Mouthwatering Monday

Lemon Meringue Yummiliciousness

I’ve never been a meringue maniac – not like my husband - but this weekend was the end of spring break and my son, who was home from UofO, loves lemon too, so I decided to make a homemade pie. That's something I usually do in the summer but this pie was pretty perfect for the seasonal transformation from winter to spring!

If you want to try it out here’s the recipe:

Sweet Flaky Pastry Dough:

2 ½ cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
2 sticks cold butter
¼ cup oil (not olive oil-it has too strong of a flavor)
1/3 cup water

Mix ingredients quickly to prevent butter from warming. Mix dry ingredients and then cut butter into mixture, add water until it is dough-like but not pasty. A pasty dough will turn out dense and thick instead of buttery and yummilicious!

Roll out thinly. Then place into a glass pie pan. Weigh the dough down with another pie pan or beans or rice while you bake it at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes – first cover with foil (in a tent-like formation) so the crust does not get too brown – as it will need to be baked again with the custard filling inside for another 25 minutes.

Lemon Meringue Pie Filling:

5 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
½ cup water
½ cup milk
¾ cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons butter

Separate eggs (using 5 egg whites first) beat until fluffy then add in the five
yolks, add sugar, cornstarch and whisk together then heat milk and water over low heat. Slowly add the liquid to the egg mixture, whisking continuously. Add lemon juice and zest, return mixture to saucepan and warm, stirring continuously. Heat until starts to thicken, add butter and fill pie pan.


Meringue:

5 egg whites
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cream of tartar

Beat egg whites then add in sugar and cream of tartar. Blend until it peaks (beating fast and continuously for about 10 minutes)

Drop dollops over the custard and bake for 25 minutes – you can add butter to the crust to brown it to your personal taste.

You can throw it under the broiler if you want to brown the tips of the meringue a little more but I loved the look of the tan top too. Hope you try it out and, if you do, let me know what you think.