Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe to Pucker Up For

Lemon meringue pie is the latest citrus dessert for me to try. Citrus desserts are some of my favorites. Lemon tarts, lemon bars, blood orange bars, the stronger/sharper the citrus flavor the more I love it. I had grand plans to make a dessert using grapefruit but unfortunately, grapefruit doesn’t play nice with the meds I’m on so those plans are on hold. At any rate, I’ve wanted to make lemon meringue pie ever since the episode of The Great Bakeoff where the technical challenge is to make a lemon meringue pie with no recipe. I wanted at the very least to be able to know how to make meringue. So when I found a batch of pie dough in my freezer last week I decided to make this pie.

Lemon Meringue Pie Notes

First thing first, my skills in making a pie crust leave something to be desired. But practice makes perfect and we can either approach success or avoid failure. Plus it still tastes delicious, so eating your mistakes isn’t the worst thing in the world. When laying the pie dough into the pie tin, be sure and leave a little extra on the crust since it will shrink during baking. I knew this going in but still cut it too close so be careful and take your time since it takes a while for the dough to chill.

For details on making the dough, I’m going to crib the description from the chocolate bourbon pecan recipe since I haven’t created a separate recipe post for pie dough all on its own. But anyway, here we go.

Pie Crust Notes

To make pie dough, add the flour, cornstarch, sugar, and salt to a bowl and toss in the freezer for a few minutes to chill. This is to help keep the butter cold which will result in a better crust. Next, chop the butter into half-inch cubes and place in the freezer to chill. Combine the milk and vinegar in a liquid measuring cup and stir to combine. Place in the fridge to chill until ready to use.

Using the metal blade for your food processor, add the dry ingredients and pulse once to combine. Add the butter to the food processor and put the lid back on.

Take the milk mixture out of the fridge. Turn on the food processor. After a second or so, pour the milk in through the food chute at the top of the food processor. Once the milk has been added, turn off the food processor and turn out onto a piece of cling film. You can also transfer the mixture to a bowl to make shaping easier. You can see in the photo below that I did not take this approach and my dough split. I also used GF flour, which I do not recommend for pie dough. I did not use GF flour for the lemon meringue pie. Anyway, press the mixture together into a rough disc shape and wrap it tightly in cling film.

Place in the fridge to chill for at least one hour. Pie dough can be stored in the fridge for up to a week. It will last for several months in the freezer. The dough recipe is enough for two pies, FYI.

More Pie Crust Notes & Baking Instructions

Take half of the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface. Roll the pie dough out to roughly a quarter-inch thick. Roll the pie dough into a 9″ pie tin and press into place. Transfer the prepared pie tin to the fridge until ready to use. If using GF flour, you likely won’t be able to roll it out so you need to press it into the pie dish.

Once the dough has been placed in the pie dish, set it in the fridge and chill for two hours. Once the dough has been chilled, cut any excess off of the top, leaving a bit extra to allow for shrinkage.

Prick the bottom of the pie crust all over with the tines of a fork. Next, crumple a piece of parchment paper and lay it on top of the pie dough. Place pie weights or uncooked beans on top of the parchment and bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for ten minutes. After ten minutes remove the parchment paper and the pie weights and bake for another 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown and the center of the pie crust is a light golden color. Let the pie crust cool to room temperature.

Lemon Curd

The only obnoxious part about making lemon curd is having to separate eggs. Tempering the egg yolks can be a bit intimidating but just add a bit of liquid at a time and you won’t need to worry about scrambling the eggs. Start by combining the sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a saucepan. Add the lemon juice and water to the mixture and put the pan on medium heat.

Whisk constantly until the sugar and cornstarch are dissolved and the mixture is bubbling and very thick. Remove the pan from the heat. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks and then slowly pour about half of the sugar mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly so that the egg yolks don’t get cooked by the hot liquid. If doing this by yourself, place a towel underneath the bowl so that you can pour and whisk at the same time with the bowl staying in place.

Once half of the sugar mixture has been added, pour the yolk mixture back into the saucepan and return to low-medium heat. Stir constantly with a spatula until the mixture comes to a simmer, cook for one minute longer, and then remove from the heat. Stir in the lemon zest and butter and mix until fully combined. Pour the lemon curd into the baked pie crust and place a piece of cling film directly on the lemon curd. Place in the fridge to chill. The cling film is to prevent a skin from forming on the lemon curd which will mess with the texture of the pie when done.

Meringue Notes

I was a bit intimidated making meringue for the first time but like most of my other experiences in baking, read the instructions, take your time, and things will turn out okay. Plus meringue is delicious, even without the vanilla extract, which I forgot at the time and it was still amazing. Combine the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk to combine the ingredients.

Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. It’s important that the bowl does not touch the water. This will bring the temperature up too high and risk splitting the meringue. Whisk the mixture constantly over the simmering water until the meringue is hot to the touch.

Transfer the bowl to a stand mixer and add the vanilla extract. Whisk on medium to high speed until stiff peaks form, around 5 to 6 minutes.

Once the meringue is ready, remove the pie from the fridge and remove the cling film. Transfer the meringue onto the top of the pie and use an offset spatula to create swirls and peaks.

Using a kitchen torch, toast the meringue until golden.

Place the pie in the fridge until the fillings are cool, around 4 hours. Slice and serve! Leftovers can be stored in the fridge for up to 5 days, although it’s best eaten within 3 days of making.