- Hey, everyone, it's Dorothy with crazyforcrust.com
and welcome to my kitchen.
Today I'm going to show you how to make
this lemon meringue pie.
This is my Aunt Tootsie's recipe.
It's a family favorite.
My dad's talked about it for years,
and today I'm going to share it with you.
You're not going to want to miss it.
(upbeat music)
I don't think I ever met my Aunt Tootsie,
but every time I ever heard her name growing up
my dad would follow it up with,
"She made a great lemon meringue pie."
And a few years ago, my aunt sent me
a bunch of my nana's old recipes
and one of them was the hand-written recipe
from my Aunt Tootsie with her lemon meringue pie recipe.
And I decided I had to make it
and share it with all of you.
Now, lemon meringue pie is a little bit involved.
There's three different steps.
There's crust, there's filling, and then there's meringue.
So I know it can be kind of scary
because making the filling involves
cooking the lemon and tempering the eggs,
which is like, "What is tempering?"
And then making meringue, which is like,
"Oh my gosh, is mine going to break?
"What is soft peaks and hard peaks?"
But don't worry, today I'm going to teach you
all the different things that you need to know
about lemon meringue pie
so that you can make it for your family too.
For more delicious desserts and easy recipes,
be sure to subscribe to my channel.
Now let's get in the kitchen.
We start this recipe with a pre-baked pie crust.
Now, you can make my all-butter pie crust and pre-bake that,
or you can buy one of those refrigerated packs of two,
or you can use a frozen crust, whatever you like.
Just put it in your pie plate
and you're going to pre-bake it
according to the package directions
or according to the directions
in whatever pie crust recipe you're using.
Be sure to check out my video
on how to pre-bake a crust perfectly.
Once the crust is done, just set it aside,
lower your over temperature to 300 degrees,
and get started on the filling.
The filling for this pie is like lemon curd but thicker.
It's an egg-based filling,
so we're going to start with four egg yolks.
Now, we need four egg whites for the meringue,
so go ahead and separate your eggs.
Make sure you get zero yolks in the egg whites.
You want plain egg whites with no yolks at all
so that they make a perfect meringue.
I love that this recipe uses four entire eggs.
You're going to use four egg whites for the meringue
and four egg yolks for the filling.
That way there's nothing left over
that you have to figure out what to do with.
To make your filling, we're going to place a pot
over medium-low heat.
To the pot you're going to add one and a half cups of water,
one and a half cups of sugar,
five tablespoons of cornstarch,
a half a cup of fresh lemon juice,
that's about two to three lemons,
a tablespoon of lemon zest,
and a half a teaspoon of salt.
Whisk that together
and you're going to cook it stirring often
until it's boiling and thick.
It's going to take about 10 minutes
depending on what heat your stove top is at.
Now, just a word of caution, once it gets thick,
it gets thick like that. (fingers snap)
So you want to make sure and have your egg yolks
already in a bowl, whisked, and ready to temper.
When you're making custards or ice creams or curds,
you have to add egg yolks to the hot mixture,
and you want to cook the egg yolks, right?
But we don't want to scramble them.
So tempering is when we add a little bit
of the hot mixture into the egg yolks while whisking,
and then it kind of brings the egg yolks
up to temperature of what's in the pot.
And then we can add them back into the pot
and whisk, continually whisking,
so that the eggs don't scramble,
they just heat up slowly.
So we're going to do that, we're going to temper our egg yolks.
And then we're going to cook this.
It's going to come to a boil.
Cook it for two more minutes
just to bring the egg yolks up to temperature.
Once your mixture is done cooking,
remove it from the heat and add unsalted butter.
Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth.
Now, at this point, we're going to add it to our pie crust.
But before I do that, I like to strain it
because you never know what little bits of egg
may have cooked or any little bits here and there
that you don't want in there.
So I run this through a strainer before I add it to my pie.
Using a basic mesh strainer
that I got at Target or the cooking store,
just run it through.
Use your spatula to kind of push it through.
And then once it's nice and silky and smooth
with no lumps or anything like that,
go ahead and add it to your pie shell.
Now we're going to make the meringue topping.
So cover the pie shell with plastic wrap
and set it aside.
You want the pie filling to stay warm
while you're making the filling,
and you don't want it to get like a skin on top.
That's why I put the plastic wrap there.
And now we're going to make our meringue topping.
I'm doing this in a stand mixer
with the whisk attachment,
but you could also use a hand mixer.
It's just going to take you a little bit longer.
Add your egg whites to your mixing bowl
along with vanilla extract and cream of tartar.
Now, cream of tartar is what's going to help
our meringue come together and form stiff peaks.
Beat the egg whites on high speed until soft peaks form.
You'll know they're soft peaks
when you pull out the whisk attachment
and the peaks kind of stand up
but then fall over a little bit.
At this point, you're going to keep mixing
and then add the sugar slowly while mixing.
You're going to mix until stiff peaks have formed.
This takes about one to two minutes.
It's going to be nice and glossy and thick.
You'll know that stiff peaks have formed
when you take out the whisk and the peaks stand straight.
Now it's time to assemble our pie.
Remove the plastic wrap from your pie,
and then top with your meringue.
Make sure that the meringue is flat with the filling
so it's touching every inch of the surface of the pie,
and that the meringue is touching the crust
all the way around.
That will reduce the chances
that the meringue will shrink once it cools
and you won't get any of that wetness inside the pie.
Just use your offset spatula or a knife
to make the nice swirls and little peaks on top the pie
and then bake it at 300 degrees
until the meringue is nice and golden.
At this point, you're going to let the pie cool
to room temperature, about one to two hours,
and then you're going to chill it
for at least four to five hours
before you try and slice it.
Now just to note, meringue pie like this
is best the day that it's made.
You can serve it for a day or two after,
but it's going to taste best the day that it's made.
And there you have it, a gorgeous lemon meringue pie.
This is my Aunt Tootsie's pie.
I love the sweet and tartness of the lemon
and the sweet cloud fluffiness of that meringue topping.
I can't wait to try it.
Let's taste.
Mm, that lemon is really rich and thick, and sweet and tart,
with that cloud pillowy meringue on top.
This is exactly what my dad described when I was a kid.
I love this pie, you guys, and I hope that you love it too.
Leave me a comment and let me know
any questions you have about making meringue.
I know it's scary, but it's super easy.
I'm going to go finish my slice of pie
while you keep watching.