strawberry lemonade pie

strawberrylemonade copy

I first ran across this strawberry lemonade pie from Martha Stewart magazine. It looked so good I had to try it but since I’ve started making it, I’ve realized a couple of tricks to getting it to turn out just right. I’ll let you in on those today.

I posted recently about how full our lemon tree is this year so a few weeks ago it seemed like the right time for strawberry lemonade pie again! I love the freshness of spring and it is so captured in this recipe. This would be good for an Easter brunch if you need a recipe.

strawberrylemonade_1

 Ingredients:

For the Crust

  • Vegetable oil cooking spray
  • 9 to 10 graham crackers, broken into pieces
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Coarse salt
  • 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

(alternatively you could use a premade graham cracker pie crust)

For the Filling

  • 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
  • 2/3 cup strained fresh lemon juice (from 4 lemons)
  • 2 large egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue), plus 1 large egg, lightly beaten
  • Coarse salt

For the topping

  • 12 ounces strawberries, sliced (2 cups)
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
  • 3 large egg whites, room temperature (2 reserved from filling)

 

Directions:

  1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Make the crust: Coat a 9-inch pie plate with cooking spray. Pulse crackers in a food processor until finely ground; measure 1 1/3 cups, and discard excess. Pulse cracker crumbs, sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in food processor to combine. Add butter, and pulse until mixture is moist and holds together when pressed between 2 fingers.

  2. Press crust evenly into bottom and up sides of pie plate using the bottom of a dry measuring cup. (Make sure the sides and rim of the crust are firmly pressed so they don’t crumble when pie gets cut.) Freeze for 30 minutes.

  3. Bake crust until firm and turning darker around edges, 10 to 11 minutes. Remove from oven, and reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

  4. Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk together condensed milk, lemon juice, egg yolks and egg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt.

  5. Pour filling into warm piecrust. Bake until center is set, 25 to 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours.

  6. Make the topping: Sprinkle berries with 2 tablespoons sugar and the lemon juice. Let stand for 30 minutes.

  7. Meanwhile, heat egg whites and remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar in the heatproof bowl of a mixer set over a pan of simmering water until sugar dissolves and mixture is warm to the touch, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to mixer, and whisk on high speed until medium peaks form, 8 to 9 minutes.

  8. Strain berries and then spoon berries over pie. Spoon meringue over top. Place pie under broiler, with rack in lowest position, until meringue is just browned.

I have found, making this pie a few times, the topping mixture tends to be too much liquid for the pie. Usually the strawberries already contain enough juice for the pie so I like to strain the berries out of the lemon juice prior to pouring them on top of the pie. I also like to refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving, it’s much better when chilled.

I hope you try this pie soon, its one of my favorites!

 

One thought on “strawberry lemonade pie

  1. Ooh looks delicious. Easter is coming up and I want to bring a new dish. This would be perfect! Thanks Amy! You are too cool!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *