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A classic lemon meringue pie with a tart and smooth lemon filling topped with a light and fluffy meringue.
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
For Christmas this year my mother gave me a cookbook. This wasn’t one of the newest cookbooks on the bookstore shelves. This cookbook was over 60 years old. It was given to my mother when she was 20 years old by her grandmother – my Great Grandmother Mary Calista Welles Schenck (I love the fact that she spelled my mother’s name wrong. There is an E on her Anne!)
I was thrilled to receive this cookbook. My mother had included a note in the cookbook that read:
“The first thing I made from this cookbook was the butterscotch chiffon cake on page 159. It was delicious! I baked it as dessert for the first meal I ever cooked – it was for a boyfriend but I never made it again because my father had a heart attack later that night! The most used recipe is the lemon meringue pie (most stained page in the book!)
My grandmother was a woman ahead of her time. She ruled her household, was very vocal about women’s rights and very active in her community. She was certainly influential in my life! I pass this book on to you with much love and pride of the woman you have become. With much love – Mom“
Old Family Recipes
That messy page #317 tells a story. I know there are many stories between those pages. Stories of family dinners, parties and holidays when she probably made and served that pie.
Have you ever wished that a cookbook could talk? That it could tell the stories of the people that made the recipes, the people that enjoyed the food. Where they served it and to who. I do. I wonder, if my recipes could talk, what would they say about me? What stories would they have to tell.
I am grateful now that some of my spills are now part of her spills, part of those pages. That my story is now between the pages of that cookbook along with my mothers.
Ingredients Needed
- Â 10″ baked pie crust. Can use a store-bought pie dough or make a homemade crust. You will need a baked pie crust.
- Sugar
- Cornstarch
- Hot water
- Eggs
- Butter, I use salted butter
- Lemons. Always use fresh lemon juice.
- Cream of Tartar
How to Make Lemon Meringue Pie Filling
- Make pie crust using this tutorial and use a 9-inch pie dish for crust. Bake pie crust using directions on store bought pie crust or use blind bake instructions in pie crust tutorial post.
- Mix together sugar and cornstarch in a medium saucepan and add in water, stir until mixed.
- Cook sugar mixture over medium-high heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Low boil for one minute.
- Add a little of the hot mixture into your 3 large egg yolks.
- Pour that hot egg yolk mixture into the pan with the rest of the hot mixture and stir. This prevents the hot mixture from cooking the eggs.
- Boil one minute longer, stirring constantly.
- Remove from heat. Continue stirring until smooth.
- Add in butter, lemon juice and lemon rind.
- Pour mixture into pie crust.
Tips for Perfect Meringue
- It is important that you don’t get any egg yolk into the egg white as this can prevent them from whipping properly.
- Eggs separate easier when chilled. Allow them to come to room temperature after separating as they will whip faster and with more volume than chilled egg whites.
- Make sure your bowl and beaters are clean.
- Using a chilled bowl and beaters will speed up the process
How to Make Meringue
- Beat egg whites until foamy with whisk attachment in the bowl of a stand mixer at medium-high speed.
- Add in cream of tartar. This is a stabilizer.
- Pour in sugar a tablespoon at a time and then beat until it turns glossy and a stiff peak forms.
- Fill the pie crust with your filling and add spoonfuls of the meringue onto the top of the pie.
- Spread the meringue over the top of the filling, being sure to totally seal the edges. You don’t want any holes or openings. Be sure the meringue comes all the way to the edge of the pie crust.
- Use the back of your spoon to form decorative peaks across the top of the pie and to make sure the meringue covers the whole surface. Be careful to seal the meringue onto the edge of the crust to prevent shrinkage. If the filling is exposed to the heat it may “weep.”
- Bake at 400 degrees F for 10-12 minutes, just until the meringue toppings begins to turn golden brown.
- Allow to cool.
How to Serve Lemon Meringue Pie:
- Allow pie to cool completely on a wire rack at room temperature before serving. If the pie is warm, the lemon filing will be runny when you cut into it. You can chill it for 2-3 hours before serving also if desired.
- Cut the cooled pie with a wet knife to prevent the meringue from sticking to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does lemon meringue pie need to be refrigerated?
Yes, keep leftover pie in the refrigerator, loosely covered with plastic wrap. Don’t let the pie sit out at room temperature for more than a couple of hours. It will last for 2-3 days in the refrigerator but will begin to “weep” the longer it is in the fridge.
Why is my meringue “weeping?”
Little drops of moisture or condensation may form on your meringue and make it look like it’s crying. This is caused by touching the meringue. If you are covering the pie with plastic wrap be sure to insert some toothpicks into the pie to keep the plastic wrap from touching the meringue. The plastic wrap will cause the meringue to release moisture and look like it’s weeping.
Try some of these other delicious recipes:
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Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pie crust 10″ baked pie crust
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cup hot water
- 3 egg yolks slightly beaten
- 3 Tbsp butter
- 4 Tbsp lemon juice or more to taste
- 1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest
Meringue
- 3 egg whites
- 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
- 6 Tbsp sugar
Instructions
- Mix together sugar and cornstarch.
- Add in water and stir until mixed.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils. Boil for one minute
- Add a little of the hot mixture into your 3 egg yolks. Then pour the hot mixture into the pan with the rest of the hot mixture and stir. This prevents the hot mixture from cooking the egg.
- Boil one minute longer, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and continue to stir until smooth.
- Add in butter, lemon juice and lemon rind and pour into baked pie shell
- Cover with meringue. Making sure it covers the whole service of the pie.
- Bake until a light golden brown at 400 degrees for about 10-12 minutes.
- Cool and serve.
Meringue
- Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy.
- Add in sugar one tablespoon at a time until stiff and glossy
- Pile meringue onto pie filling
- Be sure and seal the meringue onto the edge of crust to prevent shrinking.
- if the filling is exposed to heat it will "weep"
- Swirl the meringue with the bottom of a spoon for a decorative top.
- Bake until lightly golden brown. Cool gradually, away from drafts
Tips & Notes:
-
- Allow pie to cool completely on a wire rack at room temperature before serving. If the pie is warm, the lemon filing will be runny when you cut into it. You can chill it for 2-3 hours before serving also if desired.
-
- Cut the cooled pie with a wet knife to prevent the meringue from sticking to it.
- Yes, keep leftover pie in the refrigerator, loosely covered with plastic wrap. Don’t let the pie sit out at room temperature for more than a couple of hours. It will last for 2-3 days in the refrigerator but will begin to “weep” the longer it is in the fridge.
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Nutrition Facts:
Originally post June, 2013
Valerie A. H. says
I loved this post Leigh Anne! Thanks for sharing the family story and recipe. Lemon Meringue Pie is always so good! Your photos are really great too!
Leigh Anne says
Thanks Valerie! The pie tasted as good as it looked.
Raquel @ Organized Island says
Oh My! Lemon Pie! I am not sure which I love most, the gorgeous pie or the lovely well-loved vintage recipe book! I cherish my old cookbooks and could never part with them. 🙂
Leigh Anne says
Raquel – they are a treasure aren’t they. I even googled the value of my mom’s cookbook and it’s worth quite a lot but I assured her I would never sell it!!
jamie says
Fun stories! Whenever I get a recipe from someone I write on the recipe how I know them and something specific about them or the food. We have moved a lot while my husband has been in med school and I love pulling out recipes and being reminded of the people I have met along the way! I also noticed the recipe page you show has recipes for other flavors of meringue pie…orange, lime, strawberry etc. That sounds interesting and can you imagine how pretty all those colors would look!
Leigh Anne says
Jamie, I love the idea of recording the info about the person that shared the recipe with you on the card. What a fun thing to do. Yes, I am already thinking about an orange meringue pie…..
Marnie says
That’s the cookbook I grew up with! I pretty much learned how to cook with it. Lots of memories associated with that one. 🙂
Leigh Anne says
Marnie – how fun that you learned to cook from it too. It’s a treasure! Write some of those memories down!!
Stephanie says
Thanks for posting this. It’s funny, I just went to the grocery store yesterday and bought ingredients to make a lemon meringue pie. I haven’t made one in about 20 years, and it brought to mind a funny memory of what happened that last time. I made two pies–one to take to a family gathering and one to keep at home. I had them sitting on my kitchen table to cool, and they looked so pretty. The meringue had turned out perfectly. About an hour later, I came back into the kitchen only to discover my then 8 year old black lab, Sally, on her hind legs, and she had eaten almost all of one pie and licked most of the meringue off of the other! She certainly enjoyed the fruits of my labor.
I love that your Mom passed down her cookbook, and love your story.
Leigh Anne says
Love, love your story. I hope it is written down somewhere. In a journal or maybe in the margins of the cookbook where the recipe is! Thanks for sharing.