Sunday, September 16, 2012

Try this: Bake-Sale Lemon Meringue Pie

Yup, I doubled the recipe and made two pies -- one to bring to my
sister's house and one to share with some of my parent's friends. 
I wish I could give proper credit for this recipe, but I cut it out of some magazine years ago and I don’t remember which one. No doubt I’ve made this recipe dozens of times: it’s my “go-to” when we need to bring a dessert to someone’s house, and always on my to-do list when I visit my folks, as their friends Don and Jan go nuts for lemon meringue pie. I don’t bother making my own pie crust, as the recipe calls for the store-bought variety, and who am I to question authority?

Bake-Sale Lemon Meringue Pie

  • 1 refrigerated pie crust, room temperature (I buy the Pillsbury brand, usually stored in the dairy section of the supermarket)
  • 1 ¼ cups, plus 1/3 cup sugar
  • 1 ½ cups water
  • 6 tablespoons corn starch (divided)
  • 5 large eggs, separated
  • 1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
  • pinch of salt
  • ½ cup fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • ½ teaspoon cream of tartar
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Unroll pie crust and place in pie dish. Fold edges over and crimp. (Important, because if the crust is not attached to the edges of the pie dish, it will shrink while baking.) Pierce crust all over with a fork. Back until crust is golden, about 15 minutes.

Whisk together 1 ¼ cups sugar, water, 5 tablespoons of cornstarch, egg yolks, lemon peel, and salt in heavy saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture starts to bubble and thicken. When it’s the consistency of thick pudding, remove from heat and add in lemon juice and butter. Whisk until smooth. Cool completely.

Spread lemon filling into crust.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix 1/3 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cornstarch in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, beat egg whites with electric beater until eggs are foamy. Add cream of tartar and beat until soft peaks form. Add sugar/cornstarch mixture one tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form.

Spoon dollops of meringue on top of the lemon filling, mounding it in the center and bringing it right to the edge of the crust. Use a rubber spatula to swirl it into peaks (I then use a fork, stabbing it into the meringue and then pulling it up fast to make little peaks.) Bake until meringue is light brown, about 12 minutes. Cool on a rack and then refrigerate until cold.

1 comment:

  1. oooh, my favourite. when you come to visit you can bake me one..........or two.

    ReplyDelete

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...