Belizean Lemon Pie
Belizean lemon pie is a condensed-milk citrus filling in a blind-baked crust under a tall meringue. It is tart the way a key lime pie is tart, sweeter from the condensed milk, and it sets without gelatin because the acid does the work. There is no cooking of the filling at all.
Belizean lemon pie, Belizean lemon meringue pie and Belizean lime pie all name the same dessert, and the recipe below is written for either fruit.
Flan, dulce de leche, fudge, key lime pie, fruit cake: Belizean and Caribbean desserts are built on a can of sweetened condensed milk. The 14oz can is the standard size every recipe assumes.
Ingredients
- 1 can (14 oz / 397 g) condensed milk, not filled milk
- 4 eggs, separated
- 1/2 to 3/4 cup (120 to 180 ml) lime or lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) cream of tartar
- Zest of 2 limes or lemons
- Store-bought baked pie crust, or the homemade crust below
Homemade crust
- 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (65 g) shortening
- 1/2 teaspoon (3 g) salt
- 5 tablespoons (75 ml) icy cold water
Meringue
- 4 egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) cream of tartar
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) lime or lemon juice
- 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
- In a bowl, combine lime or lemon juice, condensed milk, and 4 egg yolks. Mix well. Taste and add more juice if necessary. Set aside. The filling thickens as it sits, which is the acid working on the milk.
- Prepare the crust: If using a store-bought crust, follow package instructions. For a homemade crust, mix flour, salt, and shortening in a bowl. Use fingertips to create a crumb-like texture. Add cold water, one tablespoon at a time, until the dough forms a ball, about 5 tablespoons. Let dough rest for 20 minutes.
- Roll out the dough into a 10-inch (25 cm) circle and place it in a pie tin. Remove excess dough and prick with a fork. Place parchment paper over the dough, add a couple of handfuls of beans to prevent puffing, and bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove parchment paper and beans before filling.
- While the crust bakes, prepare the meringue: Beat 4 egg whites, 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar, and 1 teaspoon lime or lemon juice until frothy. Gradually add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form.
- Assemble the pie: Place filling inside the baked crust, and spoon meringue on top. Spread the meringue right out to the crust so it seals all the way around, which is what stops it shrinking away as it bakes. Bake at 325°F (165°C) for 20 minutes or until golden brown.
- Allow the pie to cool for 1 hour before serving.
My daughter was born in the hot Belizean June and she always requests this pie on her birthday. She, like all of us, loves the tart, sweet lusciousness of this pie, especially if it is made with the limes that grow on our lime trees from our backyard in Belize. Limes have become a precious commodity in Belize, but they are still commonly grown in people’s backyards. Here in the U.S., we can easily find them in our grocery stores.
Storage and Make-Ahead
This pie needs the fridge and it needs time. Give it the full hour on the counter, then at least three hours cold before you cut it, or the filling will slump on the plate. Overnight is better still.
It keeps three days refrigerated, loosely covered. Do not wrap it tight against the meringue. Meringue weeps as it sits, and a lid pressed onto it turns the surface sticky. Beads of syrup on top after a day are normal and do not mean it has gone off.
Do not freeze it. The filling survives, the meringue does not, and it thaws watery.
To split the work, blind-bake the crust a day ahead and keep it at room temperature. Mix the filling and beat the meringue on the day, since both are quick and neither holds.
Equipment
A 9 or 10 inch (23 to 25 cm) pie tin. Anything deeper and the filling is too shallow to slice cleanly.
An electric mixer for the meringue. Four whites to stiff peaks by hand is possible and it is a long ten minutes. Whatever you use, the bowl and beaters have to be completely free of grease or the whites will not climb, and a speck of yolk in the whites will do the same thing.
Dried beans or pie weights for blind baking, and parchment to sit them on.
Tips and Variations
Squeeze the juice fresh. Bottled juice is flat and it is the only flavour in the filling, so there is nowhere for it to hide.
Start at 1/2 cup of juice and taste before you commit. Limes vary a lot, and the condensed milk is fixed, so the juice is the only lever you have on how tart the pie lands.
Spoon the meringue onto filling that is still cool, not cold from the fridge. A big temperature gap between the two layers is what makes the meringue slide.
Condensed milk, not evaporated and not filled milk. Filled milk is a real product on Belizean and diaspora shelves and the tin looks similar, but it will not set. Nutrition is estimated from standard ingredient labels, per slice, eight slices to the pie.
Related Recipes
If you enjoyed this recipe you may also enjoy another typical Belizean dessert recipe for flan, which leans on the same tin of condensed milk.
For the rest of the Belizean dessert table: coconut cream pie, coconut crusts and bread pudding.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Belizean lemon pie the same as Belizean lime pie?
Same dessert, two names, and you will see both. This recipe is written for either fruit, and the amounts do not change.
Do I have to cook the filling?
No. Condensed milk, yolks and citrus juice set on their own once the acid hits the milk, and they finish setting in the fridge. The only baking is the crust and then the meringue on top.
Can I use bottled lime juice?
You can, and the pie will taste flat. There are four things in the filling and the juice is the only one carrying flavour, so this is the wrong corner to cut.
Why did my meringue weep or shrink?
Weeping comes from undissolved sugar, so add it a tablespoon at a time and beat until you cannot feel grit between your fingers. Shrinking comes from meringue that was not spread all the way to the crust. Seal it to the edge and it has nothing to pull back from.
My filling did not set. What went wrong?
Almost always evaporated or filled milk instead of condensed, or not enough juice. Condensed milk is thick and sweet, and it needs the full 1/2 cup of juice at minimum to firm up. Not enough time in the fridge does it too.
How far ahead can I make it?
A day ahead is ideal, since it slices better cold. Past three days the meringue goes sticky. It does not freeze.
How many slices does it make?
Eight from a 9 or 10 inch pie. It is rich, so eight is a real eight rather than an optimistic one.
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About Joe Post
Joe Post is the founder and editor of Belize News Post. He grew up in Corozal Town, Belize, on the Caribbean sea with a view across Corozal Bay to Cerro Maya. He has lived in Costa Rica, Kenya, England, Spain, and the United States. He grew up cooking alongside his mother and grandmother, and has personally tested the vast majority of the recipes on this site. He started BNP in the early 2000s as one of the few independent Belizean news sources online. Over the years, the food became the stickiest thing. News comes and goes. Food stays.
Gonna try this recipe tomorrow