Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie is one of the hubby's favorites, and I've been promising to make him one for a while.  (I thought about it, and the last one I made was about 7 years ago!)  So, for his birthday, I finally made him his pie!

I'm not sure what recipe I used the first time, but I found this recipe over on AllRecipes.com. 

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients

• 1 C white sugar
• 2 T all-purpose flour
• 3 T cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 C water
• 2 lemons, juiced and zested
• 2 T butter
• 4 egg yolks, beaten
• 1 (9-inch) pie crust, baked
• 4 egg whites
• 6 T white sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. To make lemon filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together 1 C sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt.  Stir in water, lemon juice, and lemon zest.  Cook over medium-high heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a boil.  (Or at least a simmer - I think a simmer was the best I could do.)  Stir in butter.  Place yolks in a small bowl and gradually whisk in 1/2 C of hot sugar mixture. (This helps get the eggs up to temperature without turning them into scrambled eggs.)  Whisk egg yolk mixture back into remaining sugar mixture.  Bring to a boil (again, at least a simmer) and continue to cook while stirring constantly until thick.  Remove from heat, pour filling into baked pastry shell.
3. To make meringue: In a large mixing bowl (glass or metal), whip eggs until white and foamy.  Add the 6 T of sugar gradually, and continue to whip until stiff peaks form.  Spread meringue over hot lemon filling in pie, sealing the edges at the crust.  
4. Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes, or until meringue begins to turn golden brown.
5. Let cool completely at room temperature (about an hour).  Chill in refrigerator for at least a few hours (about 3) before serving.  Do not cover.

At the hubby's request, I actually left the zest out of the filling, and based on recipe reviews I added a little bit of lemon extract.  (Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact amount...maybe 1 tsp?  This is why I should be writing these reviews right away!  Otherwise, I can't remember details like that.)  I simply spread the meringue on top, and had a little bit of a hard time trying to get it to look good.  I should have just piped on the meringue, it would have been so simple and looked so much better!    Also, if the meringue were piped, you would see it start to turn golden brown on the peaks, and it wouldn't have gotten the cooked brown film-like layer on top (you can kind of see it in the picture above).  Next time I will keep that in mind.

The comments on the original recipe gave me some tips about meringue that I didn't know before.   For starters, the meringue needs to be whipped into stiff peaks to give it the proper texture, otherwise it may end up kind of gummy or rubbery.  (I already knew this.)  In case you didn't know, "stiff peaks" means when you lift the beater/whisk out of the bowl, it leaves "peaks" behind that stay in place and keep their shape.  "Soft peaks" means that it will leave "peaks", but those peaks will droop and fall.  The longer you whip the egg whites, the stiffer the peaks will get.  When the meringue is added on top of the pie, it should be done while the lemon filling is still hot.  (You might even want to make the meringue first, and then add it straight onto the hot filling as soon as the filling is poured into the pie.)  This will help cook the meringue on the bottom.  If the meringue is not cooked on the bottom, this will cause a liquidy layer to form in between the meringue and the lemon filling.  Another thing that can cause the pie to get a watery layer is covering it with plastic wrap.  I made this mistake the first time I made lemon meringue pie, and I had no idea.  This is why the recipe has you refrigerate the pie uncovered.  So there's a little baking lesson for today.

The Verdict

Very good lemon filling, but the meringue could use some work.  It may have just been my technique, or gotten a little overbaked.  The filling set up just right (giving the pie time to sit and solidify is important) and I had no watery layer, oozing, or seepage.  The meringue isn't meant to sit in the fridge for several days, but at that point I would eat just the filling out of the pie because it was so good!  It could use more filling to meringue ratio, though...maybe 1.5 or 2 times more filling than is called for.  I would give this recipe another shot next time the hubby really wants lemon meringue pie.  Or....this would be a great recipe to modify into mini pies or tarts!