Lemon Pi Pie

On Sunday, March 9th the Sunday Morning Show on CBS said that Friday was Pi Day... so at work I mentioned that we should have pie. Here is the Pie I made.

I made an Oreo crumb crust, but you can use graham cracker crumbs, a regular flour crust, or almond flour crust (to avoid gluten).

Crumb crust:

1.25 cups/296ml cookie crumbs (hmmm, chocolate chip anyone?)

1/4 cup/60ml butter

1 tablespoon/15ml butter

Melt butter in the microwave, mix with crumbs and sugar in a pie pan. Press evenly in the pan and bake for 8 minutes in a 350F/176C oven. (I doubled the recipe to make a nice deep crust)

Ingredients for Filling:

3 eggs 1.5 cups/355ml sugar

3 tablespoons/45ml cornstarch

3 tablespoons/45ml flour

pinch of salt

2 tablespoons/30ml butter

1.5 cups/355ml water

2 teaspoons/10ml lemon zest

1/3rd cup/70ml lemon juice (we use 1.5 lemons for the zest and juice)

Use a zester or fine grater to get the zest (outer yellow layer) of 1-2 lemons. This adds flavour to the filling. Cut 2 lemons in half and juice 2-3 of the halves. More flavour.

Separate the whites from the yolks into two small bowls. Beat the yolks.

In a medium saucepan mix together the sugar, flour, cornstarch and salt. Stir in the water and cook at medium high heat, stirring constantly until thick and bubbling.

Get the egg yolks, add a tablespoon or so of the hot mix to them and mix. Once more. Then add the egg mix into the saucepan and mix. If you add the yolks to the hot mix they will cook into chunks.

Cook the mix for another 2-3 minutes, stirring the whole time. Take off the heat, add the butter, mix it in. Then stir in the lemon juice and zest until smooth. Pour into the crust and smooth it out.

I drained some maraschino cherries and used 15 of them to make the symbol "pi".

I took it to work and cut it into 12 slices, it tasted great.

<<< Gluten-free variation >>>

Filling - use 6 tb/90ml cornstarch, no flour

Crust:

1.5 cups/355ml blanched almond flour
1/4-1/3 cup/60-78ml cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon/1ml salt

1/4 teaspoon/1ml baking soda

1/4 cup/59ml oil

2 tablespoons/30ml agave nectar

1 teaspoon/5ml vanilla

Mix the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Add the wet to the dry and mix thoroughly. Press into a pie pan and bake in a 350F/176C oven for 10 to 15 minutes. Remove and cool before adding filling.