This lemon meringue pie recipe uses both lemon zest and juice to strike the perfect balance between sweet and tart, plus it has a showstopping meringue topping.
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00:00Hi, it's Mackenzie in the Delish Kitchen studios, and if you are a little bit shy or intimidated
00:05with making a pie, I think a lemon meringue pie is a great one to start with.
00:10With a berry or like an apple pie, you never know for sure how it's going to turn out,
00:15but with the lemon meringue one, we already know that lemon curd is set, it's cooked,
00:20your meringue is beautiful, and you know it's going to slice beautifully.
00:23Our pie needs to start with a pie crust.
00:25I have one already made for us, our recipe on delish.com.
00:28You can use any of your favorite pie crust recipes.
00:31You can also use a frozen one if you prefer.
00:34I don't typically recommend that, but if you're already making the components for the rest
00:38of your lemon meringue pie and want to skip that step, you can.
00:41So first step for rolling out our pie crust, just flour your work surface a little bit.
00:46You don't need a lot, just that much, and then I like to do a little bit more on top,
00:51and just start rolling out your pie crust.
00:54If it feels too cold, give it a few minutes, let it warm up just a little bit.
00:59If it starts cracking along the edges, that's when you know your pie crust is too cold.
01:02But we're using a 9-inch pie plate, so we want to roll this out to about a 12-inch circle.
01:07I always recommend rolling away from you instead of coming back towards you.
01:13Always just roll away and rotate your circle around.
01:18And one way I like to measure to make sure it's big enough is I just put my pie plate
01:22upside down on it.
01:23It seems like I could go just a little bit further around, but these sides are looking
01:26good.
01:28Now for my pie crust, I like to roll it up on my rolling pin.
01:32This is just a little bit safer, that way you don't, like, stretch and tear your pie
01:38crust.
01:39Lift it up, and then roll it back out.
01:44And then very gently, without, like, stretching it again, press it down, kind of let it fall
01:50down to the sides of your pie plate, just like this.
01:54Before you crimp the edge of your crust, you just want to trim these edges to about half
01:59of an inch.
02:00I like to use scissors.
02:01You can also use a paring knife.
02:02Just go all the way around your crust, then fold under that little excess part so that
02:08it's flush with the edge of your pie plate, and then you can crimp.
02:12I like to do just kind of a classic crimp by taking my knuckle of my left hand and then
02:18my thumb and my pointer finger of my right and pinching it together all the way around.
02:24Now this needs to go in your refrigerator for at least 30 minutes so it gets nice and
02:28cold before going in the oven.
02:30Since the filling for our pie is already fully cooked, we are going to blind bake this crust
02:34so that when it comes out of the oven, it's already done and nice and golden.
02:38Before we bake it, we want to dock the bottom of our pie, just with a fork, pressing it
02:43in.
02:44This is going to help it not puff up while it bakes.
02:46We're going to line the bottom of our pie crust with parchment, and then fill it full
02:55with pie weights.
02:56You can use rice, dried beans, sugar, anything that's nice and heavy can go in the center.
03:06I like to use a sheet tray when I'm baking my pie crust.
03:10It does help the bottom cook through, but it also gives you something else to grab onto
03:14besides your pie crust, and you don't risk...
03:17I always put my thumb into it, and then I get really sad.
03:19So now I can grab the sheet tray out of the oven and make it easier for myself.
03:23We'll bake this at 375 degrees for about 30 minutes with the pie weights in.
03:27We're going to separate our eggs.
03:28To do this, just crack your egg open, and then I pass the yolk back and forth between
03:33the shell, letting that egg white fall out until it's separated.
03:38You can use the edge of your shell to cut that white if it's really finicky and it doesn't
03:42want to fall out.
03:43One reason I really love a lemon meringue pie is that you get to use both the egg whites
03:48and the egg yolks.
03:49I feel like oftentimes if you're making a meringue, you have leftover yolks that you
03:52don't know what to do with them.
03:54Same for a curd.
03:55You end up with whites, but this will use all of our egg whites and our egg yolks.
03:59For our meringue, add your egg whites into the bowl of a stand mixer.
04:02You can also use a hand mixer if you prefer, along with your cream of tartar, and start
04:06mixing that on a medium speed just until it starts to get a little frothy and foamy and
04:11starts to have a little bit of a shape to it.
04:14So as you add your sugar in, you want to do it very slowly, about a tablespoon at a time,
04:19just kind of shaking in your sugar.
04:21This will just help make sure your meringue is not grainy and gritty and nice and smooth,
04:26and that sugar doesn't just stay in one spot.
04:29Then just let this continue to beat until you have nice, stiff peaks, which means when
04:33you hold up your whisk that that peak should not fall over at all and will stand up nice
04:37and tall.
04:38If you're a little bit intimidated by a meringue or if you've never made one before, I think
04:42this is a really good one to start with.
04:44This is a French-style meringue, which means we are not cooking it while we're making it,
04:48and we'll cook it later on top of our pie.
04:51But a lot of other meringues require you to make, like, a sugar syrup or cook it over
04:56the stove while you're whisking it, but this one is just a little more straightforward
05:00and easier to work with.
05:02Our crust edges are nice and golden, but we need the bottom to cook through as well, so
05:06we're going to remove our pie weights and then bake again.
05:08Let's do this very carefully.
05:12So now this goes back into the oven until the bottom is fully cooked through for another
05:16five to ten minutes.
05:19The final component for our pie is the lemon curd, which is the star of the show.
05:23It's our main filling.
05:25So to make it, we are going to add our sugar, cornstarch, flour, a little bit of salt to
05:31our saucepan, and then slowly whisk in water.
05:35This is just making sure this filling is nice and smooth and not lumpy.
05:40Then let that come to a boil and let it boil for about one minute.
05:43We're going to temper our egg yolks by adding in just about a quarter of a cup of our sugar
05:49mixture while whisking very slowly, and then we can add the rest of that egg mixture back
05:55into our sugar mixture.
05:57Continue and let that cook for about a minute more.
06:01Off the heat, we're going to add the zest of two lemons and the juice of both lemons
06:06and some butter.
06:07The butter is the best part of a lemon curd.
06:10That's what makes it just like a velvety, silky texture and makes it really shiny and
06:14beautiful.
06:15We can now finally assemble our pie.
06:19So first we're going to add in all of that lemon curd and then top it off with the meringue.
06:24You can make as many like fun swoops and peaks with this meringue as you want.
06:29It's very important that your curd is still warm when you add your meringue on top because
06:35that heat is going to help these two layers seal together.
06:38Make sure your meringue gets all the way to the crust and then we'll pop it into the oven.
06:43This goes back into the oven just to toast this meringue at 350 degrees for about 10
06:48to 15 minutes.
06:49Start watching it closely after that 10 minutes.
06:54There she is.
06:55She's all beautiful and toasted, but sadly does have to go into the refrigerator to cool
07:00and set for a minimum of three hours and you can leave it in there up to overnight.
07:09I am so excited to finally try this pie.
07:12It just looks so beautiful.
07:13I love the layers of a lemon meringue pie.
07:16Oh my gosh.
07:18Yes, this is the perfect combo between like the tartness of like the lemon layer.
07:24I love a lemon dessert.
07:25It really is one of my favorites, but then like the sweetness of like the toasted meringue
07:28that gets a little bit like crunchy on top after being toasted.
07:32It's just the perfect combo.
07:33I don't think you can beat it.
07:35And despite like there being like multiple components to this pie, each one is like so
07:39easy to make and not that complicated or complex.
07:43I love lemon desserts just like this pie.
07:46So for more citrus desserts just like it for the spring and summer, stick around here
07:50at delish.com.