Winter time in Santiago means citrus season. We are being bombarded by clementines, navel oranges, grapefruit, and kazillions of kilos of fragrant lemons. Even my friends with lemon trees in their backyards are tiring of lemony pisco sours, the national drink. There’s just no end in sight.

Chileans love lemon and its tart, perfumed acidity. They will slice it up in hot water for tea (good for detoxing after all that pisco), a squeeze on a salad with olive oil and sea salt, zested in salsa verde, and perhaps the most famous, their Lemon Meringue Pie. Most American lemon pies have a filling made with lemon juice and corn starch. The Chilean counterpart is made with lemon juice and sweetened condensed milk, much loved by locals. In fact, many sugar junkies here confess to eating condensed milk straight out of the can.

As a child growing up in the countryside of Talca, about 300 kilometers south of Santiago, my husband Francisco was a quiet Lemon Pie devotee. Although he never directly confessed eternal love to this classic dessert, my mother-in-law, Cecilia, guessed it must be the case. The entire pie would disappear within a day of its birth. Served usually for dessert or onces, bakeries pump out thousands of these every day but there’s none that can compete with the homemade version.

This weekend, kept inside by the rain, I looked at some lonely lemons begging to become a pie. I tweeked the original recipe slightly to improve the crust texture with real butter, added lemon juice to heighten the intensity, added egg yolks for a silky filling, and played down the sugariness of the meringue (still sweet though). The result? 36 hours later and one piece left. Mission accomplished.

Pastry Dough

1 ¼ cups flour, sifted

7 Tablespoons cold butter (130 grams ), in cubes

¼ teaspoon salt

3-4 Tablespoons ice water

Filling & Meringue

3 egg yolks, lightly beaten

3 egg whites

½ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

zest of 2 lemons

½ cup sugar

1 x 400g can of condensed milk

Preparation

Make Pastry:

For the dough, combine flour, butter, salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until crumbs resembling a meal form. Add the ice water and pulse until water is incorporated, forming a dough ball. Dust with flour, wrap in parchment paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate one hour.

Make shell:

On a lightly floured surface with a floured rolling pin roll out dough into a 13-inch round, (about 1/8 inch thick) and fit into a 9-inch (1-quart) pie plate. Trim edge of dough, leaving a 1/2-inch overhang, and crimp edge decoratively. Prick shell in several places with a fork and chill, covered, 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400F/200C.

Line shell with wax paper and fill with rice or pie weights. Bake shell in middle of oven 10 minutes. Remove paper and rice carefully and bake shell until golden, about 12 minutes more. Cool shell in pie plate on a rack.Lower oven to 350F/180C.

Make filling:

Meanwhile, whisk the condensed milk with the lemon juice, zest, and egg yolks. Reserve.

Make meringue:


In another bowl with an electric mixer beat egg whites until they hold soft peaks. Beat in sugar in a slow stream, beating until meringue just holds stiff peaks. Pour filling into shell and spread meringue on top, covering filling completely, sealing it to pastry.

Draw meringue up into peaks and bake pie in middle of oven until meringue is golden, about 15 minutes.

Let pie thoroughly cool before serving.

Yield: 1 9 or 10-inch pie