Summer is lemonade season and I make pitchers on a regular basis as long as the weather is warm outside. I also like to incorporate lemon into desserts during the summer, including this lemonade-inspired Raspberry Lemonade Pie! The pie is easy to make with a creamy filling that includes sweetened condensed milk, fresh lemon juice and freeze dried raspberries.

The filling for this Raspberry Lemonade Pie is a riff on the filling used to make key lime pie. Sweetened condensed milk is the base ingredient and it is combined with eggs and lemon juice. The combination of eggs and acidic citrus juice is what thickens the filling, although this pie goes into the oven for a few minutes to help it set a bit more firmly than a no-bake version would.

I added freeze dried raspberries to create the raspberry lemonade flavor combination, whizzing them in a food processor to break them down into a powder before adding the other ingredients. The freeze dried berries add a great color and flavor to the pie without changing the texture, which is important with this style of pie. You can find freeze dried berries at stores like Trader Joe’s or other markets with a large natural foods selection. You can also mix up the filling by using different types of berries for a completely different lemonade flavor!

The pie can be made with a pastry crust or a graham cracker crust, but the crust needs to be prebaked and cooled before you add in the filling. The pie will only need to be in the oven for about 15 minutes once the filling is added to the crust, then the pie will need to be chilled before serving. The creamy filling will be just set, but still easy to slice. It’s bursting with lemon and raspberry, with a smooth dairy creamyiness underneath. I served mine topped with whipped cream and a dusting of freeze-dried fruit for color.

Raspberry Lemonade Pie
1 9-inch pie shell, prebaked and cooled
1/4 cup freeze dried raspberries
1 14-oz can sweetened condensed milk
3 large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1/4 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350F.
In a food processor, combine freeze dried raspberries with sweetened condensed milk and process until berries are almost dissolved in the milk (some pieces of berry will remain). Add in eggs, lemon juice and salt and pulse until completely combined. Pour into prebaked and cooled pie crust.
Bake for 15 minutes, or until the crust is set and jiggles only slightly when the pan is tapped. Allow pie to cool to room temperature, then refrigerate before serving.

Serves 8.

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