Ingredients
- 1-1/4 C Sugar
- 1/2 C Flour
- 1/2 t Salt
- 1-1/2 C Water
- 3 Eggs, separated
- Zest from 1 medium lemon
- Juice from 1-1/2 medium lemons
- 1 T Butter
- 1 Baked, cooled 9" pie crust
Directions
Preheat oven to 375F.
Combine the sugar, flour, salt and water in a heavy saucepan. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Boil, stirring constantly and vigorously, for 1 minute. (A long-handled spoon to stir with really helps here to get you back from the heat.) Remove from heat.
Slightly beat the egg yolks in a bowl with a fork. Mix half the boiled mixture with the egg yolks. Then put the egg yolk mixture back into the pan with the boiled ingredients, and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly and, again, vigorously. Remove from heat, and add the butter.
Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir to mix thoroughly.
Pour into cooled, baked 9-inch pie crust and top with meringue (recipes follow), sealing meringue to edge of pastry. Bake in a 375F oven 10 to 12 minutes or until nicely browned.
Meringue
3 Egg whites (from extra large or jumbo eggs), at room temperature
5 T Sugar
1/2 t Vanilla
1/4 t Cream of tartar
Beat the egg whites on high speed of an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add the cream of tartar, then gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in the vanilla.
Pile atop pie, and bake at 350F for 10 to 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.
Generally speaking, the proportion of sugar to egg whites is not quite 2 to 1 (e.g., for a 4-egg meringue, use about 6 tablespoons of sugar; vanilla and cream of tartar can remain the same).
Be sure to seal the meringue to the pastry edge when spreading it on your pie. Also, remember that meringue pies cut better with a wet knife blade.
Standard Pie Pastry
For a single-crust pie:
1-1/4 C Flour
1/2 t Salt
2-1/2 T Ice water
1/2 C Crisco or other good shortening
For a double-crust pie, simply double the above ingredients.
Preheat oven to 425F.
Place the Crisco in a bowl. Over it, pour 1 cup of the flour (reserving 1/4 cup flour) and the salt. With your pastry blender (some old timers use a fork), cut the flour and salt into the Crisco until mixed.
Mix the 1/4 cup of reserved flour with the 2-1/2 tablespoons (estimate, or, if you must be exact, a half tablespoon equals 1-1/2 teaspoons) in a small cup to make a smooth paste. Pour the paste over the pastry mixture and continue cutting in with the pastry blender until incorporated. Remember, the less you work the dough, the lighter and flakier the pastry.
Form pastry into a ball, flatten and roll between sheets of waxed paper (you may see little veins of Crisco here and there, but that's okay) to a thickness of about 1/8 inch and 1 inch wider than pie pan. Peel off top piece of waxed paper (tear off in pieces, if you like), invert pie pan on dough surface, turn over, center dough on pie pan, and peel off second sheet of waxed paper. (If any little tears in the dough result, just pinch it back together.) Trim dough to a 1-inch overhang, then turn under to make an edge. You can put a fancy crimp in the edge, if you wish.
For a pre-baked pie shell, prick bottom and side of pastry with a fork to avoid bubbles (those pie pans with the holes in them are good for this purpose), and bake in a 425F oven for 10 to 12 minutes until the crust is nicely browned.
Notes: Many Lemon Meringue Pies call for corn starch, rather than flour, as a thickener. While admitting that corn starch may be a fine thickening agent, I prefer to use flour because it results in a better texture -- creamy rather than slick.
Print this recipe
Submitted 6/13/05.
Source: http://www.texascooking.com/
Submitted By: Teresa Johnson
techgoddess@worldnet.att.net
Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie