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Lemon Meringue Pie

A homemade lemon meringue pie recipe that includes recipes for the pie crust, the lemon pie filling, and a meringue.
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, Canadian
Keyword Lemon Meringue Pie
Prep Time 25 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
2 hours
Total Time 1 hour
Servings 6 large pieces

Ingredients

Traditional Homemade Pie Crust

  • 2 cups flour
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ⅔ c lard
  • 6 -8 tbsp very cold water

Lemon Pie Filling

  • 1 ½ cups white sugar
  • 3 tbsp corn starch
  • 3 tbsp flour
  • dash salt
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 5 egg yolks
  • 1 tbsp fresh grated lemon rind rind of one small lemon
  • ⅓ cup fresh lemon juice juice of two lemons
  • 1 tbsp butter

Meringue

  • 5 egg whites
  • ½ tsp cream of tartar
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ¾ tsp vanilla

Instructions

Traditional Pie Crust

  • Place flour in large bowl, add salt and mix. Blend in lard, until the flour is crumbly and the lard is about the size of peas.
  • Place a scant amount of flour on the counter and roll out your pie dough. Transfer to pie plate, pick with a fork and flute the edge.
  • Bake your pie shell at 400 F for about 15 minutes, until edge is golden.

Lemon Pie Filling

  • Place sugar, cornstarch, flour, salt and water over low heat. Whisk to dissolve, it should be smooth without any lumps. Continue to cook, stirring often until thick. Remove from heat. Let cook until thick, remove from heat.
  • Separate the eggs, place the egg whitesin your mixing bowl for meringue, set aside. Place egg yolks in a small bowl, beat together.
  • Add a few tbsps of the hot liquid into the egg yolks and beat together. (If you add the eggs directly to the lemon mixture they cook too fast causing curdling bits of cooked egg whites.)
  • To bring the egg temperature up, slowly add a few tablespoons of the hot mixture to the egg yolks. Whisk well, then slowly drizzle the egg yolk mixture back into your saucepan. Give it a whisk and return to the low heat.
  • Continue cooking until your filling thickens and has large bubbles popping at the surface.
  • Remove from the heat add the 1 tbsp butter and lemon rind. Stir well and pour into your baked pie crust.

Meringue Topping

  • Place 5 eggs whites in a large mixing bowl, add the cream of tartar. Beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add in sugar whipping continuously until sugar is all dissolved.
  • While your pie filling is still warm. Cover your pie with large dollops of the meringue until its fully covered. With a knife gently spread ensure the meringue is over the edge of the pastry, and no big gaps are showing.
  • Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes or until golden. Watch the meringue closely to make sure it doesn’t burn. It can go from golden brown to scorched brown in a minute.
  • Let the pie cool at least two hours in the fridge before serving.

Notes

The excess can be frozen or baked or placed in pie tins and frozen. Or better yet bake more pie!