Lemon Chiffon Pie

 9 February 2021

Recipe from America's Test Kitchen, June 2014

Because we enjoy lemon meringue pie I have been wanting to make lemon chiffon pie since seeing it on TV, about five years ago. (I mentioned it in a blog post in 2016.) First, though, what is chiffon in this context? Chiffon is made by folding meringue into a fruit curd, usually lemon. So where a lemon meringue pie is a layer of lemon curd topped with a layer of meringue, a lemon chiffon pie is a layer of curd topped by a layer of chiffon which is sort of a flavored meringue topping.

The three main components of this pie are a graham cracker crust, lemon curd, and lemon chiffon. A graham cracker crust is nice because it is easier to make than a pastry crust. Graham crackers were broken into pieces that were ground in a food processor to a uniform, fine crumb. Sugar and melted butter were combined with the crumbs in the food processor to form a dough that was pressed into a pie plate, baked, and cooled.  For the filling, two small bowls with water were sprinkled with unflavored gelatin. In a saucepan, 2 whole eggs plus 3 egg yolks were whisked with sugar, cornstarch, and salt. (I added too much sugar by following the ingredient list instead of the instructions.) Lemon zest, lemon juice, and heavy cream were whisked in and the mixture was cooked with constant stirring to 170°. One of the gelatin mixtures was stirred into the curd off heat. Some of the curd was strained, poured into the cooled crust, and placed in the freezer to chill. The other gelatin mixture was whisked into the remaining curd along with cream cheese then strained. In a stand mixer, 3 egg whites plus sugar were whipped to stiff peaks. The curd–cream cheese mixture was added and whipped. This chiffon was poured on top of the chilled curd and then chilled in the refrigerator. Total preparation time was about 2½ hours but 1 hour of this was idle time while the crust cooled.

We enjoyed this pie and it is worth making again. It is not as tart as lemon meringue pie and it has a smoother, silkier texture. I ended up with too much chiffon and did not use it all on the pie. I suspect an error that made it a little looser than it should have been so I was unable to pile it up on top of the pie as I should have. The sugar error may have contributed to this or perhaps a problem whipping the egg whites or combining them with the curd. In any event, this was a minor problem.