When life (or Target) hands you lemons, make lemon meringue pie! This recipe is one of my all-time favorites. Growing up, my mom would make this pie around the holidays. I’m sure she probably made it at other points during the year, but I can only remember this being made around Christmas and New Year’s. My mama got this recipe from her mama, who I think got it from the recipe on the inside of a condensed milk can… Regardless, I consider this a classic family recipe 😊
Though my mother was not one to send care packages, one of my fondest memories from college was her sending me back to school from winter break with TWO lemon meringue pies. And those delicious pies were worth more than a million care packages. I kept them in the freezer in my dorm room and ate off of them for a couple of weeks. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t share with my roommates. Again, portion control has never been a strength of mine.
This pie only requires a few ingredients, and it’s relatively straight forward to make. The trickiest part of this recipe is making the meringue. The first time I made this pie without my mom’s help, I was in high school. I honestly thought that the meringue would be the end of me, and I probably went through a dozen eggs (sorry Mom and Dad!). Meringue is just so finicky! One drop of egg yolk in the egg whites? BAM! Meringue ruined. Add the sugar in too quickly? BAM! Meringue ruined. Try to whip by hand (I don’t even know WHY I attempted this)? BAM! My arm hurt and, you guessed it, meringue ruined. The good news is that I’ve made all of the mistakes so you don’t have too!
About the recipe
If you google “lemon meringue pie” you’ll get a lot of different recipes. One of the more popular methods uses a lemon curd-like filling. In my opinion, using lemon curd as a filling makes the texture too thin. When you bite into my lemon meringue pie, you taste the richness of the condensed milk along with the signature tangy lemon flavor coming from both the juice and the rind. Give my recipe a try, and I promise you won’t go back!
As I mentioned, this pie is pretty straight forward. I grew up using a premade Keebler graham cracker crust, but you should feel free to make your own. You can use a traditional 9-inch crust of Keebler’s 10-inch version, which comes with two extra servings. If using the 10-inch crust, your layer of lemon filling will be a tad shorter than it would be in the 9in crust… because math, but it’s certainly nothing to worry about. Once you cover the filling with clouds of meringue, no one will notice or care! Speaking of the crust, I like to brush it with a tablespoon of butter and blind bake (bake it without filling) it for a few minutes to ensure that it won’t become soggy and can support the dense filling. It’ll also fill your kitchen with a lovely smell reminiscent of s’mores cooking over a campfire.
The filling comes together quickly enough, and as I mentioned above, the meringue can be tricky, but it doesn’t have to be. Just remember these four things:
- Make sure your eggs are at room temperature and properly separated (even the tiniest bit of yolk in your egg whites will cause the meringue not to form)
- Make sure your bowl is clean. If there is a bit of water or oil in your bowl, the meringue will not come together.
- Slowly add the sugar into the egg whites while your mixer is on. Dumping the sugar in all at once will ruin your meringue. Don’t ask me why, just trust me when I say I’ve destroyed my fair share of meringues that way.
- If you have a stand mixer, use it. Though I’ve made a successful meringue using a hand mixer, my Kitchen Aid turned this somewhat frightening process into a dream come true. I whipped the egg whites on high and watched my beautiful meringue form before my very eyes! It’s totally worth it!
Another thing to keep in mind is the baking time. I baked this pie at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. Some recipes say that you should bake the filling then add the meringue. I find that it’s easier to cook everything at the same time. The temperature is low enough to where the meringue will not burn, and after 45 minutes, it developed a beautiful brown crust. Additionally, you want to avoid under-baking your pie or it will become a runny mess!
The Final Product
This recipe passed the Rakim and Damaine taste test with flying colors. As they cut their slices, I painstakingly explained the process of making the pie, going into detail about my storied history with making meringue. After I finished my rant, Rakim looked at Damaine and said, “Man, this is whipped cream” and proceeded to scrape it off. All I could do was shake my head. So I guess the moral of the story is that you can make this pie sans meringue and at least two people in this world will like it (I do not recommend that lol).
Let me know what you think! If you’re a lemon curd fan, tell me how this recipe compares!
Happy Baking!
Alysha
Creamy Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 1 Keebler Ready Crust 10 Inch Graham Pie Crust
- 1 tbsp Butter, melted
- 1 14oz can Condensed milk
- ½ cup Lemon juice
- 1 tsp Lemon rind
- 3 Eggs, separated
- ¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
- â…“ cup Granulated sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees
- Brush pre-made graham cracker crust with melted butter and bake for 7-10 minutes to set the crust
- In a bowl, combine condensed milk, lemon juice, lemon rind, and egg yolks. Mix until smooth
- Pour lemon filling into the baked pie crust and set aside
- In a stand mixer, combine egg whites and cream of tartar and mix on high for 1 minute
- Continue mixing and gradually pour in the granulated sugar. Continue mixing until the egg whites form stiff peaks. This should take 3-4 minutes
- Scoop egg whites on top of the filled pie and smooth using a butter knife. Use the knife to make decorative peaks on the pie
- Bake pie for 45 minutes. During this time, the stiff peaks will start to brown.
- Remove pie from oven and let cool to room temperature, then move to fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, ideally overnight
Does this come with walnuts?!? Just kidding, this looks awesomely tasty!!
Hi Fry King!! Thanks for reading and commenting! I promise you will get a recipe featuring walnuts soon!
This is my favorite post so far, it seems easy and taste delicious! Your mom sounds awesome!!!!
Hi Jazzy J! Thank you so much for reading! This is one of my all time favorite desserts! And yeah my mom is pretty awesome 🙂