Lemon Cheesecake Pie

My great-grandmother was a fantastic cook and baker. Sadly, after she died, my grandfather threw out all of her wonderful recipes. (She made the best Christmas cookies. I still think about them every December.)

Anyway...

In the past, my mom has mentioned how much she liked a cheesecake pie my great-grandmother used to make. According to my mom, it was "probably made with Philadelphia cream cheese" and it "had a faint lemon taste" to it. That's about all I know. Pretty vague, but I get the point. Simple and basic everyday ingredients are always in style and usually produce darn-good recipes (dern-good if you're from the south). I looked through a few of my cookbooks and searched online for any lemon-flavored cheesecake pie recipes (or anything remotely similar), but most of the recipes I came across either used a box of powdered lemon pudding mix (ewww!!!) or incorporated Cool Whip (gag!!!) to make a fluffy refrigerator pie. After a little bit of culinary thought and experimentation, I combined ingredients and tweaked measurements from three different recipes to come up with the concoction below. I can't wait to make it for my mom when she comes out west in October to visit me. (Sadly, I won't see her again before then.) I'm curious to see if it tastes remotely close to what my great-grandmother used to make for her when she was growing up.

It's cool, creamy and delicious with a slight lemon taste.

In any case, I'm sending this virtual pie to my mom in celebration of Mother's Day on Sunday.

Lemon Cheesecake Pie

2 eggs, at room temperature
1/2 cup granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 (8 oz.) package 1/3-less-fat cream cheese, room temperature
2/3 cup fat-free evaporated milk
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon peel
One 9-inch graham cracker crust, baked and cooled*

In a medium mixing bowl, beat eggs until thick and light yellow, about 3 minutes. Add sugar and flour, beating until well-blended. Pour the egg mixture into a small bowl and set aside.

In the same bowl used to beat the eggs, beat cream cheese with a small amount of the evaporated milk until smooth.

Add remaining evaporated milk, lemon juice and lemon peel; beat until smooth and well-blended. Pour egg mixture into the cream cheese mixture; beat just until blended.

Pour mixture into the prepared graham cracker crust. Bake at 325 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool completely on a wire rack. Refrigerate at least four hours (or overnight). Let stand at room temperature for 10-15 minutes before cutting and serving.

* To make a graham cracker crust, combine 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs, 3 tablespoons sugar and 1/3 cup melted butter. Press into a 9-inch glass pie pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 8-9 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool completely on wire rack before filling.

 

Lemon Crumble Bars

My neighbor downstairs, Chris, is moving out at the end of the month, and I told him I was going to bake him something once a week until he moves. I did confess to him that it's not just because I think he's a swell guy, but also because I have a pantry full of baking stuff I need to use up. Since it is now the 8th of May and I want to keep my promise to him, I started perusing the pantry this morning trying to figure out what to do with all the different flavored baking chips, chocolate bars, cocoa, nuts and extracts I have on hand. Nothing jumped out at me (thank God!!!) until I spotted a jar of lemon curd I bought last October in London at Fortnum & Mason. OMG...how could I have forgotten about this? I was so excited last year to go to F&M to buy some as I have many fond breakfast memories of crumpets and toast topped with melted salted butter and spoonfuls of thick, tangy Fortnum & Mason lemon curd. Not just lemon curd, but Fortnum & Mason lemon curd. I don't know how it got lost in the shuffle in my pantry, and I’m a little sad it hasn’t been consumed before now. Anyway, the time has come. Lucky for Chris, the “best before” date on the lemon curd is 10-May-07. Lucky for me, there is more than half of the jar left. Guess what I’ll be eating on my toast for breakfast for the next few days?

I'll report back on my critique of these later. They're baked, cooled and cut into bars, but I haven't tried them yet.

Update: These are fantastic and true to their name. They are lemony, crumbly and delicious. The crumbly brown sugar base dough has a nice flavor and adds just the right amount of sweetness to contrast the tart, chewy lemon curd filling. The almonds toast into crunchy goodness on top while baking. I'm glad I gave these away because I probably could have polished them off quickly. Chris liked them a lot, too. He thanked me in person, and he even called the next day to say, "Thank you again. You're a great baker". That made my day.

Lemon Crumble Bars

Source: Good Housekeeping 2002 Annual Recipes

A quick brown-sugar dough is made in the food processor and spread with some lemon curd and almonds for delicious, crumbly treats.

Makes 24 bars

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold butter, cut up
1/4 cup whole natural almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup jarred lemon curd
1/2 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In food processor, with knife blade attached, blend flour, sugar, and baking soda until mixed. Add butter and pulse just until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Transfer 1/2 cup dough to small bowl and stir in almonds; reserve.

Press remaining dough firmly onto bottom of ungreased 9” by 9” metal baking pan. In another small bowl, mix lemon curd and lemon peel; spread mixture over dough up to 1/4 inch from edges. Crumble reserved dough over curd.

Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until browned. Cool completely in pan on wire rack. Cut into 8 strips, then cut each strip crosswise into 3 bars.

Notes: I lined my baking pan with foil so these would be easy to remove from the pan. Use a long, serrated knife to cut these. Cut bars slowly and carefully.

Lemon Nutmeg Meltaways

My parents went on a two-week cruise to the Caribbean back in February, and one of the ports of call was Grenada. Grenada is well-known as a spice island, and I was lucky enough to receive a big bottle of whole nutmeg as a gift from my mom and dad. This is no ordinary nutmeg. I had to pull out the hammer to break off the outer shell to get to the nutmeg in the middle. This is the darkest, most fragrant nutmeg I have ever seen or smelled. It really puts my previous (so-called high-end) whole nutmeg to shame.

This cookie has everything right going for it...a tart citrus taste from the lemon rind combined with the aromatic warmth of the nutmeg as well as a slightly crisp exterior and a tender interior thanks to the combination of cake flour and cornstarch. These really are melt-in-your-mouth delicious. I like the simplicity of the cookie, too.

Lemon Nutmeg Meltaways

Source: Adapted from St. Petersburg Times newspaper

1 cup cake flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon rind
Confectioners' sugar, for garnish

Sift cake flour, cornstarch, salt and nutmeg onto wax paper.

Beat butter, sugar and lemon rind with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add sifted dry ingredients to butter mixture.

Beat on low speed until mixture is smooth. Roll dough by teaspoon into balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet.

Flatten slightly to 1 1/4-inch circles with bottom of glass dipped in confectioners' sugar.

Bake at 350 degrees for 13-15 minutes, or until cookies have turned pale brown on edges. Let cookies sit on sheet 1-2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool. Sift with confectioners' sugar while still warm. Sift cookies again with confectioners' sugar when completely cooled, if desired.

Pack into airtight containers and store up to one week.

Yield: 2 dozen cookies

Notes: Use organic lemons since you are zesting the skin.