Whole Lemon Pie with Walnut-Cranberry Crumble

Filling from Smitten Kitchen 

I had never heard of Shaker Lemon Pie until yesterday when I went searching for a way to use lemons that had gone soft over the holidays in my refrigerator and a par-baked crust in the freezer that really needed to be used. Not that it would have gone bad in the freezer but just...what kind of lunatic sits on a homemade pie crust? So, anyway, there are a kajillion recipes for this kind of pie that I had never heard of before and they are all easy. Well, it would have been super easy if I had had hot water in the house to wash all the dishes before I got started and if my sink wasn't backed up from all the rain. But, still, a great pie got made and that's all that counts; it doesn't even matter that my husband thinks I'm a loon for baking in a basically unusable kitchen. It is (was) a great pie.



Whole Lemon Pie with Walnut-Cranberry Crumble


Prepare lemons first, they "marinate" 4-24 hours.

Crust

For Crumble
Walnuts
Dried Cranberries
Brown Sugar (or sugar and molasses)
Cinnamon
a couple tbs flour
a couple tbs butter, melted

Crumble: Combine ingredients.


For Filling
3 lemons
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
4 tbs butter
3 tbs flour


Filling: Grate the zest of lemons, slice lemons paper thin and place in metal or ceramic bowl; toss with sugar. Allow mixture to sit for 4 to 24 hours (the rinds will break down the more you let it sit...I held off for 6 hours).

Preheat oven to 400.

Whisk eggs till frothy then add flour. Add melted butter then stir in lemon mixture. Fill pie crust with mix and bake till top is dark brown. Turn heat to 300 and cook until pie is set (do a toothpick test). Allow to cool completely before serving.

Meyer lemons supposedly work best and I would have love to try that but my regular, thin-skinned lemons worked great.