Mrs. Natha Adkins Parker’s Lemon Cloud Pie

Chef

Cookbook

Southern Pies

Published by Chronicle

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This image courtesy of Joseph DeLeo

Editor's Note: Serve up a slice of heaven when you bake this recipe for Mrs. Natha Adkins Parker’s Lemon Cloud Pie! Light as can be, this lemon cloud pie recipe will be the perfect end to almost any meal as it has a refreshing taste that everyone will love. This dessert pie recipe is also easy to make and can be served on the day you bake it. This delightful Southern pie recipe is one that you can share with your family and friends, or serve at a bake sale. No matter the occasion, you'll love having this recipe for lemon cloud pie right at your fingertips this summer!

This lovely lemon pie comes from a marvelous book called The Lost Art of Scratch Cooking: Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Natha Adkins Parker. If you enjoy cooking and stories of family connection, you will love and use this book as much as I do. Mrs. Parker raised her family in Stello, Mississippi, and one of her sons, Curtis Parker, realized that her lifetime of culinary knowledge and wisdom was a treasure. He documented her gift for “scratch cooking,” presenting it in book form so that we can learn the good old ways and put them to use in our twenty-first-century kitchens. Mrs. Parker calls this simply “Old-Fashioned Lemon Pie,” but given its combination of delicate texture and intense flavor, I like to call it “Mrs. Natha Adkins Parker’s Lemon Cloud Pie.”

Cooking MethodBaking

CostInexpensive

Easy

Total Timeunder 4 hours

OccasionBirthday, Buffet, Buffet Meal, Casual Dinner Party, Family Get Together

Recipe CourseDessert

Taste and TextureButtery, Light, Sweet, Tart

Type of DishDessert, Pie

Ingredients

Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie (store-bought or see basic Butter Pie Crust)
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons flour
1½ cups milk
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter, melted
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind or zest
2 egg yolks, beaten well
2 egg whites

Instructions

Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with crust and then crimp the edges decoratively. Refrigerate it until needed.
In a medium bowl, combine the sugar and flour and use a fork or a whisk to stir them together well. Add the milk, lemon juice, butter, and lemon rind. Stir to mix everything together. Add the egg yolks and stir well.
In another medium bowl, beat the egg whites until they swell up into thick, puffy white clouds, which hold their shape in soft peaks.
Using a spatula or a large wooden spoon, fold the egg whites gently into the lemon filling, scooping and lifting to combine the two mixtures evenly. Pour the filling into the piecrust.
Place the pie on the bottom rack of the oven, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees F, and bake until the filling is fairly firm, dry, and puffed up, 20 to 25 minutes more. Place the pie on a cooling rack or a folded kitchen towel and let cool to room temperature.