I love baking pies. They're beautiful, tasty and they feel extra special since I don't make them often...at least not as often as I make cookies! Usually I bake fruit pies but I wanted to try something a little different. I came across something called a Lemon Chess Pie and it sounded SO GOOD. I really love lemon flavored desserts, like lemon bars, so this looked promising. Well, let me tell you, this was essentially a lemon bar pie. I even thought of calling it that, but decided to stick with the well known name (apparently it's popular in the South). For those who have no idea what Lemon Chess Pie is, or what a lemon bar is, it's essentially baked lemon custard. Think: butter, eggs, lemon juice, lemon zest and sugar. MMMMM!

I served this for Easter and was beyond happy with the way it turned out! I used my own pie crust recipe and made a few tweaks to the custard filling. This will DEFINITELY be a pie I make again!

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Lemon Chess Pie

by Caroline Benap April-4-2018

Full of lemon flavor, this pie will impress any lemon-lover!

Ingredients

Filling: 1/2 cup butter
1 1/3 cups sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon cornmeal
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
5 large eggs
Crust: 2 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 beaten egg
3 tablespoons ice-cold water
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. 2. For the pie crust, mix the flour, sugar and salt together. Add the shortening. Mix with an electric mixer until the dough looks crumbly.3. Beat the egg with the water and vinegar and add the wet mixture to the dough. Mix together until the dough is moist.4. Roll the dough into a ball. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. 5. In a separate bowl, stir together melted butter and sugar. Let cool. Then whisk in the rest of the ingredients.6. On a floured surface roll out the dough to about a 12-in circle. Transfer to a 10-in pie plate about 2-in deep.7. Pour in the filling and transfer to the oven.8. Bake for about 50 min or until the filling is set (not runny, but a slight jiggle).9. Cool in the refrigerator about 2 hrs. Serve with whipped cream and berries.

Details

Prep time: 1 hour Cook time: 50 mins Total time: 4 hour Yield: 1 10" pie or 8 servings