Lemon Slice Pie

Lemon slice pie is the wild cousin of the well-known Shaker lemon pie. The whole lemon goes into the filling, peel and all, sliced as thin as possible. As the pie bakes, the slices soften into something between candied citrus and marmalade, suspended throughout the sugar-and-egg custard.

The technique skips any maceration step. Slices go straight into the filling alongside the grated rind, the eggs, and the sugar, then bake under a top crust. The bitter pith mellows during baking, and the natural acidity from the juice balances all that sugar so the pie reads as proper tart-sweet rather than candy-sweet.

A brushing of egg white plus sugar and cinnamon before baking gives the top crust a glossy, crackly finish that looks bakery-pretty.

Pro Tips

• Choose thin-skinned, fragrant lemons like Meyer if you can find them. Thick-skinned varieties carry more bitter pith and don’t soften completely during baking.
• Slice the lemon as paper-thin as possible, ideally with a mandoline. Thick slices stay tough and chewy in the finished pie.
• Pick out and discard every seed before adding to the filling. One bitter seed can ruin a slice.
• Vent the top crust generously with knife slashes. Steam from all the citrus juice swells the pie and bursts seams without proper venting.
• Cool fully before slicing, ideally 2 hours or more. Hot lemon filling slumps; properly cooled, it slices clean.

Variations

• Use one orange and one lemon for a sweeter, less puckery filling that softens the citrus edge.
• Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract to the custard for a softer, mellower flavor.
• Stir 2 tablespoons of bourbon or limoncello into the filling for an adult version of the classic.