Easy Lemon Pie Recipe

Easy lemon pie recipe made with lemon curd pie filling, a whipped cream topping and a buttery homemade crust. Made in less than 30 minutes from start to finish.   This is one of our best pie recipes.

Several summers ago, we visited my uncle and aunt while on our way back from a church conference in Kentucky. My aunt served us a delicious meal (as always!) and topped it off with a blueberry dessert that I had never seen nor tasted before. It was one of those striking desserts that you find yourself just staring at. Of course, I asked her about it …“oh, it’s so simple Meredith! It’s called blueberry kuchen” she said with perfect German pronunciation (you go, Aunt Jan!) Kuchen (pronounced koo-gan) is the German word for cake.

Handed down recipes from generations of German bakers, kuchen, like this cherry kuchen recipe, is a beloved pastry that is shared among loved ones with coffee in the afternoon. My aunt got the recipe from an Anne Lenhart and she probably got it from someone else. No wonder! After tasting something like this, you just HAVE to share.

The kuchen variety that my aunt served is more like a pie than a lemon cake.  It has a thick crust and a fruit custard filling. I made a few small tweaks to her recipe like changing the blueberry out for pre-made lemon curd and topping it all with cream before serving to balance the sweetness like the lemon lush dessert.

My aunt was right in how simple this pastry is to put together. It’s basically all the same ingredients as American pie crust with the exception of baking powder and milk instead of water. The pastry and filling are baked for only 12-15 minutes at very high heat, so you can have this easy dessert on the table in less than 30 minutes. Those Germans bakers are so smart.

Are you ready to make some easy lemon pie with me?

How To Make Easy Lemon Pie

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. In a medium size bowl, combine your flour, salt, sugar and baking powder.

Cut in ½ cup (1 stick) of unsalted butter, using a pastry blender or fork, until you have small pea size chunks of butter mixed throughout.  The chunks of butter will make a wonderful texture for our pastry.

Crack one egg in a small measuring cup. Then pour enough whole milk over the egg until you have ¾ cup total. Didn’t I say those German bakers were smart?

Making a well, slowly pour the egg and milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until the dough comes together.

This is what your finished dough will look like. Be careful not to over mix! Pastry requires minimal human touch.

Press the dough into an un-greased 10 inch pie plate, leaving the bottom plenty thick while bringing the dough up the sides.  (Use floured hands as it will be sticky!) . Do you see the visible chunks of butter? That’s what we want!

My aunt’s recipe includes a homemade blueberry mixture, but I love the taste of lemon and since this dessert was so simple to start with, I decided to use my favorite pre-made lemon curd to make it even easier. You can find this lemon curd online or at most grocers in the pie filling section. Since lemon is on the tart side, one 10 oz. jar (1 ¼ cups) is perfect. The beauty of this dessert is that you can play around with different fruits and quantities to your liking!

Spread the fruit filling onto the bottom of the pastry and bake for 12-15 minutes until you see a slight golden color on the edge and a toothpick comes clean when poked into the center of the side crust. I probably could have taken mine out a minute or two earlier. We don’t want too much browning.

When cool enough, top with lightly sweetened whipped cream and pull out a slice for your own loved ones over coffee. It’s tart, sweet, delicate, buttery, refreshing, creamy, flakey, German, pretty….ok, ok. I’ll stop 🙂 It’s simply the best blueberry kuchen turned easy lemon pie that I know. Thank you Aunt Jan for sharing with me!

Enjoy!

More Pie Recipes

• No Bake Peanut Butter Pie Recipe
• Fresh Peach Pie Recipe
• Old Fashioned Rhubarb Pie

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