Lemon Meringue Pie

I’m not done showing you pics from our trip to the Sandhills, I promise, but I made a pie and I just had to share. I bought a couple lemons and they were begging me to made a lemon meringue pie.  My motto is-

“If life hands you lemons, make a pie!”

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INGREDIENTS:

Pie Crust:

• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup plus 1 tbsp shortening
• 5 tbsp cold water

Lemon Filling:

• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 3 egg yolks
• 3 tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tbsp grated lemon peel

Meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 tsp cream of tartar
• 6 tbsp sugar

Yield:  One 9 inch pie

First, we’ll make the crust.  Preheat oven to 475 degrees. Put the shortening in a medium mixing bowl

and then add the flour

and salt.

Blend together with a fork,

and then add the water 1 tablespoon at a time

and stir with a fork until water is absorbed and dough clumps together.

Form into a ball and then flatten it out with your hands, coat with flour, and place on a sheet of wax paper.

Cover with another sheet and roll out with a rolling pin until crust is 2 inches larger than your inverted pie plate. Carefully remove top layer of wax paper.

Pick up bottom sheet of wax paper with crust still attached and invert over onto your pie pan. Carefully peel off wax paper and ease crust down into pan.

Press lightly on crust to attach it to pan, then roll and crimp crust edge with a fork

and prick holes in the bottom and sides.

Bake in preheated oven for 8 – 10 minutes or until light brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

While crust is baking we can start on the lemon filling. Grate and juice 2 lemons and set aside.

Separate the whites from the yolks into 2 separate medium mixing bowls and set aside.

In a large saucepan add the sugar

and cornstarch (hopefully it will decide to come out of the measuring cup)

and then stir in the water.

Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly. When it starts to boil, reduce heat and boil for 1 minute stirring constantly.  Mixture will be thickened.

Remove from heat. Add about 1/2 of the mixture to the egg yolks stirring the yolks vigorously as you add the hot mixture by spoonfuls. (Harland took this pic for me as I ran out of hands.)

Stir both mixtures together back into the pot. Return to heat and bring to a boil over medium heat again stirring constantly. When it begins to boil reduce heat and boil for 1 minute stirring constantly. Think about the calories your burning. Remove from heat. Stir in butter,

lemon juice,

and peel.

Continue to stir until butter is melted. Put a lid on the pot and set aside. Let you arm rest from all that stirring.

Time to make the meringue. Don’t poop out now, we’re almost done with this pie making marathon. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add cream of tartar to egg whites.

Using a hand mixer on high speed, whip the egg whites until just frothy. Add sugar gradually

and continue to whip egg whites until they form stiff glossy peaks.

Ok, finally, it’s time to assemble this pie and get it in the oven. Pour lemon filling into crust and smooth out.

Then spoon the meringue evenly over the filling. Smooth it out over the filling and against the edge of the crust to seal it there. This will prevent it from shrinking and weeping after it’s baked.

Make some decorative peaks using your spoon and then place pie in preheated oven and bake 8 – 10 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from oven and allow to cool away from drafts.

Refrigerate and serve cool.

To make clean pretty slices of pie, use a knife dipped in water between each cut.

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