Could Anything Be More Perfect for Valentine’s Day?
Lemon flavored, but creamy. Roasted strawberries somewhere in the mix. That’s what I had in mind when I started thinking about this pie. I knew I wanted to use the Meyer lemons I had, but you could also use regular lemons and it would still be delicious.
There are several ways you can go about making a lemon cream pie, and I decided I only wanted the filling to be lemon curd with a little bit of whipped cream added to make it more creamy and to lighten up the texture a little. That was easy. The day before I served the pie I made up a big batch of lemon curd and let it chill. I used both Meyer lemon juice and regular lemon juice because I wanted it to be more tart than if I had only used Meyer lemons.
I love what lightly roasting does for the flavor of strawberries and have had better results with frozen strawberries rather than fresh ones. Roasting them intensifies the strawberry-ness, so to speak. So, I simply roasted them with sugar and a little black pepper. The pepper enhances the flavor without dominating it. After they were roasted, I stirred in a couple teaspoons of balsamic vinegar because they needed more kick. Again, I made these the day before and chilled them overnight.
I’ve made David Lebovitz’s French Tart Dough many times. It’s a very easy press-in crust that is made by placing a bowl of butter, oil, water, salt, and sugar in the oven. When the butter starts browning around the edges, you remove it from the oven, stir in the flour, let it cool a little and press it into a tart pan. Well, this time I used a deep dish ceramic pie dish. I had to increase the amounts due to the size difference and when I went to press it into the dish, it slid down the sides. I rectified this problem by popping it into the fridge for about 10 minutes. It then stayed put.
It is important to completely fill up the lined dish with pie weights. They need to go all the way to the top of the dish in order to keep the sides of the dough in place as it bakes. I’ve found that this works best by using non-stick aluminum foil to first line the shell. This way it doesn’t stick to the crust when you remove the pie weights. This type of crust is very different than a normal pie crust. It’s more crumbly and tender. I thought it would be a good match for the type of pie I had in mind.
After the crust had baked and completely cooled, I spooned in the cream filling and let it sit in the fridge for 4 hours before finishing it up. Lightly sweetened whipped cream, to which I added some sour cream for stabilization, was spooned on top and then topped with the roasted strawberries. I held back most of the syrup from the strawberries and spooned a little on each individual serving.
As you can see, this doesn’t produce nice clean slices. Instead, the topping ends up looking like an Eton Mess (which I also happen to love). It may not be the neatest slice I’ve ever seen, but it is absolutely delicious and is the best lemon cream pie I’ve ever eaten. But don’t take my word for it, give this one a try and you’ll see what I mean.
Meyer Lemon Cream Pie with Roasted Strawberries
10-12
servingscreamy Meyer lemon filling is topped with whipped cream and roasted strawberries. The flavor and texture is dreamy.
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Ingredients
10 ounces (283g)frozen strawberries, large ones cut into quarters and smaller ones cut in half
1/4 cup (50g) granulated sugar
Black pepper
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
5 Meyer lemons, zest finely grated, and juice
2 - 3 regular (Eureka) lemons, juiced
1 1/4 cups (250g )granulated sugar
8 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
15 tablespoons unsalted butter, cubed
2 cups heavy cream, divided
1/2 cup sour cream, divided
Minced candied Meyer lemon peel, optional
- French Tart Dough adapted from David Lebovitz
6 ounces (170g) salted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons neutral vegetable oil
4 1/2 tablespoons water
Pinch salt
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated sugar
11 ounces (240g) (1 1/2 rounded cups) all purpose flour
Directions
- Preheat the oven to 425°. In a small baking dish, only large enough to hold the strawberries in a single layer, combine the strawberries, sugar, and a couple grinds of black pepper. Bake for 20 minutes. Set aside and let cool, place in a bowl, stir in the balsamic vinegar, cover and refrigerate until completely chilled.
- Pour the Meyer lemon juice into a glass measuring cup and add enough juice from the regular lemons to bring the total measure up to 1 1/4 cups.
- În a medium saucepan, whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs. Add the sugar, lemon juices, zest and butter. Whisk constantly over medium heat until it thickens and you see a couple of bubbles. Continue whisking for 30 more seconds. Remove from the heat. Pour through a strainer, scraping it with a wooden spoon or spatula, into a medium bowl. Place plastic wrap directly on top of the curd and let chill completely. This will take at least a few hours, so I like to do it the day before.
- Beat 1/2 cup heavy cream with 1 1/2 tablespoons powdered sugar until soft peaks form. On low speed, beat in 1 tablespoon sour cream. Continue to beat until stiff peaks form. This will happen quickly. Remove the curd from the refrigerator and give it a little stir to loosen it. Fold in the whipped cream and spoon into the cooled pie shell. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. You can also make it the day before and let it chill overnight.
- Whip the remaining 1 1/2 cups heavy cream with 3 tablespoons powdered sugar until soft peaks form. Add the remaining 7 tablespoons of sour cream and beat on low speed until medium peaks form. You don’t want it completely stiff, but you also don’t want it too loose.
- Spoon it on top of the filling. Place the strawberries in a mesh strainer and save the syrup. Spoon the berries and a little of the reserved syrup on top of the whipped cream. Scatter on the optional minced Meyer lemon peel. Serve each slice drizzled with some of the reserved strawberry syrup. Enjoy!
- French Tart Dough adapted from David Lebovitz
- Preheat the oven to 410°. In a large ceramic or glass oven proof bowl, add the butter oil, water, salt, and sugar. Place in the oven and let cook until it is bubbling and the butter is starting to brown around the edges. Remove from the oven, being very careful to not burn yourself. As David mentions, it’s not common to have a hot bowl on the counter, so it’s easy to make the mistake of touching it with your bare hands. Immediately add the flour and stir it quickly until it comes together in a ball. Dump it into a 9 or 10 inch deep dish pie dish and spread it out with a spatula. Let it cool until it’s comfortable enough to handle and pat it into the bottom and up the sides of the dish. I found that I needed to chill it for 10 minutes at this stage in order for the dough to stay in place on the sides of my deep dish pie dish. Hold back a knob of dough to use for filling in any cracks. This dough has a tendency to crack and that reserved dough will come in handy.
- Line the shell with non-stick foil and fill it all the way to the top with pie weights. Bake for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and pie weights. If there are any cracks in the dough, patch them with a tiny piece of the reserved raw dough. Put back in the oven and continue to bake until it is golden brown - about 10 minutes.
Equipment
- 9 inch or 10 inch Deep Dish Pie Dish
2 Responses
Hi Renee,
I made this for Easter yesterday, and I agree that it’s delicious, and an absolute MESS! I guess my lemon curd didn’t get as firm as I would have liked. Wondering at the lack of cornstarch normally seen in curds.
I loved the crust you used; delicious and it held it’s texture and didn’t get soggy.
Jeanne
Oh, no!! Wow. I wonder what happened, Jeanne?? No, I never use cornstarch in my curds. I do use cornstarch in my pastry creams, but never in my curds. Granted, this pie doesn’t get as firm as a chess pie or something like that, but it should have been as firm as say, a soft lemon meringue pie. I’m so sorry this happened. Yes, the only thing I can imagine is that somehow the curd didn’t set as firmly as it should have. Well, darnit!! Thank goodness it still tasted good. 😊 I’m so sorry this happened. That’s really disappointing.