bowl that I went out and picked a third to add to it).
I brought the lemons back inside, rinsed them and dried them. Before I even went to the kitchen or the yard I Googled a recommended recipe and tried to find out how to slice lemons “paper-thin.” No luck. Considering that recent tests put me in the first and fifteenth percentile for manual dexterity (that means either ninety-nine or eighty-five percent of people tested are more dextrous than I am), I recognized that thin rounds might be a problem. I have neither the patience nor the experience of Shaker women who have made this pie many times, although I share their desire to cook frugally.
First I tried a thin-bladed serrated knife. I worked slowly and held the lemon firmly. I even sliced off a slab on one side so that the lemon would sit flat on the cutting board. Try as I might I could not get those tissue-thin perfect slices. Next, I got out the mandoline. The mandoline sliced through the pith and tore the lemon flesh. Not good. Finally, I took up a sharp steak knife and slowly, carefully, tried to cut see-through slices. I got a few. The closer you get to the far end of a lemon, the harder it is to hold it steady. I need a lemon vice. The only thing I didn’t try was the meat slicer.
Because I was using whole lemons, minus only the seeds, I put in the entire two cups of sugar the recipe called for: lemon pith is bitter and I did not want a bitter pie: tart, yes, bitter, no. And I followed the recipe for filling that my friend Carol uses, purloined from the online version of Joy of Cooking because I had never made this pie before.
I put the lemons to marinate in a clear glass bowl in the refrigerator, placing a china plate on top to seal the bowl (I am one of those people who feels bad when I use plastic wrap and I love finding ways around it). Then yesterday we went out and bought the flour we needed to finish the pie during our weekly grocery-shopping rounds.
First I rolled out the bottom crust and put the oven on to preheat at 425. Then I whisked 4 large eggs in a mixing bowl and added 3 Tbsp flour. Why didn’t I whisk an egg slowly into the flour and avoid lumps? Because sometimes I don’t think, that’s why, but you can do it that way. Then I melted 1/4 cup unsalted butter in the microwave and had to let it cool. Why didn’t I melt the butter first before beating the eggs? See above answer. I don’t often use mise en place, although quite often I should.
Anyway, with a lot of whisking I got a fairly smooth mixture, then added the lemon-sugar mixture and whisked again. I poured it into my prepared pie shell and rolled out a top crust, pinched the edges together and put the pie into the oven. This is one of those stay in the kitchen (or use a timer) recipes because you need to turn the oven down to 350 after 25 minutes. It might be a good idea to turn it down a little sooner or start it at 400 — my crust browned awfully fast. The filling turned a jammy, deep golden color, reminiscent of the color of the ripe Meyer lemons themselves.
Madge, the pie critic, commented that it was a little bitter. She’s right — it has a slightly bitter edge like a mild marmalade does because you use the whole lemon. I don’t mind it. It has deep lemon flavor. And her comment did not stop her from having another piece at lunch today. If you need a pie that is all sweetness and light, this is not your pie, can’t be your pie. If you love all lemon desserts all the time, make it and see what you think.
Okay, so what’s this about the red shoe? Not in the pie, silly. Cecilia of TheKitchensGarden kindly awarded me the Educational Shoe Award, given to blogs that teach, because I preach the gospel of seasonal cooking and because I chime in with helpful hints on other food blogs when I think something I say might be helpful. It came with a high-heeled red shoe. I am grateful to Cecilia for honoring me and my two cents worth: she lives on a farm, raising animals and bees and crops, preserving her own bounty and wishing us cheery good mornings from her Illinois homestead. She also writes and coaches us on how to take better photos. I am also grateful to her for giving me the opportunity to paint red shoes. Turns out I own and have owned several red shoes, but this is the first red shoe that came to mind, a little flat number because I can’t walk in high heels. I will pass on the award in a future post after I have had time to study some potential recipients and think on it.
Food notes: You need the sugar in this pie — all of it: you need it to transform the bitter pith. I can’t recommend experiments or substitutions because this is the first time I have made this pie, although I can confess to wondering if I could make it with thin-skinned Valencia oranges, or a mixture of oranges and lemons. The official recipe says “thin-skinned lemons” (Meyers are perfect). You need thin-skinned varieties because they have less pith.
I LOVE meyer lemons! They are so wonderful! This sounds great!
I liked it. But then I never met a lemon pie I didn’t like.
Hi… I do love that quote and it is so YOU, Sharyn. I had a similar experience with Shaker lemon pie years ago. What to what to do with lots of lemons? By the way, my website is under construction and is a mess right now. I invite your readers to view art at my http://saltworkstudio.wordpress.com site instead. Thanks!
Thanks, Suzanne. It is a wonderful quote and I am so happy to have it for the blog. I’ll switch the URLs in the post so that curious folks can find you.
I love that quote…”live in each season,” and I’m trying to do that as I get older…you do it automatically when you’re a kid, I think. Congrats on this award, Sharyn! It’s well deserved, and Cecilia nailed it as you do teach in your blog, often constructively instruct in your comments and I have learned a lot, as I’m sure your other readers have! Shaker Lemon pie…I had it once in a Shaker Village in KY, but it wasn’t like this pie exactly. It was more like a lemon chess pie with the single crust and didn’t have whole lemon slices in it…maybe that’s KY Shaker style vs. OH? Anyway, yours sounds really interesting with that double crust. Wish I could recommend a way to slice paper thin, I use my chef’s knife…entirely inappropriate and works for the first 3/4 of the fruit if my knife has just been sharpened!
How interesting that there is more than one kind of Shaker Lemon Pie. Joy of Cooking quite firmly called theirs “Ohio Shaker Lemon Pie.” Now we’ll all have to Google “Kentucky.” You’re so right: the last quarter of the lemon resists slicing the most.
What a great post to highlight your award! You DO teach as you go, and I really appreciate that…I’m a novice, but I’m not afraid of trying, and I am in complete agreement with you about the benefits of eating local and experimenting with what is in season. You just kick it up a notch! This pie sounds just wonderful, so since I put you on the spot, I’m going to make it this weekend! I think I would actually prefer the slight bitterness. Inspiring! Debra
Glad to be of service, Debra. Please do let me know how the pie comes out and let us all know if you figure out a good way to slice the lemons thinly.
Congratulations, Sharyn, on receiving this award. You certainly are deserving, this post being a case in point. I think I’m with you in the 1st percentile for dexterity. In fact, just yesterday I, too, attempted to thinly slice a lemon and fell far short of the goal. This pie sounds like something I’d like, being not all that crazy about sweet & lemony confections. If I can only figure out a way to slice the lemons, I’ll give it a try. 🙂
Thanks, John. This is not overly sweet despite the two cups of sugar — it’s balanced by all of that pith. You might enjoy it with a bit of your homemade ricotta on the side (aren’t there Italian desserts featuring ricotta and lemon peel?). I was serious about trying the meat slicer — it just seemed silly to get it out for three lemons.
Congrats on the Red Shoe award. Pie sounds delicious especially since I love anything lemon. These paintings are my favorite – great job.
Thanks, Jane. I love it when painters like my paintings. Well, I love it when anybody likes them. I am a lemon fiend, sweet or savory — I like it better than chocolate, although that is heresy in some parts.
Sharyn–
This pie sounds fantastic to me because I’m a true lemon lover. Cut lemon with salt sprinkled on it is one of my favorite off-the-grid snacks–peel, pith, and juicy pulp. The salt brings out its natural sweetness and evenly mixes with the total flavors.
Obviously, the bitterness wouldn’t bother me. But I wonder if that bitter taste could be cut a bit if after you slice the lemons, they were blanched in boiling water? Or if you put them in a simple syrup that was still warm while they cure in the ‘fridge? Maybe combining these methods would break down the chemicals that cause the bitterness as well. If I wasn’t going to sit quietly in the mountains for the next week, I’d give it go and get back to you. Afterwards, perhaps? But someone else also has to try these suggestions because as I just said, I like the bitter and tart probably more than the sweet. I would not be a good tasting subject.
I just read somewhere that late-season oranges have less pith and am wondering if it is true of late-season lemons — I may have to try this again later in the year to see if it is any different. I don’t know the science behind what makes pith bitter. Can’t wait to sit quietly in the mountains with you: bring it on! Even when it is hard, it is good.
I just had another thought about cutting the lemons. Did you try cutting them laterally/horizontally in half first? Then you could slice each end off and slice half-moons of each side. The larger, flat side might allow the knife work to cut more thinly, evenly and smoothly.
And in my ramblings about the cooking, I neglected to send a giant Mazel Tov to you on the Red Shoe award. Fab.
Brilliant, Laura. I can count on you to be brilliant. Thank you. Slice the lemons in half lengthwise before slicing, anybody who is reading this.
How lovely to have your own organic lemon tree. I didn’t know snails attacked lemon trees! Congrats on the red shoe.
Oh, yes. If humans want to eat it, snails aren’t far behind: they decimate chile peppers, chew on lemons, kill basil. Copper tape keeps them away, but it is too expensive to wrap an entire lemon tree in copper tape, so Madge is negotiating with the tree to move the crop higher where they can’t crawl over from the walk or adjoining planter. Thank you for your congratulations.
Sharyn–
Did you know that snails love beer, too? Get the cheapest brew you can find, put it shallow pans, so they don’t have work to hard to get to it, and they’ll climb in. Then the drunk little mollusks can’t find their way out and drown in their beer!
I did, Laura. We prefer not to deal with marinated dead snails. We don’t wish them harm — we just like to protect our plants. Sometimes the raccoons shuck them and eat them in our little ecosystem.
That’s nice to know that the raccoons are helping with the habitat’s balance, and that you care about even the snails, too.
congratulations on yet another inspiring bake!! I’m intrigued by baking the whole lemon and I love very tart lemon dishes so I bet this would be right up my street! I read about Jamie Oliver making a.Christmas pudding with an entire clementine in the centre, skin and all. I reckon you could make that with you tangerines too if you have a one going spare? 🙂 I think you could make.it a chocolate pudding too with the orange centrepiece. x
Wow, that Jamie Oliver: I have never heard of baking a whole clementine in anything — if you try it, let me know how it comes out. I don’t know if you follow Sawsan (Chef in Disguise), but she just posted a wonderful-sounding sweet made out of sugar and soaked, shredded tangerine skins.
Wow, what a delightful looking pie – I never heard of it before. I love the idea of the whole slices of lemon – although we don’t get “meyer lemons” over here. In the store they have precisely one type of lemon… it’s called “lemon” alas 😀 I wonder if I could do anything to it to mitigate the thicker skin?
Um. Well, you remove the zest to put in the pie: perhaps after you get the zest off you could trim away some of the white pith, especially where it is thick — that’s where the bitterness resides. If you read through the comments on the post, Laura Kooris had some suggestions for reducing bitterness: neither of us has tried them yet. You could also make this into a three-day pie by soaking the lemons in plain water for 24 hours, then dumping out the water (onto your acid-loving house-plants) and adding the sugar on day two. The water might take some of the bitterness with it, also it might also remove some flavorful lemon oil. Please experiment and get back to me if anything you try works well. The texture is nice and firm from the pectin in the pith.
I don’t think I’ve ever had Meyer lemons. and right now I can only dream of growing my own lemons, maybe one day. But I do like the sound of this recipe. I think it goes perfectly with the red shoe you painted 🙂
Meyer lemons are common in the Bay Area of northern California, where the plants thrive. Apparently Frank Meyer found them in China and brought them here. A lemon-tangerine cross-breed created a lemon that is smaller, thinner-skinned and sweeter than other varieties. When they are ripe, the peel is a rich orange-yellow, closer to the color of an egg yolk than the usual lemon-yellow. I had originally thought to put the lemon pie and the red shoe in the same painting, but it didn’t work out that way.
Thanks for the info on the lemons, they sound beautiful, especially the colour, I like the idea of egg yolk colour,
You’re welcome, Claire,
I am going to paint that quote on the wall.. it is JUST RIGHT!! Thank you for the mention and love your red shoe painting and am seriously IN LOVE with this pie. So as soon as i get my sticky mitts on another box of organic lemons I shall try it! Fantastic.. c
The quote is indeed wonderful — I was so pleased to get it. The pie is pretty good, too — I know that you love marmalade!
I’ve been making a similar tart from a Martha Stewart recipe and I love it. It reminds me of curd, but without all the extra effort (unless of course you don’t add the flour to the eggs in little bits 😉 ). And I agree, you do need all of the sugar in the pie/tart.
Ah, yes. Well, some days I think better than others. I’m glad you agree about the sugar. Maybe we can prevent some episodes of extremely bitter pies and tarts by insisting on it.
I really enjoy the tart, sweet desserts that get their main flavor from fresh lemons so I am sure I would enjoy your pie. Congratulations on your award.
Thank you, Karen, for the congratulations, and for commenting.
Congrats on the award Sharyn…I love your watercolor red shoe!! And I do love that quote. So very fitting and perfect. This pie sounds so good. It reminds me of my home town and the Amish that would bake pies like this. My father’s favorite was a raisin pie and you brought that memory back to me to make real soon. Have a wonderful weekend Sharyn.
Thank you, Linda. I’m pleased with how the red shoe came out. It was fun to do. The quote is a gem, doubly so because it was passed to me on blogging day. I am glad the post brought back good memories for you. I have heard of raisin pie, but have never eaten it.
If I ever see Meyer lemons in a store, I shall have to buy them just to try some of your recipes. I wonder if you could use other lemons, zest first, then peel to remove the pith before slicing, create some sort of variation. BTW, I love the pie art today, with the tree and red off to the side in the background, it feels symbolic.
Hi Nancy. The recipes call for thin-skinned lemons because thin-skinned varieties have less pith. You can certainly try removing the pith from other lemons. I liked including the lemon tree in the painting, although it was more work to paint it than what I usually do. When I started out, I always painted things in front of me — now I’m more likely to paint out of my head.
This pie sounds delicious! My boyfriend will eat the fruit of lemons (as I would an orange) and he loves their sour note – I bet we would both like this pie. Now I’m hoping to come across Meyer lemons somewhere in Nyc – I used to work in a restaurant that would use them for cocktails, but they ordered direct from Ca. I haven’t seen them here, but I probably just don’t know where to look.
Thanks for visiting, Esme. You can find most everything in New York. There are dwarf Meyer lemon trees — perhaps some people are growing them in their living rooms in a pot. If not, you can use regular lemons — just get the thinnest-skinned ones you can find and perhaps remove what pith you can. Good luck.
Congratulations on you award 🙂 very well deserved
I love the idea of this pie, it is totally new to me and I’ll have to explore it more
Thank you, Sawsan. I’m sure your pie will be delicious: you take such care with your baking.
Great post. We’ve wanted to make one of these since seeing it done on America’s Test Kitchen.
I missed that episode. The pie is worth making if you love lemon desserts.