Cooking for the Lazy: No-Bake Lemon Pie

Rabat – The delight of this no-bake lemon pie is no joke. I once made it for a Thanksgiving dinner at a coworker’s home.

Some of my team members were helping me decorate the finished pie with kiwi slices when it slipped and the glass container shattered. They ate it right off the floor, picking around the glass. It was dangerous and disgusting, but also immensely flattering. 

If you’ve read the recipe for my mom’s homemade flan, you are already familiar with my first “lazy cook” rule: The number of ingredients must not exceed the number of a lazy cook’s fingers, and no, toes are not included. 

Ingredients:

• 8 tea biscuits 
• 160 grams of butter
• 8 lemons
• 4 eggs
• 180 grams of sugar

Preparing the crust

Just as with any pie, you will need to prepare a crust and a filling. For the crust, first crush the tea biscuits–a rolling pin always comes in handy at this stage. Stop when you get fine grains, before the cookies break down into power.

Melt 80 grams of the butter on a stove at whichever heat suits your fancy. Remember rule number two: Don’t be such a stickler for details unless it is bound to ruin your dish.

Next, pour the butter on the crumbs and mix the two. In your serving container, pour the mixture and spread it evenly. Put it in the freezer and get started on your filling.

Making the filling

First, cut the lemons, squeeze the juice into a bowl, and zest the rinds. Zesting is optional, but will help accentuate the lemony taste and save you a few bucks from buying even more than eight lemons, not to mention some extra effort.

Read Also: Cooking for the Lazy: Mom’s Homemade Flan

Crack the eggs into a large saucepan and mix them with the lemon juice and sugar. Continuously stir the lemon mixture on medium heat until it transforms into a creamy consistency. Do not stop stirring! This is one case where you do want to be a stickler for details. 

Remove the creamy mixture from the stove and let it rest for a minute. Then cut the remaining half of the butter into small cubes before adding it to the mixture. Cutting the butter will help it melt faster without putting it back on the stove. 

Finalizing your masterpiece

Mix everything once more, retrieve your crust from the freezer, and pour the mixture into the crust.

Cheat sheet: The same result can be obtained by replacing the eggs and butter with a large tablespoon of cornstarch, but I prefer adding eggs to increase the amount of the filling. 

Your mixture might overwhelmingly smell like eggs, do not let that make you think you ruined the pie. Put everything into the freezer for at least two hours–although I personally recommend overnight–and by the time you bring it out again the smell will be gone.

I always add a layer of store-bought whipped cream, because–sing with me in a chorus–we are “lazy cooks.” The contrast between the sour lemon and sweet whipped cream is a perfectly balanced combination, but again whipped cream is optional.

You can decorate your easy-but-fabulous creation with kiwis, mandarins, or chocolate powder. Feel free to go crazy!

Make it, enjoy it, and invite your friends and family to enjoy it. But, if the pie slips and breaks, please do not eat it. One pro of a hassle-free dessert is that you can easily make another!