Lemon Meringue Pie

If you're a bit intimidated by whipping up a pie, then this lemon meringue pie is where you should start. You'll know that every component is ready to go before assembling, leaving you with no surprises after baking. Like most lovers of this classic pie, my favorite part of making lemon meringue pie decorating it with the meringue. There’s something extremely satisfying about dolloping it on top of the pie and shaping it into swoops and peaks with the back of a metal spoon. If you're looking for a show-stopping summer dessert, you can't get much more impressive than this.

My least favorite part of making this dessert? Waiting for the pie to set before digging in. It takes a few hours for that luscious lemon filling to cool and firm up in the refrigerator, but it’s totally worth the wait, especially if you want that picture perfect slice. Looking for all of my top tips on how to make this classic pie? Keep reading down below.

How To Make Lemon Meringue Pie

INGREDIENTS

• Pie Crust: For this pie, I’m using Delish’s classic pie crust. You can use any pie crust recipe that’s your favorite, or frozen if you really need to skip a step.
• The Filling: This filling is thickened by dissolving cornstarch and all-purpose flour with sugar in water and cooking it over high heat until it boils. Boiling activates the starch so it thickens the mixture, and can hold up in our pie. While the lemon juice and zest are obviously the star ingredients, unsalted butter is one of the best parts of the lemon curd—it makes it velvety, silky, and shiny.
• The Meringue: This meringue is a French meringue, which is a fancy label for a meringue made without heat, by whisking cream of tartar and sugar into raw egg whites a little at a time until the egg whites are fluffy and shiny.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

Let's start by preparing our pie crust. Flour your work surface, add a little bit on top of your dough, then get to rolling. I always recommend rolling away from you, rotating your circle around. If your dough starts to feel to cold or starts cracking along the edges (a tell-tale sign), give it a couple minutes. Put the pie plate on top of your rolled out crust to measure, and once it's good to go, roll up the crust on top of your rolling pin—this way you won't stretch or tear your pie crust while transferring. Very gently, let it fall down the sides of your pie plate.

Before crimping, trim the edges with scissors or a pairing knife, then fold under the excess so that it's flush with the edge of your pie plate. I prefer a classic crimp, pinching with my fingers all the way around. Let it rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, then dock your pie crust (lightly poking your crust) before filling with pie weights (anything that is heavy) and baking until nice and golden. Once the edges are golden, remove the pie weights and bake again so that the bottom can cook through. This should only take around 10 minutes more.

To start on the meringue, begin separating your eggs by passing the yolk between the shell to let the egg whites fall out until separated. If you're having finicky egg whites, you can use the edge of your shell to help cut the white if it doesn’t want to fall out.

Add the egg whites to a bowl with a stand mixer (or, you can use a hand mixer) along with the cream of tartar, and start mixing until it beings to get frothy, foamy, and takes a shape. Then, add sugar in very slowly, a bit at a time, shaking in your sugar so that your meringue turns out nice and smooth instead of grainy. Continue to beat until you get stiff peaks. Translation: When you hold up your whisk, your peak should not fall over and should stand tall.

Now, it's time to make the star of the show: the lemon curd. Add sugar, cornstarch, flour, and salt to a saucepan, then slowly whisk in water to make sure it’s nice and smooth and not lumpy. Let it boil for around a minute, then temper the egg yolks in a separate bowl by adding a bit of the sugar mixture while whisking very slowly. Then, add the egg mixture into the sugar mixture. Take it off the heat, then add in the zest and juice of the lemons, then the butter (arguably the best part of any lemon curd).

Now can assemble: First, add in all the lemon curd to your baked pie crust. It’s important that your curd is still warm when you add your meringue on top, as the heat will seal them together.

Then, top with the meringue, making as many gorgeous swirls and peaks that you want. Spread the meringue all the way to the crust edges, then pop into the oven to toast the meringue. Once it's beautiful and toasted, it's time for the most difficult part of this recipe: Giving your pie time to cool and set in the fridge. It needs at least 3 hours and up to overnight to adequately chill—I know, it's difficult, but well worth it for the perfect slice.

The full list of instructions and ingredients can be found in the recipe below.

Recipe Tips

• How to prevent a soggy crust. With a pie crust that’s blind baked—cooked all the way through before the filling is added—the best way to avoid a soggy crust is to make sure that your crust is 100% baked and then completely cooled before you pour in the filling. If it’s undercooked or still warm, it will want to absorb any wetness that it touches, and that will lead straight to a soggy bottom!

Storage

If you have any leftovers, store them in an airtight container (that won't crush your meringue!) for around 2 days, or freeze (ideally without the meringue), wrapped tightly, for 2-3 months.