I remember going to Sunday dinner with my family and lemon meringue pie was always served. There was just something about the tartiness of the lemon and that wonderful meringue that lingered in my memory. This recipe certainly recreates that taste and those memories.
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Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (177 C).
Separate the egg yolks and whites into two separate bowls.
Place the pie shell in and bake it for about 10 minutes. You can make the pie shell from scratch or buy it premade at the grocery store.
In a saucepan or pot, combine the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Whisk until well combined. Add in the water, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Bring the mixture to a boil over medium high heat while whisking.
After a boil, add the butter in and whisk until it's melted in. Scoop up a tablespoon or two of the egg mixture and add it to the bowl containing the yolks while whisking continuously. Gradually, add the egg yolk mixture to the hot mixture, while stirring, until it thickens.
Remove it from the heat and allow it to cool completely.
While it's cooling, mix the eggs whites over medium high speed, with an electric mixer, until they become foamy. Slowly add in the sugar and continue to mix until stiff peaks form.
Add the lemon filling to the pie shell and smooth it out. Spread the meringue over the top of the lemon filling and smooth it out evenly. Place the back of a spoon over the meringue and pull it off quickly to create a spike effect. Do this all around the pie.
Place the pie in the oven and bake it for about 10 minutes until the meringue spikes become brown.
Allow the pie to cool for 3 or 4 hours, serve, and enjoy your lemon meringue pie.
Servings 6
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily value may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs. Nutritional values are a within reason estimate and my vary depending on several factors.
When making this pie, there are a few extra tips you can follow. First, you can use the concentrated lemon juice if you can't find fresh lemons in the store. Fresh lemons are so much nicer, however. If you want the pie a bit more sour or lemony, simply add another lemon. The opposite holds true as you can always cut back on the lemons. In terms of sweetness, the same applies to the amount of sugar you add to both the filling and the meringue. When making the filling, it's important to add a little of the boiling mixture to the yolks before adding them to the hot mixture. If you don't do this, the eggs will scramble and the lemon filling will be a mess. This process is called tempering the eggs.
When making the meringue, make sure the bowl is clean and there is no yolk mixed in with they whites; otherwise, they won't whip up properly.
Lastly, and most importantly, enjoy your lemon meringue pie.
