Lemon Chess Pie
Lemon Chess Pie
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| Yield: | 9" pie, 8 to 12 servings |
Ingredients
Crust
- 1 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached all-Purpose Flour or Perfect Pastry Blend
- 1 tablespoon buttermilk powder (optional, for tenderness and flavor)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 1/4 cup cold butter
- 1 teaspoon white or cider vinegar
- 3 to 5 tablespoons ice water
Filling
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice; the juice from about 3 lemons
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 2/3 cups sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornmeal
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 5 large eggs
Directions
1) To make the crust: Whisk together all of the dry ingredients, reserving a few tablespoons of the flour.
2) Work in the shortening until it's well combined with the dry ingredients.
3) Place the reserved flour on your work surface, and coat the butter with the flour. Use a rolling pin or the heel of your hand to flatten the butter to about 1/4" thick.
4) Break the flour-coated butter into 1" pieces, and mix it into the dough, just until it's evenly distributed; some of it will break into smaller pieces.
5) Sprinkle the vinegar and 3 tablespoons of the water over the dough while tossing with a fork. Just as soon as the dough becomes cohesive (i.e., you can squeeze it into a ball easily), stop mixing; there should still be visible pieces of fat in the dough. Add up to 2 additional tablespoons water, if necessary, to make the dough come together.
6) Flatten the dough into a disk and wrap it in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or longer; this resting period allows the flour to absorb the water and the gluten to relax, making the dough easier to roll out.
7) Flour your work surface and roll the dough into a 12" x 9" (approximately) rectangle. If it isn't holding together well, sprinkle it lightly with a couple of teaspoons of water. Fold the dough into thirds (like a letter), then fold it into thirds the opposite way, to form a rough square. Wrap it well and refrigerate again.
8) When you're "ready to roll," remove the dough from the fridge. Dough made with a combination of butter and shortening should rest for about 5 minutes at room temperature before rolling; dough made with all butter will need a 15-minute rest.
9) Roll the dough to a 12" to 13" circle, and settle it gently into a 9" pie pan; the pan shouldn't be over 1 1/2" deep. Flute or crimp the edge of the crust as desired. Place the crust in the refrigerator (no need to cover it) while you make the filling.
10) To make the filling: Melt the butter, and stir in the lemon juice, salt, sugar, cornmeal, cornstarch, and eggs.
11) Whisk until well combined.
12) Pour the filling into the chilled pie shell.
13) Bake the pie on the bottom shelf of a preheated 375°F oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until the center is set. The top should be golden brown.
14) Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool before cutting and serving.
Yield: one 9" pie, 8 to 10 servings.
Reviews
01/28/2012- Yum, Yum...very good simple pie. This is the best pie crust I have ever made. I am not as experienced as most of you, so I try everything I have read about that will make an outstanding pie crust.. I used the Perfect Pasty Flour Blend from KA and I used the amount of butter called for but instead of vegtable shortening I substituted PrariePrideFarms.com leaf lard that I had oprdered from them. REAL SUCCESS!
- 12/22/2011
- not familiar with chess pie but love the review about the intense lemon flavor However can you explain why the corn meal is in it. Also could regular dry milk be used in the crust instead of buttermilk ?
Teh cornmeal is there for texture. Yes, you may use a 1:1 substitution for the milk/buttermilk powder replacement. Frank @ KAF.
- 12/18/2011
- Very lemony pie. I love it, but it's not to everyone's taste.
07/21/2011- the texture was nice and reminded me of my grandmothers chess pie, but it was way too lemony. next time i think i'll omit the lemon juice and try it without adding flavoring. thank you.
- 07/06/2011
- Very good lemon pie. It was loved by the lemon-lovers in the family but a bit too tart for the others. The kids enjoyed hearing the history of the pie's name. One comment on the recipe: when viewing the list of ingredients by weight sugar is missing its unit of measurement.
Thanks for letting us know! I'll pass on to our Web Team to add "ounces" on the end of that weight. ~JDT@KAF
- 06/30/2011
- This is an excellent recipe, and a very easy lemon pie. I like it much better than lemon meringue. I did find that three large lemons did not yield a full 3/4 cup, so I will use 4 next time. The cornmeal was discernible the first day, but seemed to dissolve into the filling better after the second day. The pie got rave reviews from my hubby, who suggested trying this with lime juice, so that is on the baking agenda this weekend.
- 06/25/2011
- This is exactly the recipe my granny use to make when I was a small boy (over 50 years ago) with one slight difference. In the crust she used only lard, no butter nor shortening. Awesome! I made the crust following the recipe. Turned out great! The only reason I would switch from shortening to lard is that I think lard makes a tenderer and flakier crust. And, of course, that is the way Granny made it. Thanks KA for posting this recipe because I lost Granny's recipe and baking this pie brought back many great memories.
- 06/25/2011
- Awesome! I love lemon but hate meringue and that jelly texture of lemon meringue pies. The texture was perfect and the lemony flavor was spot on. I added about 1/4 tsp of fiori di sicilia- why? Because I had it on hand and will use it in just about everything that has hints of citrus. It's that awesome a flavor.
- 06/24/2011
- I made this pie and crust today. The crust is great. My Mother had a crust recipe that used vinegar in it and the crust was always good. I give the crust 5 stars. Not to fond of the pie altho it turned out good and my husband liked it. My daughter in law said save her a piece. But for the comment before about the lard - I may change and start using lard for health reasons. And this crust will still be excellent.
- 06/24/2011
- I am so happy to see someone else comment on the use of shortening. It is absolutely lethal on the arteries. I always use full butter, because I have it on hand, but I agree that even lard is healthier than shortening if you want a flaky crust.
