Making the best lemon meringue
I was asked by a follower for a lemon meringue recipe, and I was shocked I didn’t have one! Immediately I realised I needed to hare my easy bake lemon meringue pie recipe with you all. I love how easy this recipe is, from the crust to the meringue. I tried it a few times and made errors on purpose to explain to you why YOU shouldn’t make the same mistakes. This recipe is perfect for the holidays, this meringue pie brings a lovely sourness to the table as well as sweetness. You can always opt to leave out the meringue for a less sweet tasting pie. I hope you love this recipe and let me know if there’s anything you would like to know!
Bon Appetit,
Zorah xo
How to make the best easy bake lemon meringue pie
To make your easy bake lemon meringue pie you can use a Graham Cracker biscuit base but I wanted to elevate the recipe. I chose to make a sweet pastry crust, where I explain in detail how to make it here. This pie crust contains a bit of icing sugar which gives the tart some sweetness, as the lemon curd can be a bit zesty. When making the lemon curd, I do suggest waiting until the curd has cooled down a bit. This ensures that the pie crust doesn’t become soggy when adding in the freshly made curd.
How to make sure the meringue is just right
When I studied at Le Cordon Bleu to use a candy thermometer to achieve the best possible temperature for the sugar. However, I do have a few tricks so you can get the right temperature without use a thermometer.
- Once you’ve added your sugar and water to your saucepan, set the temperature to a low to medium heat and stir to make sure the sugar dissolves.
- Once the sugar has dissolved, you can now increase the temp. to medium and allow it to boil.
- If you’re using a thermometer, the temp. should come to 116 degrees Celsius. Add the sugar to the egg whites in a steady stream.
- If you aren’t using one, after every 3 minutes, pick up some of the sugar mixture with a metal spoon and add it to a glass of water.
- The sugar needs to be pliable in your hands after it’s gone in the water but needs to hold shape.
- If it doesn’t, boil for another three minutes until you see it has a soft but firm texture.
How to store your lemon meringue pie
First things first, do not refrigerate your lemon meringue WITH the meringue on top of it. Ideally, when you pipe the meringue on, it should eaten straight away. If you plan to store it, place it in the fridge, without the meringue. Cover it with some cling film, and it should keep for 5 days. When you are ready to eat the pie, let it come to room temp. and then add the whipped meringue.
Easy Bake Lemon Meringue Pie
Course: DessertCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Medium8-10
servings15
minutes35
minutesThis is the perfect lemon meringue pie you will ever have! The curd is soft and has just enough zest to it and the toasted meringue adds a gorgeous level of lush to whole dish! This is definitely one of my favourite bakes and I hope you love it as much as I do!
Ingredients
- Short Crust Pastry
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup icing sugar
10-12 tbsp. butter, cubed
1/4 cup of cold water
- Lemon Curd
7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
3/4 cup sugar
4 lemons juiced
1 tbsp. lemon zest
4 tbsp. butter
1 tbsp. heavy cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
- Meringue
4 egg whites
1 1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
Directions
- Pastry
- Preheat your oven to 175C/350F
- In a food processor combine the flour and icing sugar and blend till combined.
- Add in the cubed butter in three stages, once you reach a sandy texture, pour in the water (1/2 of the water at a time).
- Allow to blend so the dough comes together. Chill the dough for 20 minutes
- Roll the dough out on a floured surface, place into your 21-23cm pie tin, press the edges in and then fork the base to create some holes.
- Add your pie weights to the tart with a layer of parchment paper underneath. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the pie weights and paper and bake again for 7 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool while you make the curd.
- Lemon Curd
- Add your egg yolks, eggs and sugar to a medium saucepan and set it to a medium heat, whisk continuously until eh sugar appears to be dissolving, about 1 minute.
- Then add in the lemon juice, lemon zest, butter and vanilla and keep whisking on a medium heat. The curd will start to thick up, don’t increase the heat too much. It should take roughly 6-8 minutes.
- Once the curd has thickened, put it through a mess strainer to remove any lemon zest and lumps.
- Pour into the prepared pie crust, level it out and bake for 8-10 minutes. The centre will jiggle slightly but this is what we want.
- When the pie has cooled down, place it int he fridge for 4 hours to set completely.
- Meringue
- Place the egg whites into a clean mixing bowl and whisk until you reach soft peaks.
- Add sugar, water and cream fo tartar to a small pot, and place it to a medium heat.
- once it reaches “soft ball stage”, remove from the heat and pour it into the mixing bowl, while it is still on but set to a low speed. Drizzle the sugar into the bowl in a steady stream, and watch the volume of the meringue increase. Do not over whip the meringue either. It should just about rich stiff peaks.
- Spoon it on to your meringue, toast it with a blow torch if you have one and enjoy!
