lemon chess pie

i know i talked about making chess pie for president's day, but as i figured i still was reeling from my cupcake buzz from valentine's day. i thought that i would make it for george washington's birthday on the 22nd. after talking about chess pie at work, one of my managers absolutely was dying for me to make some lemon chess pie. unfortunately, he leaves for vacation by then. so, i realized i would have to make it tonight for him to have some. i was still a little trepidatious about making the pie since pie crusts scare me. i've made them but i try to avoid them. they are the bane of my baking life. i have an inability to make the edging of my crust pretty which saddens me terribly. so, i started making soup in my crockpot and dyeing my hair in an attempt to put off the inevitable.

after reading through several recipes online, i decided on this recipe http://southernfood.about.com/od/lemonpierecipes/r/bl00510e.htm since it appeared to be the simplest i could find. i left out the lemon rind and used a homemade pie crust. i found in my oven that it needed more time a good 20 minutes more to bake in my oven though. the top of the pie appears candy like with its hard crunchy texture not entirely surprising considering how much sugar is in the filling. i am in love with the pastel yellow color though. i apologize for the crushed top where my boyfriend in an attempt to be helpful full force shoved a knife in there to check for doneness since he wanted to use the oven. it does surprise me that the this recipe was written with the experience baker in mind in some ways. if anyone decides to try this recipe, remember to temper in the melted butter meaning to slowly add a bit of the rest of the filling to the melted butter til the temperature is down some and you can add it to the filling. otherwise, you may end up with scrambled eggs.

as for the crust, i tried this recipe for the crust http://www.cooksrecipes.com/pie/basic-pie-crust-101-recipe.html. i pulled off a bit from the side of the pie, and it is light and flaky as promised. still, i stink at making a pretty egding without tearing my crust.

here's my finished product:

a closeup of the pale yellow color

finally, all packed up and ready to take to work tomorrow. yes, i have a plethora of specialized carrying cases.

edited after serving the pie. this pie is super rich, so i ended up cutting it into twelths for serving. it was such a hit that one of my friends has requested it instead of cake for his birthday.