Happy Pi Day! While you math people celebrate in your own special ways, I choose to celebrate with pie! ;)
Today I decided to make a Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Pie because of two reasons—I had a couple Meyer lemons in the fridge begging to be used and two—I also had some buttermilk to use as well. I really like Meyer lemons. I have gone through a dozen of them in the last month or so. When I first bought some, I looked up all kinds of recipes and had a hard time deciding what to do with them.
At one time, I used them in a lemon poppy seed dressing with a spinach and strawberry salad. De-lish! I used one in some lemon cornmeal cookies I made recently—they were good, but I didn’t think they were that pretty, so I didn’t post them. Basically, lately when I made something that needs lemon, I’ve been using Meyer lemons. I love that they aren’t too terribly tart and have their own distinct flavor with a little hint of orange or tangerine.
So, in that search a month or so ago, I found this pie and have had it on my “to make” list since then. The recipe for this pie is found on a new-to-me blog by Alanna, The Bojon Gourmet. She is a baker and pastry chef and has gorgeous photos of the things she makes. This Meyer Lemon Buttermilk Pie recipe is so well written and Alanna tried it different ways until she felt it was perfect. Like she mentioned, she had never made a buttermilk pie before and neither had I. I wanted something a little different than just making a lemon meringue pie or lemon bars or something like that so when I saw that this had buttermilk, I decided that was what I wanted to try.
I followed her recipe to a tee. My only issue was, even though I did exactly as she described in her recipe for the crust, mine still shrunk a bit. Hate it when that happens. I’m wondering if that could be solved with some high altitude tweaking, but who knows. So after prebaking the crust and seeing it had shrunk a bit, I knew all of the filling wouldn’t fit in the crust. I filled it as full as it could be without overflowing. Then I made a quick cookie crust with Nilla Wafers and baked the rest in a 9x5 inch bread pan that I lined with non-stick foil. It came out great!
The cookie crust was simple and could easily be doubled in an 8x8 inch pan. Here’s the recipe for the bread pan.
Nilla Wafer Cookie Crust, by Katrina, Baking and Boys!
1 cup Nilla Wafer cookie crumbs
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
Combine the cookie crumbs, sugar and melted butter until it is the consistency of wet sand. Spread evenly in a 9x5 inch bread pan lined with non-stick foil, leaving some foil hanging over the edges to easily release the tart from the pan. Prebake the cookie crust in a 325 degree oven for 10 minutes.
As if you couldn’t tell, I made some whipped cream for the top of each slice of pie and the tart. With the Meyer lemons, this isn’t as tart as regular lemons would be. If you’re a lemon fan, and especially like Meyer lemons, go check out the blog with the recipe, The Bojon Gourmet.
