Meringue Three Ways -- Part Three -- Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

 

     I know you have been waiting with baited breath for the finale to my trilogy, so without further adieu, here it is . . . a Lemon Meringue Pie!  

     Again, I can hear you out there telling me that this is too much bother and that you will stick with the one from the freezer or your local grocery store.  People, I have seen these grocery store versions.  The shade of yellow in those pies is utterly frightening.  Do yourself a favor and go pick up those lemons from the produce section.  After you take your first bite of your homemade lemon meringue pie and have called everyone you know to tell them how you accomplished it on your own, I will wait for your comments on this post!

     Let's start by talking about lemons.  The regular, big yellow ones from any grocery store will work fine.  I promise.  I will tell you, though, that if you are fortunate enough to find Meyer lemons that are in season and you choose to make your pie with those that you might think you have died and gone to Heaven.  Meyer lemons are amazing.  They are smaller than regular lemons and have a more orangey and thinner peel.  They actually taste a little orangey.  In the dead of winter nothing makes me feel happier and healthier than slices of these little gems in my water.  It's hard for me to do them justice with words.  Just trust me and pick one up if you see one in your grocery store.  And by all means, if you find enough ripe ones to use in this pie, DO IT!  Thank me later.

   We need to discuss the filling for a minute.  Until very recently, every custard, pastry, or pie filling I made was a disaster.  I mean, an absolute abysmal failure.  No matter how hard I tried to slowly add my egg yolks into the hot liquid on the stove just like the instructions told me to, little by little, I inevitably ended up with tiny bits of cooked egg in the filling.  Gross. NOBODY wants scrambled eggs in their pie.  Luckily for me, my sister had the smarts to marry a for real chef.  No kidding.  We now have a chef in our family.  It's like a dream come true for all of us.  Now any time I have a kitchen quandary, I just call Chef Chad.  I have my own personal cook's line and I LOVE it!  So my brother-in-law's genius advice was to stop following the directions in my cookbooks and switch to adding the hot liquid to the eggs itty bitty bit by bit.  He told me that I could not add the liquid too slowly or in too small of batches.  I tried it in this pie and lo and behold, the boy was right!  Trust Chad on this.  Really, really trust Chad.  I am thrilled that never again does anyone have to smile politely at me as they eat my rubbery egg custards.

  I also want to add a few words about the meringue here before I give you the recipe.  Again, make sure your egg whites are at room temperature and that your bowl is super clean of any tiny bits of debris.  It makes a difference.  Also, be sure your filling is completely cool before you spread the meringue over the top of it.  The other important reminder is that you need to spread the meringue to the very, very edge of the crust or else it will pull off the crust as it bakes.  I even go a little ways up the side of the crust just to be sure that it has adhered well.

   Whew.  That is a great deal of information about this pie but I feel like if it's worth you taking the time to make it that you should know all of the little tricks I used to make it work.

   I pulled my ingredient list and most of my technique from my go-to resource, The America's Test Kitchen Baking Book.  

   Once again, I would urge you to either buy this book now or put it on your birthday list.  It's that good.

Meyer Lemon Meringue Pie

1 pie crust.  For homemade, see my recipe

Filling:

1 1/2 C. cold water

1 C. granulated sugar

1/4 C. cornstarch

1/8 t. salt

6 large egg yolks

1 1/2 T. grated lemon zest from Meyer lemons

1/2 C. fresh Meyer lemon juice

2 T. salted butter cut into tablespoons

Meringue:

3/4 C. granulated sugar

1/3 C. water

3 large egg whites, room temperature

1/4 t. cream of tartar

1/8 t. salt

1/2 t. vanilla

    Begin by preparing your pie crust well ahead of time.  Heat your oven to 375 degrees. Roll the crust out and place it in a pie pan.  Flute the edges.  You are now going to blind-bake it which simply means that you will bake it before you fill it.  You have to make sure it doesn't puff up while it bakes so you will need to weight it down.  I prefer to use a pie weight chain that I ordered from the King Arthur Flour website.  I love this one because it all comes out in a chain and you don't have to worry about individual weights.

    If you don't have pie weights, don't worry!  Just lay some foil in your pie shell and place a handful of either pennies or dried beans in it and you will get the same effect.  I actually ended up taking the chain out of this crust after I took the picture and putting a layer of foil on before I placed it back in.

    Bake the crust with the weights in it for about 30 minutes until it looks just pale in color.  Take the foil and the weights out of the crust and then finish baking it until it is a nice brown color which will probably take another 10 minutes.  This is really the only chance you have to make your crust golden so be sure you let it finish baking.  If you made it from scratch, you will have fabulously flaky layers in it!  When you take it out of the oven, place it on a cooling rack and allow it to cool completely.  Don't try to rush this step.  That's why I told you to start early!

    While your crust is cooling, you can get your filling ready.  Add the water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt to a large pot.  You will need to make sure you have plenty of room to whisk.  Turn the heat to medium and whisking constantly (DO NOT WALK AWAY!), bring the liquid to a low simmer.  The mixture will start to turn cloudy and then will quickly become translucent.  This is how you know it is time to add the eggs.  

    

    I would suggest that you have your 6 egg yolks right by the stove in a larger bowl than you think you will need since you are going to add the hot liquid into the yolks.  Using a spoon, little by little (think tablespoon at a time), add the cornstarch/sugar mixture to the egg yolks, whisking well after each addition.  When the egg mixture seems to feel pretty hot, add the yolk mix to the remaining liquid in the pot and whisk very, very well and very, very quickly.  At this point add both the lemon zest and the juice.  Whisk briefly and then add the butter in.  Let it come back to a tiny little simmer and then TAKE IT OFF THE HEAT UNLESS YOU WANT GROSS EGG BITS IN THE FILLING!!  I speak from experience.  Lots of experience.

   Make sure the crust has cooled completely and then pour the lemon filling into the shell.  Cover the pie with plastic wrap and then put it in the fridge until it is completely cool.  This will take between 1 1/2 and 2 hours.

   Once the pie is completely cool, prepare the meringue by adding the sugar and water to a pot and allowing them to come to a full boil using medium-high heat.  Stir the mixture constantly and cook it until it becomes just a little thick and looks syrupy.  This will take about 4 minutes.  Take it off the heat and place plastic wrap over it to keep it warm while you prepare the egg whites.

    Begin by whisking the egg whites, cream of tartar, and salt together in a mixer (preferably a standing mixer) on low until it starts to look foamy.  This only takes about a minute.  At this point turn the mixer up to medium-high and whisk the egg mixture until it becomes shiny and you can see soft peaks when you pull the whisk up.

   Turn the mixer back down to medium and very, very slowly, pour in the hot sugar mixture.  If you can, try to pour it down the middle while avoiding the sides of the bowl and the whisk.  

   Pour the vanilla into the mixer bowl and then turn the mixer back up to medium-high.  Keep whisking the meringue until it is very thick and shiny.  This will take anywhere from 3 - 5 minutes.

   Remove the pie from the fridge and add the meringue by spoonfuls onto the filling.  Smoothing it out as you go, spread the meringue all the way to the very edge of the pie crust.  

     Now, here's the really fun part!  Take a spoon, turn it over so that you are using the back, and start making all kinds of fun swirls and swoops on the meringue.  Just don't go too crazy and pull the meringue off the filling!

     

    Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake in an oven preheated to 400 degrees until the meringue is a nice toasty, brown color.  This won't take long and it should be done around 7 - 8 minutes.  Remove the pie from the oven and place it on a cooling rack.  Allow it to cool completely for close to 2 hours.  This is the hard part!  Trust me, though, and let it cool completely before you cut it.  Serve it at room temperature.