Lemon Meringue Pie (American)
This is the American old-fashioned lemon meringue pie with a gel-like filling. If you want a sticky filling, use the British Lemon Meringue Pie recipe instead.
- Prep
- 24 min
- Cook
- 57 min
- Total
- 1 hr 21 min
- Servings
- As written in source
- Difficulty
- Advanced
Timings are approximate — worked out from the method, not measured in a test kitchen.
Ingredients
Quantities are retained as written by the source and do not scale automatically. Tap an ingredient to check it off as you go.
Cooking instructions
Procedure
Prepare and bake Grandma's Pie Crust or a ready-made refrigerated or frozen pie crust.
Procedure
Let cool.
Procedure
In a saucepan whisk together water, sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, turmeric, lemon juice and lemon zest. Make sure any flour or cornstarch lumps are stirred until they dissolve.
Procedure
Cook over medium heat until mixture starts to simmer. Stir constantly.
Procedure
Add butter, then stir until melted.
Procedure
Beat egg yolks in a small bowl. Add about ½ cup (120 g) of hot lemon mixture into eggs and stir well. This tempers the egg yolks so they won't scramble when added to the simmering lemon mixture.
Procedure
Pour tempered egg mixture into pan of simmering lemon mixture. Stir until well mixed.
Procedure
Continue simmering lemon filling about 2 minutes until it thickens, stirring constantly.
Procedure
Pour into cooled pie shell and allow to cool while preparing meringue.
Procedure
Place 4 egg whites in mixer and whip at high speed until they start to foam.
Procedure
Add cream of tartar to egg whites then, while continuing to beat, add sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time. Beat about 30 seconds between tablespoonfuls of sugar.
Procedure
Continue to beat meringue until stiff peaks form when beaters are raised from bowl.
Procedure
Spread meringue over pie, starting on lemon pie filling, using rubber spatula. Spread over edges of crust, completely sealing in the lemon pie filling.
Procedure
To form peaks in meringue, use the flat side of a rubber spatula to touch the meringue and pull away. Repeat over entire surface of meringue.
Procedure
Place pie in 350°F (180°C) oven for 15 minutes until high points of meringue are lightly browned.
Procedure
Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Warnings
The pie filling is quite hot when pouring it into pie shell.
Warnings
Keep this pie refrigerated.
Warnings
In humid weather meringue may "weep" (small dots of liquid form on the surface). To lessen this possibility, apply meringue to lemon filling while it is still hot, cool pie to room temperature before refrigerating, and/or use powdered sugar instead of granulated sugar when making the meringue.
Photo: H Padleckas · CC BY-SA 3.0 · http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ · Photo source and licence
Wikibooks contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 · https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/ · Adapted; quantities retained as written. · Original source
Read it through first
Skim all 19 steps before you start — it is the difference between cooking and firefighting.
Scale it
Use the quantities listed in the original recipe. Adjust them manually if making a different batch size.
Storage
Cool completely, then keep in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.
Reheating
Reheat gently with a splash of water in a covered pan, rather than blasting it, so nothing dries out.
Approximate values per serving. Worked out from the ingredient list — treat them as a guide, not a measurement.
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