Lemon Meringue Pie

After I had sworn to myself that I won't set foot in the kitchen today, I received an e-mail from the class moms, a reminder to bring food for tomorrow morning's end of Junior schoolyear party in my daughter's classroom. So, with a heavy heart (because of the heat), I had to turn the oven on :)) and make some lemon meringue pie. Now, this is the first and the last time I'm ever going to use store-bought crust pie; I wanted a shortcut and it fell short, meaning that the crust cracked in several places and was not rolled out uniformly. No problem, lesson learned!!

 

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup cornstarch
• 4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell 

 Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine cornstarch, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine.

Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 1 minute. 

Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. 

Meringue Topping:

• 4 egg whites
• 1 pinch cream of tartar
• 2 tablespoons sugar

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes.

Use to top lemon filling. Yield: topping for 1 (9-inch) pie 

Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. 

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Be careful, don't do like I did and leave it in the oven until you put the laundry in the dryer :)), it may get a bit tanned! 

Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure the pie is cooled completely before slicing. 

I didn't slice it yet, I'll get feedback tomorrow morning... Enjoy!