Shaker Lemon Pie

Friends, I bear tidings of great joy: I am no longer pie crust's bitch. My latest recipe, promising as they all do perfect results via some secret ingredient, actually worked! Of course it's in "Cook's Illustrated." The secret ingredient? Vodka, of all things. But the crust is everything they promised: easy to make, easy to work with, hard to mess up and absolutely perfect out of the oven. As you see (or maybe not, as my photography seems to be steadily deteriorating) it sure looks pretty, and as you can't see, it tastes just as good as it looks. The other news is Shaker Lemon Pie. We just harvested a crop of Meyer lemons from our rooftop tree, and I wanted to feature them in something. Shaker Lemon Pie involves using two whole lemons, including all the peel and pith: perfect. And, it turns out, utterly delicious. For the recipe I consulted both Ken Haedrich's Pie, and Rose Levy Berenbaum's Pie and Pastry Bible. I ended up going with the latter, as it seemed simpler and purer, though they were substantially the same: macerate two lemons, sliced paper-thin, in two cups of sugar overnight. Add four beaten eggs, and voila—there's your filling. Improbably tasty.