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Lemon Meringue Pie

This traditional pie will surely impress anyone who shares a meal with you. Use Meyer lemons if you can. If you can't get any, substitute one orange in the mix with your lemons. It will
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time20 minutes
Total Time4 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 1 9" pie
Author: Cristen

Ingredients

For the Crust

  • 1 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 1 tbsp Sugar
  • 1 stick Butter cold, cubed into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1/4-1/3 cup Ice Water
  • 1 tsp vinegar

For the Lemon Filling

  • 2 1/4 cups Granulated Sugar
  • 3/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 1 1/4 cups hot tap water 6 egg yolks, at room temperature
  • 3/4 cup Lemon Juice approx 5 lemons
  • zest of 1 large Lemon (around 1 1/2 TBSP)
  • 5 tbsp Butter at room temperature (I use salted butter)

For the Meringue

  • 6 large egg whites at room temperature
  • 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
  • 3/4 cup Sugar
  • 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract optional, but I love it!

Instructions

For the Crust

  • Combine dry ingredients, cut in butter, add we ingredients until dough holds together. Pat into a disk, wrap in plastic. Rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes. When chilled, remove from refrigerator, roll out on floured work space, fit to pie plate (do NOT stretch). Roll crust under, crimp edges. Poke crust with a fork. Place pie weights on aluminum foil or dry beans or rice on foil. Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then remove foil and rice/beans/etc. Return crust to oven, bake an additional 10 minutes until crust is golden. Remove from oven, set aside to cool to room temperature.

For the Lemon Filling

  • Combine sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan. Stir in hot tap water and whisk until smooth. Over medium high heat, bring to a boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring frequently. Temper 6 egg yolks with some of the hot mixture (stir a bit of hot mixture in with yolks to raise their temperature so they don’t scramble.) Whisk constantly and stream in yolks until well combined and all added. Stir in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter. Return to heat and boiling, for 4 minutes until well thickened. Stir frequently during cooking. Remove from heat. Cool to warm. (I speed process along by stirring this mixture often to release heat and popping it into the freezer a bit.) Must cool to warm. Spoon into pie shell.

For the Meringue

  • To a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, or with a hand mixer, whisk egg yolks and cream of tartar until foamy. Slowly add sugar in a small stream with mixer running. Whisk whites/cream of tartar/sugar until very stiff peaks form and meringue is glossy. Scoop delicately over lemon filling in pie. Spread meringue to the edges of the pie to 'seal' the meringue. Gently place a spoon on top of meringue and pull up to get a curly pretty top. Bake meringue at 400 degrees for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. DON'T LEAVE MERINGUE UNATTENDED... this part is important!
  • Remove pie from oven, let sit at room temperature. You can serve as is, but I recommend chilling the pie. *Meringue may weep a bit going into the refrigerator, but trust me, it is no big deal. It happens! *Summer humidity is tough when baking meringue pies. :)

Notes

Serve at room temperature or chilled (my preference).
Know this: The meringue may shrink or weep when this pie goes into the refrigerator. Nothing to be scared of. Facts of pie-life.