Vacation lemon pie.

Vacation = pie. When Rob and I travel, we tend to do so by car (so Peroni can come) and we tend to stay in a rental cottage/condo so we can cook. We shop local farmers’ markets, buy local meat and seafood and BOO (bring our own) wine and booze.


We also buy or make a pie. To me, vacation is pie, and pie is vacation. When we travel to the Beaufort, SC, area (a favorite destination), we’ll buy a key lime pie from Jannie’s Bread or a fruit galette from Yummy Buns at the Port Royal Farmers’ Market.

On our most recent trip, though, I brought and bought ingredients to make our own pie. The recipe for Atlantic Beach Pie on the New York Times Cooking site caught my eye. It’s basically a key lime pie, in lemon form … but the genius part is that it’s baked not in a graham cracker crust but a saltine cracker crust. Salty + sweet = my kind of dessert.

I prepped the dry ingredients for the crust ahead of time and brought an extra stick of butter, a bag of limes and a can of sweetened condensed milk. I bought eggs when we got to Beaufort. The pie was done in about half an hour. Vacation.

Vacation Lemon Pie (aka Atlantic Beach Pie)

adapted from New York Times Cooking

serves 8

For the crust:
1 ½ sleeves saltine crackers
3 Tbps. granulated sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

Preheat oven to 350°. In a large plastic bag, crush the crackers until you have fine crumbs; dump into a bowl and add sugar. Add the softened butter and use your hands to really work the mixture together until the butter is evenly distributed and you can squeeze together big clumps of crumbs. Press mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a pie plate. (Alternately, you can do all this in a food processor.) Freeze crust for 15 minutes, then bake for about 15 minutes, until it starts to turn a bit golden. Remove and let cool while you make the filling.

For the filling:
4 egg yolks
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
½ cup lemon and/or lime juice (I like to use both)
Pinch of kosher salt
Shaved or grated lemon or lime peel, for serving
Whipped cream, for serving

In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then whisk in the condensed milk, lemon/lime juice and salt until totally smooth and incorporated. Pour into pre-baked pie shell. Bake about 15 minutes, until filling is set but not browned. (It will continue to firm up as it cools.) Refrigerate several hours until completely chilled. Sprinkle with zest and serve with whipped cream.

Note: If you're going to make this on vacation — and you should — prepare the cracker crumbs and sugar to bring with you. Bring citrus, butter and sweetened condensed milk, and also a disposable aluminum pie plate if you're not sure your rental kitchen will be thusly equipped. Buy eggs at your destination; they're a challenge to transport in a cooler.

2 thoughts on “Vacation lemon pie.

  1. I’m glad somebody likes to cook on vacation so I don’t have to! I have an Onion Tart recipe that uses saltines…love it! I’m from SC and Beaufort is a wonderful choice.