Sunshine Pie
I love lemon. Lemon cake, lemon cookies, lemon bars. I love freshly slicing lemons and having that delicious scent still lingering on your fingers. To me it smells of summer, warm weather, light, bright and airy. If you’re looking for sunshine in a pie, off of the typical beaten path of lemon meringue, this lemon pie recipe is for you. It’s simple, beautiful and oh so easy!
Husband, kids and even father-in-law approved! And he doesn’t like fruit 😂
Ingredients:
- Nonstick cooking spray
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs (I buy them already crushed)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 6 Tbsp. melted butter
- 3 cups sweetened condensed milk ( about 3, 14 oz. cans, measure to verify)
- 3 egg yolks
- 2/3 cups fresh lemon juice ( about 2 lemons)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350′
Spray a 9 inch pie dish with cooking spray to coat.
In a bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar, mix well. Next, add the melted butter and mixed until combined.Using a fork works great.
Pour graham cracker mixture into pie dish. Using your hands, work the crust up the sides of pie dish until evenly distributed to the top edge of pie dish.
Place pie crust in oven for 8 minutes. Remove and allow to rest.
While the pie crust is baking, into a large bowl add the sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon juice and vanilla extract. Using a hand mixer, mix on medium-high speed for 5 minutes.Pour into baked pie crust.
Bake for 10 minutes or until the center is no longer jiggly. It may wiggle, but no jiggling allowed.
Allow to cool for 1 hour. Place into refrigerator and allow to chill thoroughly before serving. Keep refrigerated thereafter.
Optional:
Serve with fresh whipped cream or canned, lemon slices, lemon zest and mint. If you have none of those, it’s still just as yummy.
A couple of words of caution with whipped cream. Whipped cream tends to break down and become watery. I recommend if using canned or homemade whipped cream, to add to pie just before serving.
*Adapted from the amazing Joanna Gaines.
