Nanna's Lemon Sponge Pie
Very creamy with a deep lemon flavor.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sugar
- 3 Tbsp. Butter, at room temperature
- 2 Egg Yolks
- 2 Egg Whites, stiffly beaten
- 1/4 cup Lemon Juice, freshly squeezed from about 2 lemons
- 2 tsp. Lemon zest Be careful not to zest into the white part of the lemon rind. It is bitter.
- 3 Tbsp. Flour
- 1/8 tsp. Salt
- 1 cup Milk
Instructions
- Heat oven to 325 degrees. Pre-bake a single pie crust. This is known as "blind bake", "pre-bake" or "partially bake". Place the dough in a pie pan and carefully place a piece of parchment paper to fit in the bottom and up the sides of the pan, on top of the raw dough. Weight with pie weights or a lb. of dry beans. Weighting is necessary as when the pie starts to bake, the butter melts creating steam. Steam makes the pie crust super flakey, but it also causes the crust to rise unless it is weighted. Bake the crust for about 15 minutes. Because the bottom has been weighted and covered with the parchment it does not properly pre-bake so you will need to bake a bit more once the weights and parchment are removed. Remove the weights and parchment carefully and prick the bottom of the crust with a fork. This is known as "docking". This step is necessary to keep the bottom crust from bubbling up. Bake until the bottom crust just begins to brown; about 7 or 8 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool before filling.
- Beat 1 cup sugar, 3 Tbsp. butter and 2 egg yolks until creamy.
- Add the lemon juice, zest, 3 Tbsp. flour and 1/8 tsp. salt. Mix well.
- Beat the egg whites until stiff.
- Add 1 cup milk and fold the stiffly beaten egg whites into the batter.
- Pour the filling into a pre-baked crust and bake at 325 degrees for 45-50 minutes or until pie is set.