While we were in a lemony mood (see post of Limoncello) and had an abundance of Meyer lemons from the backyard, we discovered this dessert in Italian Two Easy: Simple Recipes from the London River Cafe by Rose Gray & Ruth Rogers. We fell in love with this lemon pie at first bite, and the kids were wild for it as well.
As usual, we set about trying to find ways to make this dessert in record time. It's almost always the crust dough that is the most time consuming part of making any pie, so instead of using the dough recipe found in the book, we tried some pre-made doughs. The best dough for this particular pie was by Star Dough (available at Whole Foods and Marina Super) which is thinner and more
puff pastry-like than some pie doughs. The slight crunch of this dough provides a great contrast to the filling, which is a perfect combination of sweet creaminess and bright lemony flavor. Whatever crust you use, it is important to blind-bake the crust, according to the recipe or label instructions.
If you have a little more time, this surprising and
fun-to-make-because-it's-so-different French pastry dough uncovered by David Leibovitz is a great one to try. While David clearly stated that this dough is best suited for tarts with
pre-cooked/non-runny (like whipped cream or cooked custard) fillings
since the dough cracks a bit when baking. However, this method looked
so easy that we were determined to make it work with our
not-cooked/runny filling. We think our modifications worked well to
produce a crust with minimal cracks. We used a glass pie plate with
smooth sides and did not prick the dough with a fork but rather
weighted it down with pie weights (dried beans could be used) in
parchment paper during the pre-baking process. We also used a spoon to
smooth and press the dough into the plate. Definitely reserve some of
the uncooked dough, as David suggests, to patch cracks before adding
the filling.
When it came time to make the filling, we decided to use the blender, rather than a mixer (as used in the original recipe) to efficiently incorporate the ingredients and shorten the prep time. It worked like a charm and didn't seem to change the taste or texture of the filling.
During our multiple tests, we discovered a favorite brand of mascarpone cheese, Defendi, which we
found at Whole Foods and Bryan's Grocery. Other brands tasted more like
slightly-sweetened Philadelphia cream cheese, while Defendi was lighter
and had a fresher cream-like taste. For more on Mascarpone brands
available locally check out this article from SFGate.com.
3 Meyer lemons (non-Meyers are fine too)
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1 Tbsp confectioner's sugar
1 pie/tart crust, blind baked (see header note)
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
2. Grate the zest from the lemons, squeeze out the juice and mix the two together. In a blender, combine eggs, egg yolks, sugar, mascarpone cheese, lemon juice and zest. Blend until all ingredients are well mixed, and in particular, the mascarpone is fully incorporated.
3. Pour into blind-baked pie/tart crust and bake for about 50 minutes, or until filling is set in the middle and lightly browned on the top.4. Let the pie cool completely, then sprinkle evenly with the confectioner's sugar and serve.
Serves 8
Prep Time: 35 minutes, including blind-baking pie crustCook Time: 50 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour, 25 minutes
