Recipe: Lemon Meringue Pie

My new husband lost a bet on a hockey pool with co-workers. The punishment - bring in a lemon meringue pie for everyone to enjoy. Maybe I am a naive, sucker-for-punishment young wife but I took up the challenge of making this pie from scratch. I had ulterior motives. This was going to be a great project for the stand mixer.

Having made two pies in the past two weeks and gathering responses from those lucky enough to get a fork to them, I can confidently say this recipe is a sure winner. Once again, homemade prevails. Store bought lemon meringue didn't stand a chance in comparison to this beauty. Results based on a taste test between my homemade pie and a Loblaws Farmer's Market brand pie.

This recipe has been adapted from Canadian Living (2001).

Ingredients


1 baked single-crust pie shell (see 'Working with Pastry' post from Monday August 8, 2011)

Filling:
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
6 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups water
4 egg yolks, beaten
1 Tbsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 tbsp butter

Meringue:
5 egg whites, at room temperature
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup white sugar

Directions

Filling
In a medium-sized saucepan, mix together sugar, cornstarch, salt and water and stir together. Place over medium-high heat and stir constantly as the contents are brought to a boil. Once at a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 3 minutes, continuing to stir constantly. As the pot gets hotter you will notice the liquid will start to conglomerate, continue to stir creating a smooth jelly. Remove from heat. Whisk about 1/4 of the jelly with the egg yolks then whisk this mixture back into the pot with the remaining 3/4 of the jelly. Return pot to the heat and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in lemon rind, lemon juice and butter. Set aside to cool.

Meringue
Add the egg whites and cream of tartar to the stand mixer bowl. Attach to the stand mixer the bowl and wire whip. Turn on the stand mixer to Speed 6 and beat until soft peaks form. With the stand mixer running at Speed 6, begin adding the sugar about 1 Tbsp at a time. Continue to beat until hard peaks form.

Lesson of the day: The meringue in best if made then immediately transferred to the pie and baked. The first time I made the pie my timing was off and the meringue had to sit for about 30 minutes. The meringue looked the same at the top of the bowl but when I took the spatula to it, I realized the bottom of the bowl had gone liquidy. If this happens to you, don't panic - it can be solved. Place the bowl back on your stand mixer and turn it back on to Speed 6 for a minute or two. Test the meringue to make sure you still get hard peaks then continue on with assembly. The meringue did turn out better the second time when I didn't run into this roadblock but the difference was negligible.

Assembly and Baking
Once the filling and meringue has been made, its time to assemble your pie. Scoop the lemon filling into your baked pie crust. Generally, all the filling should fit into the crust, however there have been times I did not use quite all the filling.

Next, using a spatula, scoop the meringue out into the pie crust, on top of the filling. Start by scooping the meringue along the outside circumference of the pie. All the way around, make sure there is contact between the meringue and the pie crust. Scoop the remaining meringue into the middle of the pie. Using your spatula, spread out the meringue building it up toward the middle of the pie. To obtain the classic lemon meringue look, flick the spatula's head causing the meringue to form peaks. Be creative and flick away.

After pre-heating the oven to 400 degrees F, place the pie in the lower 1/4 of the oven to bake for 5-6 minutes or until the meringue is a golden colour. Typically, after about 5 minutes of baking I rotate my pie giving the half that faced the door a chance to face the back. This gives it an overall golden appearance. Oven's will vary in this regard.

Although difficult, allow the pie to set by letting it sit for 5 hours before cutting in and digging in.

Recipe in Photos: 

Colour of the lemon filling after adding lemon zest, juice and butter. 

Soft peaks in the meringue

Hard peaks in the meringue 

Lesson of the day: If the meringue sits for too long (i.e. 15-30 minutes) it will begin to liquify. This can be saved. Turn your stand mixer back on at Speed 6 for about 1-2 minutes and it will whip it back to shape. Although better if this doesn't happen, your meringue will not fail.

Lemon filling after being added to the cooked pie crust

After adding meringue to the top of the pie. Notice the band of meringue around the outside and the dollop in the middle. 

After meringue has been smoothed out and shaped

Baked pie number 1 - although delicious, notice the flatter appearance to the meringue. 

Baked pie number 2 - this pie had a better dome of meringue 

Baked pie number 2 again. Notice, you will still have meringue that doesn't brown. This is ok, it is still cooked. The golden colour appears at the higher parts of the meringue. 

What I Learned:

• My cookbook suggested that lemon meringue "certainly challenges the baker". While this recipe kept me moving in the kitchen (as demonstrated with the meringue, timing is important), it was easier than I originally anticipated. Thanks are due to Arty (Yes I now have a pet name for the stand mixer). Without Arty, the meringue wouldn't have been produced - or saved - so effortlessly. 
• Once again homemade wins the vote - you just can't compare between this and store bought.
• You can save meringue if it goes liquidy its just going to result in a slightly less dramatic pie. When meringue is immediately transferred onto the pie and baked, it has much more height and fluffiness. 
• People will gladly take a freshly baked pie off your hands so you don't have to eat it yourself. This may seem like a downside, but if you want to be testing out multiple pies in your kitchen AND eating them yourself, you had better have a good pair of running shoes. Canadian Living (2001), puts one slice (1/8 of the pie) at 432 calories, 18g of fat. 

I found the mixer to be very important in getting the meringue just right. This would still be possible with a hand-held mixer but it was very convenient to have the meringue sit within the stand mixer bowl underneath the stand mixer should it need a re-fresh whip