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Whenever I get a serious craving or my sweet tooth is acting up, my brain never automatically goes to lemon. But every now and then when I come across a delicious lemon dessert, I remember that they can be so so good. Like this Lemon Truffle Pie!

Last weekend my mom was cleaning out some things and wanted to know if I’d like some of the cookbooks and recipes she found. One of them was this little Pillsbury booklet, The Best From 50 Years of Bake-Off Contents. It’s from 1999 and it’s great. The recipes feature Pillsbury products we’re all familiar with: pie crusts, refrigerated biscuits, crescent rolls, all-purpose flour, etc, and because the recipes are from their legendary bake-offs, you know they’re going to be good!

This lemon pie immediately caught my eye. It’s vibrant and cool and creamy, and totally perfect for springtime!

I made a couple of little tweaks and updates to this recipe and rewrote the instructions because I found the wording in the method a little confusing. Basically, you start preparing the filling by making a homemade lemon curd. Some of the lemon curd is mixed with cream cheese and white chocolate to create the bottom layer, and the rest of the lemon curd goes on top.

The other update I gave this pie—a homemade crust. You can absolutely use a refrigerated crust if you prefer! Or already have some on hand. One of my 2021 goals is to get better at certain from-scratch things, and pie crust is one of them. So that was really just a personal choice. Nothing against already-prepared refrigerated pie crust!

I will tell you there are kind of a lot of steps to this pie, but they’re 100% worth it. But just to simplify a few things:

If you’re making a homemade crust, you can make it a day in advance. When you get to the part of the instructions where you let the pie crust chill in the fridge for 30 minutes, you can just stop there and let it chill overnight.
If homemade pie crusts aren’t your thing, you can always use a refrigerated or frozen crust!
You can also make the lemon curd a day or two in advance. Store covered in the refrigerator and give it a good stir before using.
I absolutely recommend the homemade whipped cream, but you can also use store bought if you’d like. Just add right before serving because store bought whipped cream deflates pretty quickly.

I feel like this Lemon Truffle Pie would have been a perfect option for Easter, but it’s still great for spring and even summer. Top it with freshly whipped cream or pair it with a scoop of ice cream for a sweet and tangy treat! If I had some fresh strawberries, I would have dumped a whole mountain of them on top too. ❤️

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5 from 1 vote

Lemon Truffle Pie

Servings: 8

Ingredients

Pie crust:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ tsp salt
4 tbsp cold butter
5-6 tbsp cold water

Filling:

1 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 cup water
2 egg yolks beaten
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp lemon zest
¼ cup lemon juice
1 tsp lemon extract
6- oz chopped white chocolate
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened

Whipped cream:

1 cup heavy cream
2 tbsp powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

Pie crust:

To make the pie crust, combine flour and salt in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until crumbly. With processor running, add water one tablespoon at a time until dough comes together and forms a ball. Turn out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and shape into a disc. Chill for 30 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, turn out dough and roll into a 12-inch circle. Lift dough using a rolling pin (if dough is hard to work with, return to the refrigerator to help it firm up a bit) and lay over a lightly greased 9-inch pie plate. Gently press into pie plate and flute the edges.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. To blind bake the crust, lay a sheet of parchment paper over the pie and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or rice. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and use the edges of the parchment to carefully life the pie weights from the crust. Prick the bottom of the crust all over with a fork. Return to oven for 12 to 15 more minutes, or until bottom of crust looks dry and edges are golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely.

Filling:

In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch, flour, and water. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils, stirring constantly. Reduce heat; cook 2 minutes, still stirring constantly.
Remove from heat. Stir about ¼ cup of hot mixture into the egg yolks. Add egg yolk mixture back into the saucepan. Return to heat; cook over medium-low for another 2 minutes, or until mixture thickens (thick enough to coat a wooden spoon or rubber spatula), stirring constantly.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon zest, lemon juice, and extract. Transfer ⅓ cup of lemon curd to a small saucepan; let the remaining lemon curd cool completely. (This will be the top layer of the pie.)
In the small saucepan, add white chocolate chips to the lemon curd; stir over low heat just until chips are melted. Let cool completely.
In a medium bowl, beat cream cheese until smooth and creamy. Add white chocolate mixture and mix well. Spread mixture over the bottom of the cooled pie crust. Spread lemon curd topping over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate 2 to 3 hours (or overnight) or until set.

Whipped cream:

To make the whipped cream, combine heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip on medium-high speed until stiff peaks form. Pipe or spoon whipped cream over the cooled pie. Garnish as desired. Store covered in the refrigerator.