No-Bake Lemon Pie Only Requires 3 Ingredients

If you're a dessert lover, you may have a special place in your heart (and stomach) for lemon-flavored confections. On the rare occasion you're too tired to put in the prep work required to make your favorite Meyer lemon and olive oil cake, make a tasty three-ingredient lemon pie instead. Besides the fact that you can make this creamy dessert without using your oven, no-bake lemon pie is easy to put together with only sweetened condensed milk, lemon juice, and graham cracker pie crust.

First, buy a pre-packaged crust or make your own by combining crushed graham crackers, sugar, and melted butter into the base of your designated pie pan. Then all you need to do is whisk together two cans of sweetened condensed milk with one cup of lemon juice and pour the filling into your prepared crust. From here, simply allow your pie to solidify in the refrigerator until you're ready to enjoy it. The end result is a thick lemon pudding with a sweet and buttery crumb.

If you want to decorate the top of this refreshing dessert with stabilized whipped cream, chopped fruit, or a chocolate glaze, wait until the filling has completely set, which takes at least two to three hours in the fridge. Keep in mind that once served at room temperature, this delightful treat might soften and lose some of its shape. To give your no-bake lemon pie a little more structure, all you need to do is add one or two extra ingredients as a stabilizer.

To make a thicker pie filling that solidifies more noticeably in your refrigerator, add some cream cheese to the mix. Use the hot bowl hack that softens cream cheese in a snap to bring an eight-ounce package to room temperature. Then simply whip cream cheese with a hand mixer before adding in the sweetened condensed milk and lemon juice. Consider including a bit of lemon zest for even more lemon brightness. For a sweeter alternative, swap out the cream cheese for an eight-ounce tub of whipped topping. Unsweetened ingredients like Greek yogurt and mascarpone cheese might also add more texture to your lemon pie.

If this no-bake confection is one of your go-to desserts, continue experimenting to find the right combination of ingredients to please your palate. Apart from trying a variety of dairy products, you can also add structure to condensed milk and lemon juice by mixing in one or two raw eggs and baking your pie in the oven. Eggs have the ability to bind ingredients and can transform this dessert into an easily sliceable treat without altering any flavors.

Next to upgrading your lemon pie filling, you can also enhance this treat by adding a delightful topping. Use tangy lemon curd whipped cream, sweetened sour cream, or vanilla yogurt. Chilled lemon pie might also benefit from the addition of fresh lemon slices, colorful berries, and crunchy snacks like crushed vanilla wafers or coconut flakes.