Perhaps this pie should come with a warning: Beware that eating this pie may result in your not wanting any other lemon meringue pie again.
Alright, I may be biased because it is one of the pies my mom made, but there have been other people who ate this pie and later said they other lemon meringue pies paled by comparison. It is that good.
This recipe is a lot easier to make if you own a good zester or microplaner. I did not have a decent one for years and always struggled to get any zest. I use a Microplane 40020 Classic Zester/Grater
now and have no trouble. It is easy to get just the outer skin without any pith (the white, bitter stuff).
The recipe calls for 2 Tbsp. of zest, but you can reduce the amount some if you want a less intense lemon flavor.
If you allow the pie to cool completely before cutting/serving, it will probably look much nicer…personally, I can’t ever seem to wait that long.
Enjoy!
Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 1 9-inch pie crust, baked
- 4 large eggs, separated and room temperature
- 1/2 c. cornstarch
- 1 1/2 c. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. salt
- 1 1/2 c. water
- 1/4 c. lemon juice
- 2 Tbsp. lemon zest
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
- 1/2 c. sugar
Instructions
- Lightly beat egg yolks in a small bowl.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Combine cornstarch, sugar, and salt in a saucepan.
- Slowly, add water until mixture is smooth.
- Stir mixture constantly over medium heat until it boils for 1 minute. (This will take several minutes).
- Remove from heat.
- Temper egg yolks by adding 1/3 of the hot cornstarch mixture to the bowl of eggs yolks while briskly stirring.
- Remove from heat and mix in lemon juice, lemon zest and butter.
- Pour hot mixture into pie shell.
- Make meringue either before pie filling or start it when filling is removed from heat for last ingredients.
- To make meringue: beat egg whites and cream of tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form.
- Very gradually add sugar (a little at a time) until stiff peaks form.
- Spread meringue over hot filling, sealing completely around the edges of the pie crust.
- Bake for 7 - 9 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Cool for at least 1 hour before serving.
