This classic southern lemon cake gets crunch – and charm – from a salt crust

Citrus desserts are very popular, but they still manage to trigger violent debates – corresponding Reddit threads are devoted to people who radiate their symptoms about the sour sweets. For fans, however, this bright, puckery punch is exactly the point. An outstanding citrus dessert Canon is Bill Smiths Atlantic Beach Pie, a lemon pudding cake with a Salzcracker crust that has earned a committed follower.

Along the coast of North Carolina, many fish restaurants serve a version of “Lemon Pie”, but Bill Smiths Take – develops in Crook’s Corner, a pioneering southern restaurant in Chapel Hill, known for its regional classics and inventive income against illness courts. Originally created for A Southern Foodways Alliance Excursion by East -north Carolina In June 2012, the cake received national attention after Katie Workman was enthusiastic about NPRS Look at all things In April 2013. The famous cake stayed on the menu until the restaurant was closed in the summer of 2021.

“When we grew up, we were told that according to seafood, they shouldn’t have a dessert because they were sick” The bitter southern state. “You just believed it because your grandmother told you. We were Catholic, so we had seafood every Friday, so we never had a dessert. The only exception was citric fruits. You could have lemon, all restaurants – this was like a folk festival that was in the east of Nord -Carolina.

Bill Smiths Atlantic Beach Pie

For Smith’s cake, a bright, touching pudding in a crust made of crushed salt crackers, layered with whipped cream and sprinkled with scaly salt. It compensates for sweet, salty and sour elements with remarkable lightness. Almost every internet recipe for this cake is an almost suitable replica of Smith’s: salt line cream, four egg yolk, a can of sweetened condensed milk and half a cup of lemon or lime juice (or a combination of both), all of which are covered with struts. And rightly so – this “stupid cake” (his words, not mine) is one of the best and simplest cakes I’ve ever done.

But Smith’s own cookbook, Spiced in the southhas a slightly different version with a homemade egg yolk pudding, which is baked in a Ritz Cracker crust and crowned with meringue from the reserved whites. This contrast raises questions: Why the shift? Was the viral version a simplification? And what about the different crackers?

Everything about the Cracker crust

The outstanding feature of this recipe is the crispy, salty cracker crust. While Cracker’s long appeared in cakes-especially in sham apple cakes from the 19th century-the idea of using them for crusts did not enter into the mid-20th century. During the global economic crisis and the Second World War, Ritz Cracker achieved popularity as an imaginative replacement for apples.

How the grocery author John T. Edge explains Apple cake: an American storyThe version filled by Cracker was “something fun and quirky”, her substitution “a cheeky joy” and not a pure sign of scarcity. Recipes for Mock Apple Pie appeared in southern cookbooks of the 19th century as possible What Mrs. Fisher knows about the old Mediterranean cooking And The confederated receipt bookUntil 1934, Nabisco began to print a version on Ritz boxing – a practice that continued until the early nineties. As a convenience food, the idea of crusts that not only contain a filling, but complement them. In the 1950s, salt cake shells came in newspaper recipes with chiffon or cream fillings, with the headlines explained: “There is no dough in these cake crusts.”

Bill Smith explains in his Bitter Southerner Interview: “Some people used Captain’s Wafers. Some people used saltines. Some people used Ritz crackers. It was a tug of war on what was best.” This variety even shows itself in Smith’s own versions of the recipe – when he developed the cake for the first time, he used Saltines, but in his cookbook he decided on Ritz Cracks. The most widespread version of the recipe today reflects the original crust on Saltines.

I stayed near the origin of pie and used saltzin crackers for their pronounced salty edge, which sharpens the tartness of the lemon quark instead of it too blunt. The crumbling saltine in a bowl turned out to be as effective as the use of a food processor – with less cleaning. After mixing melted butter and sugar (also by hand, which contributed to breaking all persistent pieces), the mixture resembled a rough Graham Cracker Kruste. I pushed it into one Metal cake plate To form a thick, even crust and bake it until it was golden brown.

You don’t separate the eggs for an even better filling

As for the filling, Atlantic Beach Pie is a slightly different way than Lemon baiser cake. While the pudding is traditionally thickened with egg yolk in lemon baises (the whites reserved for the covering), this cake nods on its southern cousin, Key cakeWhat is based on another pantry food: sweetened condensed milk. This ingredient combines sugar and dairy products in one, and when mixed with egg yolk and citrus juice, the acid helps to prevent the proteins in the eggs and set the filling – no temperature required. Here replaces lemon juice lime and to ensure that the pudding slices are clean, the cake receives a short baking before cooling.

I decided to use whole eggs in the filling, which led to an easier, firmer texture. The use of Yolks produced a richer but more relaxed pudding. The protein brings additional protein for the milk to tie and helps the filling rate. To compensate for the loss of fat – Yolks lend wealth and taste – I added with a small heavy cream because I knew I would use more of it for topping.

To improve the lemon taste without making the cake too acidic, I added a generous tablespoon of lemon peel to the filling. The pudding goes directly into the prepared crust – and has to cool it first – and then the cake is baked until the edges are set and the middle is still slightly wobbling. It is still fully determined when it cools down.

The overturn topping

In Crook’s Corner, Smith put his cake with fresh whipped cream. I was inspired to do the same. For the first time, it prompted me to test a version of the filling, which must first be made with whole eggs with whole eggs. As an additional advantage, since meringue tends to cry over time and make the filling and the crust moist, removes a simple whipped cream -topping this problem. In fact, the whipped cream can be distributed on the cake for a day or two. Although I prefer to get the dramatic appearance of the cloud -like cream.

To end the cake, a scattering of scaly sea salt Binds the entire cake back to the salty cracker crust and pays homage to the fresh salt air from the Atlantic. With all the lemon heads out there, this version of Atlantic Beach Pie is the type of dessert that you will rave about friends. Tört and creamy, with a Salzcracker crust that has an impact on the conversation – it will certainly leave a lasting impression.

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