Lemon Cream Pie

This easy recipe for lemon cream pie is made with sweetened condensed milk for a ridiculously easy but delicious pie recipe. Step-by-step photos teach you how to bake this simple creamy lemon pie.

this recipe

There are two ingredients I love all the time; lemon and chocolate. The two flavors are so perfect to me. I can literally never have enough recipes with those two. Which leads me to this easy recipe for a creamy lemon pie.

There are lots of versions of this recipe on the internet, it's very easy and delicious, so naturally, everyone wants a slice of this pie. I based my recipe on the Cooks Illustrated version of a Lemon Icebox Pie. I added a little cream and lemon zest to find what I felt was the perfect creamy but in-your-face lemon flavor!

Ingredients

For the pie you'll need:

• Graham Cracker Crust. I have an easy post on how to make a graham cracker crust it's just graham cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter, or you can use a store-bought premade graham cracker crust.
• Sweetened Condensed Milk (SCM). You'll need two 14oz cans of sweetened condensed milk but you will reserve 2 tablespoons to sweeten the whipped cream.
• Egg Yolks. You can save the egg whites to make my meringue cookies recipe, so tasty!
• Lemon Zest. Adding some lemon zest helps intensify the lemon flavor.
• Lemon Juice. Please use fresh lemon zest
• Heavy Whipping Cream. I like to add some cream to cut a bit of the SCM sweetness.

You could leave the pie as is but I find it quite sweet so I like to add the slight sweetened whipped cream to balance it all out. Plus I love all of the textural differences.

• Heavy Whipping Cream. To make whipped cream you need cream, make sure it is nice and cold so it whips up nicely.
• Reserved Sweetened Condensed Milk. Saving a little bit of the SCM will sweeten the cream easily!
• Fresh Lemon Zest. Once the whipped cream is on the pie it might be hard to see from over top that it's lemon so adding lemon zest on top tells the story of what flavor the pie is.

Instructions

Preheat your oven to 350F/180C and par-bake your graham cracker crust for 8 minutes, then set aside. Doing this ensures you have a super tight and crisp graham cracker pie shell.

In a large bowl whisk together the sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon zest, lemon juice, and heavy cream until fully combined. 

Pour the lemon filling into pie shell and shake/spread into an even layer.

Bake for 20-26 minutes, the pie filling should be set but the center should just slightly jiggle. When baked let the pie cool on a wire rack for an hour or so then cover in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for at least 3 hours. 

Now you can make the whipped cream topping. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment or in a large bowl with an electric handheld mixer whisk the heavy cream and sweetened condensed milk until medium-stiff peaks are formed. Store the cream covered in the fridge until ready to use.

Spread on top of the lemon pie and add fresh lemon zest on top. Now enjoy this gorgeous pie!

You can store leftover lemon cream pie in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. 

Can you make ahead of time

This pie is absolutely delicious on day 4 as it is day 1, trust me, I tried it! The graham cracker crust stayed nice and crisp since we par-baked it.

If you top the whipped cream on the pie then you can use some toothpicks on the outer edge of the pie to hold plastic wrap up so it doesn't take off all of the whipped cream!

More lemon recipes

Lemon is such a versatile ingredient, it's fantastic in sweet and savor recipes.

My lemon blueberry cheesecake is a winner always at parties, it's great to make ahead as well!

You would never know this lemon cake is full of zucchini, trust me you gotta try this lemon zucchini cake recipe it's so tasty!

My friend makes the best lemon garlic pasta with shrimp, we love it!

Last but not least check out this lemon olive oil cake recipe!

★★★★★ Please let me know if you make this recipe by leaving a star rating and comment below!

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Recipe slightly adapted from Cooks Illustrated