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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.
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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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Originally post June, 2013
Ruthie says
What a beautiful photo and delicious recipe! Thanks so much for sharing this amazing pie at Super Saturday Show & Tell party today! Please come again next week! xoxo~ Ruthie
Missy says
Your lemon meringue pie caught my eye…I love it and can’t wait to try it…Do you have a good chocolate meringue pie recipe?????
Found you over at Serenity Now Blog….My hutch was featured right above you….
Leigh Anne says
In fact I do – it was my grandmother’s recipe
https://www.yourhomebasedmom.com/chocolate-meringue-pie/
Missy says
I just found it after I asked you…I have all of the ingredients except the whole milk…will stop and buy some. I have been craving a chocolate meringue pie…thanks so much. Will let you know how it goes!!!!
Julie says
They haven’t called for volunteers yet, but perhaps I’ll be your room hostess again at the story@home conference this year! It was so much fun!
We have some fabulous family stories about food- one ancestor tells the story about how she got married, and got a package from a VERY rich aunt overseas as a wedding present. Imagining fine expensive things, she opened the box to find only peach pits. She was angry, but read the letter, and the Aunt explained that she was sending her a peach orchard so that she would never want. She planted the pits, and the trees were large enough to start bearing fruit when the Great Depression hit.
Leigh Anne says
Would be fun to have you there again – you were so sweet! I love your story too. Thanks for sharing.
Jennifer says
This looks yummy! Please share this in a new Linky Party –Weekend Kitchen Creations at http://www.weekendkitchencreations.blogspot.com. Please join us, share your delicious creation and get other scrumptious ideas.
Leigh Anne says
Thanks for the invite – I’ll be over!
Jennifer says
Thanks for sharing! I just HAD to pin it 🙂
Leigh Anne says
Hope you’ll try it and enjoy it as much as we do!
Dawn Shaver says
Lemon Meringue Pie was my first real dessert to make by myself. My grandmother loved to cook, but she was disabled and couldn’t stand a long time. So, we would sit and go through recipes together and she would tell me what she would tweak. I made the pie because I wanted to learn how to make meringue. Your story reminded me of that. Cookbooks passed down through generations are the best!!
Leigh Anne says
Dawn, Thank you for sharing your story. I love it and you are right, cookbooks passed down through generations are the best!