Atlantic Beach Pie
Day 3 of Pie Week and today we’re doing a complete 180º. No fussy rolling out or crimping of pie dough needed. No tricky caramel making involved. Nope. This lovely and slightly off-the-beaten path pie practically makes itself and is super-duper delicious to boot. If lemon desserts make you sing, today’s your favorite song! Welcome to Atlantic Beach Pie.
Apparently this pie has been around for ages but my introduction to it is very recent—like, only when I made it and fell hard for it a few days ago! What a sheltered life I lead!! Anyhoo, it was created by Bill Smith, a beloved chef in North Carolina who developed the recipe based on the cracker-crusted lemon pies he grew up eating at seafood restaurants on the Carolina coast.
Think key lime pie but with lemon instead and a saltine cracker crust instead of graham crackers, which might sound weird but totally works—it’s that yin/yang thing.
It’s creamy, tart, sweet, salty, crunchy and oh so refreshing with every bite.
And it comes together so easily and can definitely be made a day or two before, especially if you serve the whipped cream on the side.
While no one would think of it as a natural for Thanksgiving, I’m going to suggest that it would be just the thing to counter that fairly heavy meal. It will definitely be making an appearance at our house (and probably disappearing pretty quickly also!) and when you see how easy it is, I think you may find yourself whipping it up too!
Atlantic Beach Pie
Makes a dozen servings
Prep Time for Crust: 10 minutes, plus 15 minutes of chilling time; Bake Time for Crust: 20 minutes; Prep Time for Filling: 5 minutes; Bake Time for Pie: 16 minutes, plus pie needs to cool and then chill for at least 2 hours and up to 2 days
Ingredients
For the Crust
About 60 saltine crackers (170g, about 1 ½ sleeves)
3 tablespoons sugar
8 tablespoons unsalted butter (½ cup), room temperature
For the Filling and Topping
4 large egg yolks
One 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
1 cup cold heavy cream
Coarse or flaky sea salt (optional)
The Recipe
1. For the crust: Center oven rack and preheat oven to 350ºF. Crush the crackers finely but not until they are just powdery crumbs. You can use a food processor, rolling pin or just your hands. Place the crumbs in a medium bowl and stir in the sugar. Then use your fingers to knead in the softened butter so that it holds together like a dough. Press into the bottom and up the sides of an 8-inch pie plate. I found that it helped to use the bottom of a glass to help flatten and even it all out. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Then bake for 20 minutes until the crust is a deep golden brown. Let cool on a rack slightly while you prepare the filling.
2. For the filling: In a clean medium bowl, whisk the yolks with the condensed milk until smooth. Add the lemon juice and whisk until smooth. Pour the mixture into the crust and bake for 16 minutes, until the filling has set. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, uncovered. If you’re going to chill it for much longer than that, I would loosely cover it with plastic wrap.
3. When you’re ready to serve the pie, beat the heavy cream with an electric mixer until it holds soft peaks. Spread the cream across the pie or serve on the side and let people top the pie with it themselves. This is what I did—it’s also good to do if you think you’ll have leftovers since the cream keeps better not on the pie. You can also serve with the salt—I didn’t use it but mostly because I forgot—If you love the sweet/salty combo, give it a try.
Enjoy!
Note: Recipe adapted from Genius Desserts by Kristen Miglore via Bill Smith.
