"One you can't make or eat - Lemon Meringue Pie"
Hrm... great.
The birthday boy gets what he wants since he rarely asks for something specifically. Good thing B isn't allergic and did the lemon part, Actually she did quite a bit of the pie. The giant winning part of the pie in our house was the meringue. BOTH kids could not get enough of eating the unbaked fluff. The lemon part came together wonderfully - we didn't scramble the eggs - which we were VERY proud of - and it looked lemony yellow and wonderful. B piped the meringue on top and we baked it into a beautiful pie. The pie came out of the oven SO tall. Eventually it settled and wept a little but I found out that's normal. The birthday boy loved his pie and has been enjoying it. The kids tried it. The meringue changed texture from the amazing fluff... so that was unexpected... it was a bit tart for N. I'm glad we were able to tackle this for Andy, Happy 45!
Classic Lemon Meringue Pie
Preformed Pie Crust
5 large egg yolks (use the whites in the meringue below)
1 and 1/3 cups water
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1 Tablespoon lemon zest
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Meringue
5 large egg whites, at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and adjust your oven rack to the lowest position. Partially blind bake pie crust in a 9-inch pie dish. (Follow blind baking instructions on package). Tip: You can get started on the lemon meringue pie filling steps while your crust is blind baking. But making the filling is time sensitive because you will temper the egg yolks, so if multi-tasking isn’t your thing, just wait until your crust is done blind baking before beginning the filling.
Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
Make the filling: Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk the water, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The mixture will be thin and cloudy, then eventually begin thickening and bubbling after about 6 minutes. Once thickened, give it a whisk and reduce heat to low.
Temper the egg yolks: Very slowly stream a few large spoonfuls of warm lemon mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Then, also in a very slow stream, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Turn heat back up to medium. Cook until the mixture is thick and big bubbles begin bursting at the surface. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the butter. Spread filling into the warm partially baked crust. Set aside as you prepare the meringue. (Don’t let the filling cool down too much as you want a warm filling when you top with the meringue in step 7. The warm filling helps seal the two layers together, preventing separation.)
Make the meringue: With a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 1 minute, then increase to high speed until soft peaks form, about 4 more minutes. Add the sugar and salt, then continue beating on high speed until glossy stiff peaks form, about 2 more minutes. Spread meringue on top of filling. (I like to make decorative peaks with the back of a large spoon.) Make sure you spread the meringue all the way to the edges so that it touches the crust. This helps prevent the meringue from weeping.
Bake pie on the lowest oven rack for 20-25 minutes. (If the meringue is browning too quickly, tent a piece of foil over it as best you can without the foil touching the meringue.) When pie is done, remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool at room temperature for 1 hour before placing in the refrigerator to chill. Chill for 4 hours before slicing and serving.
Cover any leftovers and store in the refrigerator. Lemon meringue pie tastes best on day 1 because it doesn’t keep very well. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, the meringue will wilt and separate over time. Best to enjoy right away.
No comments:
Post a Comment