This recipe for Lemon Pie comes from my other grandma. She made this a lot, and I'm sure that's because both she and Gramp loved lemon. This photo is of my Gramp. He loved lemon, he loved sweets (candy - he always had to have some in the candy dish on the table next to his chair) in general, and he loved cars! I wish I knew what kind of car this one was. There were many stories about him and his cars!
He's looking pretty dapper here - maybe he was courting Grandma at this point!
This pie is an easy one to make, but I had some issues with it. For some reason, all the recipes I've made lately have been a challenge, and I don't know why. Huh. I'll give the recipe below, but then I'll go over the issues I had later. Anyhoo - I think this pie would be lovely to serve as an Easter dinner dessert. It has a very lemony flavor, and as you can see, it's "Very Good"! Too funny that she, like Grandma, wrote that on only the very good ones! This one is also circled, so you can be sure she REALLY thought this one was "Very Good"! 
Here is the recipe as I made it:
Lemon Pie
Bake one pie crust and cool (you can find many pie crust recipes here on Plenty Sweet Life, or use one of your own).
Combine in top of a double boiler:
1 1/4 cups sugar
5 heaping Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 cups boiling water
Cook until it thickens and is clear.
Mix together:
1 Tablespoon butter
3 egg yolks (it doesn't say to keep the whites for a meringue, but I did - can't waste them!)
Juice and rind of 1 1/2 lemons (I had one that was very small, so I used 1 regular and the 1 small one)
Add to first mixture and boil again until it thickens.
Remove from heat.
Cool slightly and turn into baked pie crust.
At this point I beat the 3 egg whites (I added a 4th one to make more meringue) and added 2 T. sugar to them before spreading on top of the pie. I put it in the oven at 400 degrees for about 5-10 minutes until the top was browned and the meringue was cooked.
Nothing went right when I made this pie. I had a pie crust in the freezer so I thawed it in the refrigerator overnight. When ready to make the pie, I rolled it out (it was cold already, so I didn't put it into the frig to chill), blind baked it (first bake went well, second bake the crust shrunk and then bubbled up even though I docked it with a fork before baking), then cooled the crust and I was ready for the filling. Luckily the bubbled up part wasn't too crisp and it was ok in the end.
There's a lot of lemon in here - that's what makes it so, so good!
I had the lemon part ready before I started the cornstarch part so I'd be ready to add it when the time came.
Here we go - ready with the first cornstarch part.
I don't own a double boiler. This is how I get around that. I've used this format for years. About 1 1/2" of water is in the bottom of the pot and simmering, thus heating up the mixture in the bowl. Well, this didn't work so well. After 50 minutes, it still wasn't boiling. I decided I don't really remember Grandma having a double boiler, so she probably just cooked the filling in a pan. On to Plan B.
I put the first mixture right into the pot and after only about 10 minutes, I was putting the filling into the crust. That's the way I would do it next time.
Here it is in the crust!
Here is the next part that didn't work out so well. After beating the egg whites, I turned on the oven and did a little clean up before putting the meringue onto the pie. When I went back to do so, the whites were a bit rough, not smooth and pretty as then were when I was beating them. I don't know - we're just going to go with it. They browned beautifully anyway.
I have to say, the pie had a bit of a strange texture - probably because of the 50 minutes in the top of the double boiler before finally cooking it in the pan - but no one but me really seemed to think so.
I'm glad I used an extra egg white and made the meringue nice and thick.
This pie is so lemony and full of flavor - it really has been one of my favorites since I was a kid and Grandma would make this. I seem to remember that she made it during the summertime, about the same time as she was making her homemade Lemonade. Lemon is always a nice flavor for springtime, and that's why I think this would make a nice Easter dessert. It's easy to make and after making it in the pan instead of the double boiler, it was fast to make, too, so it can be made last-minute. I mean, who are we kidding here - pie is perfect ANY time of year - especially lemon pie. Try this delicious recipe for Lemon Pie and let me know how much your family, friends, or guests loved it!
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