Lemon Meringue Pie
- Baked Pie Shell: 20 minutes
- Preparing and Cooking Filling: 15 minutes
- Baking pie with meringue: 20 minutes
- Cooling time: 1 to 4 hours
Ingredients
Pie Shell:
Sugar, Cornstarch, and Salt:
- 1¼ cups sugar
- ⅓ cup cornstarch
- Dash of salt
Water and lemon juice:
- 1½ cups water
- ½ cup fresh lemon juice (2 to 3 lemons)
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
Egg Yolks to be Incorporated:
Butter:
Topping:
Ingredients
(serves 4)
Section
Instructions
-
Bake pie shell; set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 325°.
- Whisk sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a medium saucepan.
- Whisk in water, lemon juice, and lemon zest.
- Separate eggs. Click here for step-by-step instructions on how to separate eggs.
- Place whites in a medium-sized bowl and set aside for making meringue.
- Add egg yolks to saucepan and whisk vigorously until no yellow streaks remain.
- Add butter to saucepan.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a simmer. Be patient, this can take 5 to 10 minutes.
- Simmer and stir for 1 minute. The filling will be very thick and somewhat hard to stir.
- Remove heat.
- Pour the filling into the baked pie crust.
- Press a sheet of plastic wrap over the surface of the filling.
- Immediately prepare Meringue For Pie.
- Remove the plastic wrap from the filling.
- Spoon meringue onto hot pie filling.
- Spread meringue over filling, carefully sealing meringue to the edge of the pie crust to prevent shrinking or weeping.
- Bake until meringue is a delicate golden brown; about 20 minutes.
- Let cool completely on a rack, then refrigerate.
- Serve at room temperature or cold.
Recipe from Joy of Cooking, by Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. New York: Scribner (1997).
Comments
Serves 8Refrigerate unused portions.
Pie can be stored for up to 3 days in the refrigerator.
Not a fan of meringue? Click here for lemon pie.
Check out my recipes for cream pies. Try any of the following recipes: coconut cream pie, chocolate cream pie, or butterscotch cream pie.