When Life Gives You Lemons...

Make Lemon Meringue Pie

Our little lemon tree produced the prettiest lemons this year. I'm not going to let any go to waste. Today I made a lemon meringue pie. I haven't made one in years. I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Tomorrow my friend Jen is coming over and we're going to make two more, and anything else we can think of...maybe lemon squares.

Lemon Meringue Pie

For the pie shell:

1 recipe pie dough for a single crust 9 in. pie (I use Pillsbury's as I am pie dough challenged)

Fit dough into a 9 inch pie plate. Trim edge of dough leaving a 1/2 inch overhang and crimp edge. Prick shell in several places with a fork, cover and chill for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Line shell with parchment paper and fill with pie weights. Bake in middle of the oven 10 minutes. Remove paper and weights carefully and continue to bake shell until golden, about 12 more minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Lower oven temperature to 350 degrees.

Filling:

1 cup sugar

6 Tbsp. cornstarch

1/4 tsp. salt

1 cup water 1/2 cup whole milk

4 large eggs yolks

1 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. fresh lemon zest

In a heavy saucepan combine sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually whisk in water and milk. Continue whisking until cornstarch is dissolved. Cook over moderate heat until mixture comes to a boil. In a bowl whisk eggs yolks. Add approximately 1/4 cup of the hot milk mixture to temper the yolk. While whisking add approximately another 1/4 cup of hot milk mixture to egg mixture. Now whisk the egg mixture back into milk mixture. Simmer mixture whisking for 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and whisk in butter, lemon juice, and zest until butter is melted. cover surface of filling with plastic wrap.

For the meringue:

4 large egg whites

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of salt

Using an electric or stand mixer, in a clean bowl beat egg whites with cream of tartar and salt until soft peaks form. Beat in sugar in a slow stream, beating until meringue just holds stiff peaks. Pour filling into pie shell and spread meringue on top, covering filling completely, sealing it to the edges. Form meringue into peaks with spatula and bake pie in middle of oven until meringue is golden, about 15 minutes.