Brielle's Avalon

I’ve loved lemon pie forever! And lemon drops and lemon cookies and lemon chicken and lemonade and lemons (my sister and I used to quarter them and eat them straight!) and…well, anything lemon. Even whiskey sours…mmm, bourbon and lemon!

But this post is about lemon meringue pie. Because I (finally!) made lemon curd today (I’ve been threatening to for years) and my tree gave me enough lemons and I MADE the time (I really should be whacking weeds, painting the house, fixing stuff or a dozen other things but I’m sore from doing lots of that yesterday so today is an inside day cooking in the kitchen.

Pre-bake a pie crust per instructions unless you use a graham cracker crust, then just have the crust ready. Yes, you can use store-bought. That’s what pantries and freezers are for, having something ready when you need it, whether you make it ahead or buy it.

So, make a batch of lemon curd. I posted this earlier today so it should be easy to find in my archive. This is a picture of the point at which you add the butter and whip it in.

Pour it into the pie crust you baked or made earlier. If it’s a graham cracker crust it doesn’t necessarily need cooking. Regular pie crusts are more traditional, though.

Whip up the egg whites left over from making the lemon curd. As you start to get bubbles in the eggs as you whip, add vanilla, 1 tsp cream of tartar and 1/2c to 1 cup of sugar, depending on how sweet you want it. Whip them to stiff peaks. These are soft peaks, but almost there. I’ll live with the consequences of not the perkiest peaks.

With an offset spatula, butter knife or spoon (I used a spoon), spread a good layer of meringue onto the pie, sealing the edges well to avoid weeping. Then add more to the top and make swirls and peaks or any designs you fancy. Put it under the broiler for a few minutes until it’s nicely golden. DON’T leave and pay attention to something else or your pie will get too dark or worse. In about 5 minutes or less it’ll be ready to take out and cool again.

Some people do as Julia Child did when, in her groundbreaking TV show, shocked the American public by lighting up a hand torch and browning the meringue with that. If you have one and are brave enough, go for it! Those things scare the dickens outta me so I’ll stick to my broiler.

Serve as dessert with the beverage of your choice (a tall glass of ice water is wonderful). I should have let it firm up in the fridge a little longer and the 1st piece is often the worst looking one. Oh well, it tastes wonderful! Also, next time I’ll use a regular pie crust instead of a deep dish crust.

If you want to make a bunch of smaller lemon tarts, you can do that, too.

If you have extra meringue, cover a cookie sheet with waxed paper and spoon little bite-sized drops of meringue onto it and make them at 250 for 10 minute, then turn off the oven and let them dry out in the warm oven. If they get a bit brown it’s OK, they’re still good but the aim is to bake them and dry them slowly without browning because they look better white. My Mom was very good at this. Me, not so much. I have, however, found that the new mini chocolate chips are good in these as are broken-up hard candies, especially mints. You can also add food colouring to the meringue to go with whatever flavour candy you crunch up for them.