Week 26: Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue PIe

Here we are at the halfway point of our journey! I am totally a pie person but will admit, again, that I am not a cream pie person if there is any fruit pie alternative. It may seem odd that I have never eaten a lemon meringue pie but most places that serve lemon meringue also serve fruit pies, so, that should explain everything. This bake was added to our list by Aubrey. She has always wanted to try one and making any type of meringue pie was going to be a good experience as well.

Lemon meringue pies will always make me think of my Aunt Doris (also known as Granny Doris, or just Granny), an extraordinary baker. Over the course of her life, she has owned and managed a few different restaurants and has undoubtedly made thousands of pies. Her lemon meringue pies are legendary, so I was told. As a child, I remember her first place, “Mom’s Cafe” in Wakeeney, KS, having a pie case (at least in my memories it did) that showcased her skills. I most vividly remember the lemon meringue pies and their mile high meringues. I don’t know what I thought meringue tasted like, but I didn’t think I liked it. I kind of thought it would taste like mayonnaise and I couldn’t bring myself to try it, picky eater that I was. Our goal was to get at least a portion of the height of meringue that I remember.

Since lemon meringue is a traditional pie, we used our Mom’s Best Desserts cookbook. We made a few substitutions, of course, but not as many as we might have considering our meringue failure during our weekend of making macarons. 🙂 We kept real sugar for the meringue and used the substitute for the custard. Our substitute of choice right now is “Sola” because it mixes several sweeteners in one bag. We made a whole wheat pie crust which you can find the recipe for on our Shoofly Pie post.

Ingredients

• Pastry for a 9-inch single-crust pie
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 6 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon plus 1 pinch salt
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

Directions

1. Prepare the pie shell according to the recipe directions. Fully bake the shell and let it cool on a rack before filling.
2. To prepare the lemon filling, beat the egg yolks lightly in a small bowl. Set aside.
3. In the top part of a double boiler, combine 1 1/4 cups of the sugar, the cornstarch, and 1/8 teaspoon of the salt. Gradually stir in the water and lemon juice. Place the double boiler over (not in) simmering water. Using a whisk, stir the mixture constantly until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture thickens and just comes to a boil. Remove the heat.
4. Gradually stir a few teaspoons of the mixture into the beaten egg yolks, mixing constantly until blended. When you have added about 1/2 cup, pour the yolk mixture into the pan, stirring constantly until combined.
5. Place the pan over the simmering water again. Whisk in the butter gradually, then 1 tablespoon of the lemon zest. Cook the filling over the low heat, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes, or until it is thick and smooth. Remove from the heat.
6. Stir the filling to cool slightly, then pour into the baked pie shell.
7. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
8. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and pinch of salt and beat until soft peaks form. Gradually sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, beating well after each addition. When all the sugar has been incorporated, add the remaining 2 teaspoons of lemon zest and beat well for 3 to 4 minutes, until the meringue forms stiff, shiny peaks. The egg whites should hold their shape and remain moist.
9. Spoon about half of the meringue around the edge of the warm filling. Use a rubber spatula to carefully seal it to the piecrust. Pile the remaining meringue in the center, then spread with the back of a spoon to make decorative swirls.
10. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, until the meringue is golden brown.
11. Cook on a rack in a draft-free place. Serve at room temperature. This pie tastes best when eaten within 3 hours of cooling. Refrigerate any leftover pie. Serves 6 to 8.

NOTE: The egg whites in this recipe are not fully cooked.

Our Experience

We assembled our ingredients and went straight to work having done most of these things at least once since this year began.

We don’t actually own a double-boiler (which makes me think I need one) so we used a regular sauce pan on the cooktop, over low heat. We stirred it A LOT before it thickened but I doubt a double-boiler would have been any less work.

Once the juice was thickened, the yolks were tempered and then added into the pan. Before the yolks were added, I had mentioned to Aubrey that I expected it to be more yellow and wondered if we were supposed to add some food coloring to it. Then Aubrey reminded me that we still had to add the yolks and I had a duh moment. Of course, that’s how we were going to get that lovely yellow color! So, just remember, friends, lemon meringue pie isn’t yellow because of the lemons, it’s yellow because of the egg yolks! 🙂

It’s a good thing my pie crust wasn’t part of this post, because it wasn’t very pretty. It wasn’t burned, but it looked like it was. I have a shield that I put on the edges of my pies and even that didn’t keep the whole wheat crust from getting really brown.

Once the meringue was ready, we followed the recipe and covered the edges of the crust first and then put the remaining meringue in the center of the pie and spread it out over the rest of the pie. We probably could have researched the reason for sealing the meringue to the edges but my guess is that the meringue shrinks as it is heated and would pull away from the crust if it weren’t sealed…but, I don’t know that for a fact. I tried to create the fancy top that my aunt’s pies always had, but, in all fairness, I didn’t have a chance. Maybe with more practice! No shame though, it was decent enough for us!

The recipe says to serve it warm, but I really didn’t agree with that idea so we chilled it and ate it later.

What we liked.

This was a weird result for us. (Don’t get your hopes up, of course I liked it!) But, KIP….Kip liked it! He actually had several pieces of it! He usually doesn’t like anything lemon. Aubrey liked it too, but not enough to have an entire piece. (Which, is just about every dessert we have made. She tries to eat healthy so sweets aren’t tempting enough for her to eat with any frequency and she has to REALLY like it if she’s going to eat a whole serving.) Garrett had a whole piece as well.

The best part of a lemon dessert, in my opinion, is the tartness of the lemon. The custard was thick and creamy and did have a nice lemon flavor. Aubrey’s favorite part was the meringue. She mentioned that she would prefer meringue to whipped cream on any dessert…I think she’s crazy! Meringue is darn good though, and I regret not eating Granny’s all those years ago. I also think the crust is essential. It was a sweet dessert and a sweet crust would have been too much as far as I am concerned. The rich, flaky crisp texture was necessary with all the soft textures and the sweetness of the filling.

What we would change.

The only change I could think of was modifying the amount of sugar. It’s what I always say, a bit too sweet for me. I would probably cut down the sugar to 1 cup instead of 1 1/4 cups. Kip would probably argue the opposite, it was perfect for him. Maybe we have figured out why he doesn’t like lemon desserts, the tartness. He loved it when the tartness of the lemon was eliminated with sugar.

It is surprisingly a rich dessert and I would probably take a smaller piece next time.

What we learned.

We have now made a few meringues but this was our first time baking one in order to brown it. It wasn’t difficult and we weren’t sure if that was supposed to be a tricky technique. We used the oven as stated in the recipe. We have seen people brown the meringue with a torch, but it is difficult to use a torch and get a nice even browning using one.

This pie would be a refreshing dessert to eat on a summer day so it’s a possibility that we could make another one some day. But, if I have a choice between a fruit pie and a custard based pie, I’m still going with the fruit!

Until next week, Happy Baking!