Gluten-Free Lemon-Bar Pie Recipe

This gluten-free lemon-bar-pie recipe emerged when tinkering around with another recipe I really enjoy — the "Lemon Bars" recipe from our Gluten-Free Desserts Cookbook provided the sweet yet tangy lemon custard filling (the recipe is on page 152 in the printed version; on the Kindle version, just use the search feature to locate "lemon bars" quickly).  The custard filling was combined with a simple to make pie crust yielding this "Lemon Bar Pie" (as I call it at home), or perhaps just "Tangy Lemon Custard Pie" for anyone not familiar with the reference to the gluten-free lemon bars this descended from.

When I get a craving for a truly lemony dessert, I want to feed that craving with enough lemon to do the trick: this calls for an abundance of tangy citrus goodness from fresh-squeezed lemon juice and the zest of those lemons.  So often, lemon-flavored products just do not feature enough lemon to do the trick; that is certainly not the case with this recipe... we embrace lemons and their awesome flavor.


The Pie Crust
The gluten-free pie-crust recipe for this creation was something my wife just tossed together as an experiment quickly, and if the notes I jotted down accurately reflect everything that went into the final product, it was:

• ½ Stick Butter (i.e., 4 Tablespoons) - soft/partially-melted
• ¼ Cup Sugar
• ½ Cup Ground Flaxseed
• 1 Cup Almond Meal
• 1/3 Cup Unsweetened medium-shredded Coconut

This was mixed together in a bowl by hand until ingredients were equally dispersed for the most part.  Then, this was pressed into a pie pan (or, technically in this case it was a Pyrex pie plate).  The crust was baked for approximately 25 minutes at 325F before adding the custard filling and baking it another 25 minutes or so (until the lemon filling sets up).

The Lemon Custard Filling

The gluten-free lemon bars custard-filling recipe (from our cookbook) is rather simple and very much lemon-centric, using just the following ingredients: a few lemons (their juice and zest), a few eggs, some sugar, and a bit of cornstarch.  There is no watering down that lemon power... lemons provide all the liquid here.  That's it... a potent lemon filling for our pie.  Exact custard recipe can be found in either of these:

• Gluten-Free Desserts Recipes Printed Book (page 152)
• Gluten-Free Desserts Kindle Cook Book (use search-feature: "lemon bars")

The Result: Gluten-Free Lemon Lover's Dessert

I certainly enjoyed the outcome of this combination of wheat-free / gluten-free crust and filling.  The coconut and almond in the crust provided wonderful synergistic flavors that blended beautifully with the tangy-sweet lemon custard.  In addition, the ground flax, almond meal, and coconut provide a more hearty texture to the pie crust.

The pie version maintains its dedication to the all important lemon flavor while slightly de-emphasizing the lemon — as compared to the original lemon-bars which have a very neutral base/crust where the only added flavor is perhaps a bit of vanilla —  this crust contributes more flavors of coconut, flax, and almond that combine with the lemon wonderfully.  

If you are a lemon-lover like me, I am sure you will enjoy both the original gluten-free lemon-bars and this lemon-bar-pie variation!  Yum!