A sharp lemon filling, sweet-and-salty meringue, and shatteringly crisp crust combine to make a balanced update to this classic.
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Recipe information
Yield
8 servings
Ingredients
Filling:
Assembly:
Preparation
Filling:
Step 1
Whisk sugar and cornstarch in a large saucepan to combine. Add eggs and egg yolks and whisk vigorously, making sure to get into corners of pan, until smooth and pale. Whisk in lemon zest and juice, salt, and 1½ cups water.
Step 2
Place saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer, whisking often and making sure to get into corners of pan, 8–10 minutes (mixture should be bubbling and thickened). Reduce heat and continue to simmer, whisking constantly, 3 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes, whisking every minute.
Step 3
Add butter to filling and whisk until melted and fully incorporated. Scrape filling into pie crust; smooth surface. Chill until cold and set, at least 2 hours and up to 3 days.
Assembly:
Step 4
Combine egg whites, sugar, salt, and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer or another large heatproof bowl; set over a large saucepan filled with 1" simmering water (bowl shouldn’t touch the water). Heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved and mixture is warm to the touch, about 4 minutes.
Step 5
Fit bowl onto mixer fitted with whisk attachment (or use an electric mixer) and beat on medium-high speed until meringue is more than tripled in volume and medium peaks form, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a piping bag fitted with a large round tip (or a resealable plastic bag will work—just snip off a corner after bag is filled). Pipe meringue over filling and toast with a kitchen torch or under the broiler.
Step 6
Do Ahead: Pie (without meringue) can be made 2 days ahead. Keep chilled.
Leave a Review
Reviews (9)
Back to Topthis was yummy. I used a store-bought crust to save time, and made the curd 2 days ahead of time, so overall it was really easy. the meringue was pretty runny - I definitely had medium peaks, and the peaks stood nicely on the pie, but once we cut into it, it oozed a bit and didn't look pretty on each plate. but I preferred the taste to the big dense pillowy meringue you often see piled high on lemon meringue pie (but which I personally don't like the texture/flavor of).
Katie H
Louisville KY
3/25/2022
Gross. Too much salt all the way around.
superpartyfemme
Minnesota
11/25/2020
My first lemon meringue pie. I appreciated how the curd and the meringue techniques in this recipe require fewer steps (and less time) than the recipe my mother-in-law gave me, which was given to her by her mother-in-law. But I found the curd— with the zest of 4 lemons, compared to the zest of one lemon in my mother-in-law’s recipe— way too tart. And I am a lemon-lover! However, my husband and two of the three kids loved it. Next time I’ll halve the zest to two lemons. I made the blind baked crust and it was excellent, although step two— baking it once the parchment had been removed— took about twenty minutes at 325 to get it browned to the color of a paper bag.
clairenbode9920
Grand Rapids, Michigan
6/22/2020
Awesome! Made this for my Easter dinner in quarantine. It was something where I happened to have all the ingredients on hand. My whole family loved it! It was so tangy and delicious. The only change I made was that my lemons were not that juicy so I needed to add the juice of 2 limes to make up the difference but that seemed to work just fine. I also found that I needed to cook the egg yolk mixture much longer to reach a simmer but once that happened they thickened up nicely. I also made the accompanying blind baked pie crust recipe. It is different than the method I usually used but I must say it was one of the best all butter pie crusts I have made! The smooching each piece of butter between fingers got tedious after 4 peices so I used a pastry cutter and that did the trick. Cutting the dough into 4ths and layering is a brilliant idea which yeilded a flaky crust. Also, the crust recipe has you rolling the dough out right away instead of chilling first and I actually found this to be much easier.
aweber73
Sparks, MD
4/13/2020
Bang. This is as good as they say. Good instructions in recipe. Base so crunchy. I used the link in the recipe for the blind bake tart. Lemon filling so tart and excellent consistency. Took me all day to make 2 of these but so with it. I didn’t have any cream of tartar so next time I will follow the meringue recipe.
foodnpiste
Australia
2/3/2020
I made this in crème brûlée cups without crust for individual gluten free desserts. The lemon curd was not the best recipe I’ve made. It was oddly salty and not tangy, lemony enough. Everything turned out fine otherwise. I would dial down the salt in the curd, maybe by half. Motivated me to dig up my old Good Housekeeping cookbook lemon meringue recipe that never fails.
homechef6
Boston, MA
12/11/2019
Just made three of these lemon meringue pies over thanksgiving and they were a huge hit! I recommend finely chopping the lemon zest, but otherwise this is a great tart lemon curd, an excellent crust (I did the blind baked for one and a graham cracker for the other two two) and fluffy meringue. A total winner!
Anonymous
Boston
12/3/2019
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