Pucker up, sweet one! This one is loaded with lemon flavor and capped with a glossy, Italian-style meringue. It's for those who really love their lemon meringue pie. Took a blue ribbon in 1997.
Lemon Lover's Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 9” pie shell, blind baked and cooled
Filling:
- 8 lemons, juiced (1 1/2 cups)
- 5 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)
- 3 whole eggs
- 3/4 c. unsalted butter
- 1c.+ 1T.sugar
Meringue
- 1 c. sugar
- 2/3 c. water
- 6 egg whites
Pie Category
All Pies | Official PiePal Recipes | Lemon | Lemon Meringue | Lemon Meringue | Lemon, Lime & Orange Pies | Meringue PiesDirections
Filling:
- Finely grate the zest from 3 lemons; set aside (keep lemons).
- Squeeze the lemons and strain into a measuring cup to total 1 & 1/2 cups juice.
- Whisk the egg yolks with the whole eggs.
- Cut the butter into small pieces.
- Using a heavy-bottomed saucepan, mix the sugar, lemon zest and butter; add the lemon juice and stir to mix.
- Whisk over low heat until the sugar has dissolved (2-3 minutes).
- Remove from heat and whisk a little of the sugar/lemon juice mix into in the beaten eggs, then whisk the egg mix into the sauce pan to blend.
- Return to low heat and cook gently, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, until it coats the back of the spoon (4-6 minutes).
- Strain lemon filling; set aside to cool.
- Preheat oven to 375°
- Spoon the cooled filling into a prebaked pastry shell and bake until the filling just starts to set (10-12 minutes).
- Transfer to a rack to cool, then chill until topping with the meringue. Lemon curd will continue to thicken as it cools.
Meringue:
- Mix sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved.
- Over medium heat, bring to a boil, and boil without stirring, until syrup reaches the hard-ball stage (248° F). This takes a while (maybe 15-20 minutes or more)! Don't stir it!
- Meanwhile, beat the egg whites – slowly at first, then faster – until stiff peaks form.
- When the syrup is ready, slowly pour it into the beaten egg whites, continuing to beat. Avoid pouring the syrup onto the bowl or beaters – aim for the whites.
- Continue beating until the meringue is cool and stiff, about 5 minutes.
- Preheat the broiler and adjust a rack so that the top of the meringue will be 3” from the heat.
- Decorate the pie with meringue, making sure to “attach” it to the crust. I spread a layer of meringue flat over the lemon curd, then pipe on the rest in swirls.
- Broil the meringue until it is golden brown (1-2 minutes), watching carefully.
- Cool and serve at room temperature. Refrigerate leftovers, if there are any.
Baker’s Notes and Tips and Tricks
You’ll need a candy thermometer for this recipe, to get the sugar syrup to the hard-ball stage. You’ll need patience, too, as this recipe takes longer than most. (It’s worth it.) Also, the hot syrup -- in effect -- cooks the egg whites, ensuring that the whites are cooked to a safe temperature, which is why we can get away with just broiling the meringue to brown it instead of baking it for 10-12 minutes.
