Unsliced Lemon Meringue Pie

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Lemon meringue pie is a type of baked pie, usually served for dessert, made with a pastry base, lemon curd filling and a fluffy meringue topping. Lemon meringue pie is typically prepared with a bottom pie crust, but with no upper crust; e. g., the meringue is directly on top of the lemon filling. Because Meringue is a form of plasma, it has been debated whether or not to call it plasma pie. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... This article is about the baked good, for other uses see Pie (disambiguation). ... Not to be confused with Desert. ... Basket of western-style pastries, for breakfast Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Pastries For the Pastry Distributed Hash Table, see Pastry (DHT). ... Wikibooks Cookbook has more about this subject: Lemon curd Homemade lemon curd Lemon curd, (also sometimes known as lemon cheese) is a traditional British dessert topping and sandwich spread. ... Lemon meringue muffins For the Dominican folk dance and the music it is performed to, see merengue. ... Look up plasma in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Preparation

PIE CRUST SHELL:

Use your favorite recipe for pie crust or use a pre-rolled pie crust from the refrigerated section at the supermarket. Fit rolled pie crust into a 9 inch pie pan and flute the edge. Prick holes in bottom of pie crust shell with fork; place a piece of parchment paper in the pie crust shell and fill with pie weights, dry beans, or rice so that pie crust shell retains its shape. Bake for about 10 minutes at 450 degrees; remove pie weights and parchment; return to oven about 3-5 minutes as needed until pie crust shell is lightly browned.

FILLING

1 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
1/3 Cup corn starch
1 1/2 Cups boiling water
3 egg yolks (reserve egg whites for meringue topping)
3 TBS. butter
1/2 Cup unstrained fresh lemon juice
2 tsp. grated lemon zest (yellow part of lemon rind)

PREPARATION

Mix sugar and corn starch in a medium saucepan until well combined. Stir in the boiling water. Cook and stir over medium heat, bringing to a rolling boil until the mixture thickens. Beat egg yolks in a bowl and stir about 1/2 Cup of the hot cornstarch-sugar mixture into the beaten egg yolks to temper them. Remove from the heat and stir in the egg yolk mixture, lemon juice, grated peel, and butter. Return to medium heat and cook and stir the mixture for 1-2 minutes more, then pour into baked pie crust shell. Cover with a sheet of waxed paper or plastic wrap. Set aside as you prepare the meringue.

MERINGUE

3 egg whites (Be sure there is no yolk in the whites. Discard if that happens)
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
6 TBS. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

PREPARATION

Clean glass or metal mixer bowl to remove any trace of oil on bowl (salt and vinegar works well). With electric mixer, beat egg whites in bowl until foamy, then add cream of tartar and continue beating until soft peaks form (stiff enough so that when you pull the beaters out they will leave a peak in the egg whites that sits for a moment). Add the vanilla and 1 TBS. sugar and resume beating, adding remaining sugar gradually until all sugar has been added. Continue to beat just until you feel no gritty texture (pinch a bit of the beaten mixture between your fingers) and hard peaks form (curl slightly over when the beater is removed). Remove waxed paper or plastic wrap from top of lemon mixture in pie crust shell, then spread meringue on top, sealing meringue well to the edge of the pie crust. Bake pie for about 10-15 minutes at 350 degrees fahrenheit or until light brown. Remove from oven, cool to room temperature, then chill and serve.

NOTES: Sometimes meringue pies form liquid beads on top of the meringue, particularly in humid conditions, which detracts from its appearance but not from the taste. To avoid, make sure lemon filling is still hot when applying meringue and make sure to cool baked pie to room temperature before refrigerating. In very humid weather it may also help to substitute 8 TBS. confectioner's or powdered sugar for the 6 TBS. of granulated sugar in the meringue.

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