Lemon Meringue Pie

As long as I can remember, I have often had a craving for Lemon Meringue Pie.
For many, many years I experimented and searched for what would become “my” Lemon Meringue Pie. Although I have always loved Lemon Meringue Pie, I rarely order it in restaurants or bakeries because it is so often less than excellent, and I walk away disappointed. Same goes for some of the trials that I made through the years. I finally came up, after much experimenting, with what I consider a great Lemon Meringue Pie. I used a combination of a butter-based crust, a filling that comes out creamy, light and lemony, and a delicate meringue that stands high. I “took” the meringue from my mother’s “Apple Cake with Meringue” recipe – except that I used 6 eggwhites and adjusted the amount of sugar accordingly. I owe a big thanks to PanNan who posted “The Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie” on Food.com for the creamy, light, and lemony filling that I took from her recipe.

So, after combining recipes from three different sources, I am thrilled with the final version of what has now become my favorite Lemon Meringue Pie.

Please, please, please, when making the filling for this pie, use a whisk and while the filling is cooking on the stove, whisk it all the time; also once it is thickened, do a brisk and thorough whisking, to ensure that there are no pieces of unblended mixture. This is super important, so PLEASE DO IT.

Another important piece of info is that once the pie is baked and cooling, do NOT give in to temptation to cut a slice to taste – the filling takes several hours to “set” and if you cut a piece prematurely, the as yet unset filling will ooze out. So, hide the pie somewhere, and wait till several hours (overnight…) after it is baked, to make that first cut! And you won’t be sorry that you did!
Enjoy.

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Ingredients:

The dough for the crust

• 50 grams (approx. 1 1/2 oz) butter
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour

The lemon filling

• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 6 large egg yolks at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cups water
• grated lemon zest (about 3/4 of a Tablespoon) – make sure to use only the yellow part of the zest
• 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice, squeezed and strained
• 2 Tablespoons of unsalted butter

The Meringue Topping

• 6 eggwhites at room temperature
• 3/4 cup of granulated sugar

Preparation:

Crust dough

1. Put all the dough ingredients into a food processor: 50 grams (1 1/2 oz) butter, 1/2 cup granulated sugar, 1 egg, 1 1/2 cups self-rising flour. Process till it is all incorporated. The dough will look a bit dry, and will not “form a ball”. Pour into a bowl and lightly press together – do not over-work the dough.
2. Into a 26 cm or 10 inch springform cake pan (the type of pan that you can separate the sides from the bottom after cake is baked and cooled), press in the dough carefully, over the bottom and sides of the pan; the dough should go up about 1 inch up the sides of the cake pan. Press well, and make sure it evenly covers the pan, with no “holes”.
3. Put in refrigerator for at least half an hour to “set”.
4. Preheat oven to 180 C (350 F). Bake the crust until it is a light golden color – it will continue baking again later with the filling, so don’t allow it to get more than golden in color .
5. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Lemon Filling

1. Using a medium size stainless-steel pot, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar and salt.
2. Add the 6 egg yolks, and then immediately the 1 1/2 cups water, whisking briskly until it is all incorporated.
3. Turn on a low-medium flame under the pot, and whisk continuously and briskly while the mixture is heating up; this can take 8-9 minutes. Make sure that you whisk out all the lumps, so that the result will be smooth. As soon as the mixture has thickened up, turn off the flame.
4. Add lemon zest, lemon juice, and then the butter, whisking all the time. Whisk until there are absolutely no lumps or pieces. Set aside while you make the meringue – do NOT refrigerate. The lemon mixture should still be moderately warm when you spread the meringue over it afterwards.

Meringue Topping

1. In large, clean mixer bowl, start whipping the 6 eggwhites.
2. When white, fluffy and foamy, but not yet stiff, start adding the 3/4 cup sugar gradually while beating, till the eggwhite mixture is stiff and keeps its shape when you turn over the bowl.

Constructing the pie

1. Pour the still-warm lemon filling into the already-baked and cooled pie crust. I recommend giving the mixture one more whisk in the pot before pouring into the pie crust.
2. With a large spoon, carefully put and distribute large clumps of the beaten meringue onto the lemon mixture which is already in the pie crust. Carefully spread the meringue so that it totally covers the lemon filling. It is VERY IMPORTANT that the meringue touch all the edges of the baked crust; otherwise it will shrink while baking. So, double check that there are no little “edges” where the meringue doesn’t touch or cover the top of pie dough on the sides of the pan.
3. In order to create “peaks and valleys” in the meringue, use the backs of two Tablespoons to “lift” the meringue to the desired peaks.
4. Put pie into preheated 180 C (350 F) oven. Bake for about 17-23 minutes (depends on your oven and on the color of the meringue). The meringue should be a nice golden-brown color. Makes sure the meringue doesn’t get TOO dark in color.
5. When ready, turn off the oven, and open the door. Allow pie to cool overnight, or for several hours. DO NOT TRY TO CUT A PIECE OF PIE BEFORE IT HAS COOLED AND SET. If you do that, the filling will ooze out…..if you wait patiently for several hours, till pie is completely set and cool, you won’t be sorry, I promise. (I know, it’s easier said than done!).
6. For serving, carefully remove pie from the springform pan. I recommend to first carefully run a very thin but sharp knife around the crust to separate it from the cake pan, in the event that it is sticking to it in places. Only after you have done that, THEN remove the sides of the pan. Place it on a serving platter.
7. ENJOY!