How to Make Lemon Meringue Pie I Taste of Home Test Kitchen

- Hello, I'm Shannon. - And I'm Sara. - We are from the Taste of Home

test

kitchen

. And today we'll show you how to

make

this classic

lemon

meringue

pie. (upbeat music) - So first of all, we're going to start with our pie crust, which is really simple. It will just be a little flour and a little salt. We'll just combine that here. (upbeat music) Then we'll add our abbreviation. And we'll just cut it into a pea-sized shape. - This is a very simple crust. It is not necessary to cool it ahead of time. You don't want to overwork it, just mix it until it forms a ball.

You can roll it out right away and you don't even have to blind bake it, you can just pop it in the oven as is. I get too impatient with this step and end up just rubbing the butter in with my hands. - Well. So now I have the butter cut to the size I want. So little by little I'm going to add the water. You just need to add enough water until it forms a ball. - The brand of flour you use, the humidity of the air, there are many things that can change the amount of water you need.

The shortening in this recipe will create a very tender and flaky crust, which can

make

it a little difficult to roll out and fit into the pie pan. So if it breaks or cracks, don't be discouraged. You can simply press it again with your fingertip. - Okay, at this point I think we are ready to start rolling out the dough. The dough for the cake base turned out quite well and sticks, so I think we can roll it out on this parchment paper. - That's why we like to use parchment for this recipe because it is a very delicate and flaky dough.

It will help you transfer it to the cake pan later. (upbeat music) - Okay, I'll try to shape it more like a record before I start throwing it. And then we'll put another piece of parchment on top to make it easier to spread. (upbeat music) - We have this fantastic roller that has guides. This will ensure that we roll out the dough to a uniform thickness. The guides we have on the roller are set at one-eighth of an inch thick. That's about the thickness you want for the pie crust so that it is large enough to fill the pie pan. (upbeat music) That's why I like to use parchment.

In fact, it allows me to simply move the crust onto the plate. - If it sticks a little or breaks, you can work it back into the pan. It's not a big deal at all. - So I pressed it down and up the sides and here where it broke a little bit, I'm just going to use my fingertips to put it back together. - With some of the leftover pieces falling off here, you can rework them in places on the crust where a little more dough is needed, so that all the waves are symmetrical. - Because this is such a delicate crust, we're going to do a very, very simple border.

We're not going to dry out to do any elaborate fluting or anything like that, we're just going to take a fork to the edge like grandma used to do. Well. That looks pretty good. So now I'm just going to use a fork. And you just use the teeth, and I'll make a kind of chevron pattern. And you just go around the edge, from one side to the other. - Another option instead of the fork could be a spoon or even a teaspoon. Just the simple design will suffice. As long as you press the crust into the pie pan so it doesn't shrink while baking. - Now we're going to take this and put it in a 425 degree oven until it's lightly browned.

You don't want to bake it completely, because it will bake again with the

meringue

later. While our crust is baking, next we will make our filling. So I'll start with a little sugar, cornstarch, a little flour and a little salt. Give it a mix. And then we'll slowly add a little bit of water. I like to wash the water off a little at a time before it starts to cook. Just to make sure there are no lumps. Okay, we have our base ingredients mixed together. I'm going to put this on medium high heat. And bring this to a boil so that the starch begins to thicken. - While she works with the filling, I will simply grate and squeeze some

lemon

juice.

It is very important to use fresh juice and not bottled or concentrated juice alone because it will really enhance the flavor of this lemon meringue pie. And then it requires about a teaspoon and three-quarters to a teaspoon and a half of zest. But I think it's best to use just a whole lemon, without wasting it. - Because we want that fresh, bright flavor, so we'll add the juice and zest at the end, because we don't want to cook it and make it bitter. (upbeat music) So now I'm going to take it off the heat and let's temper our eggs.

So I have three yolks here. I'm going to break them up a little bit with my whisk. And then I'll add a little bit of the hot mixture at a time, and just adding a little bit at a time so it helps prevent it from stirring. So you're getting the eggs used to the heat before you add them to the pan and cook them, because it helps insulate them and prevent them from scrambling. I can feel the heat at the bottom of the container, so I think I've warmed myself up enough. Now we can add the eggs to our pot. (upbeat music) Now I'm going to put it back on the heat and just bring it to medium heat, it has to boil a little softer than when we did the initial boil for the starch. - Good.

I'm going to strain my juice right now. The recipe calls for about a third cup of lemon juice. So I'll just use my hands, but you can use a strainer. I also managed to let some seeds through. - Yes, we'll catch them with the spoon. As you can see, there are some soft bubbles forming here, and I'm going to let it go for another minute to make sure it's cooked through. So I'll take it off the heat. - I can go ahead and add the enthusiasm. - Thank you. As soon as this zest hits the hot filling, the whole house will smell like lemon.

It's really amazing. And I have some butter to give it a little richness. Let it melt. And if you want, add the lemon juice. - Sure. - We're going to mix this until it's combined and then I'm going to put a lid on it so it stays warm while we make the meringue. - And maybe you'd also like to add a little food coloring to add... - Yeah, I forgot to do that. This is not part of the recipe, but I like my desserts to have a lemony appearance. So just a couple drops of yellow food coloring.

That just brightens it up and makes it look more citrusy. Putting the lid on keeps it warm until the meringue is ready, because when you spread the meringue on the cake, you want to make sure everything is hot. For the meringue, we'll start by making our cornstarch mixture, which starts with two tablespoons of sugar, and then our cornstarch. And I'm just going to mix that up. And then I'll slowly add my water. Again, no lumps. We're just going to cook this over medium heat until it becomes lighter. - You must cook it until the starch becomes translucent, that way you will know that it has reached its maximum thickening power. - As you can see, it is already thickening.

So it happens pretty quickly. It won't be completely clear, it will stay a little cloudy, but this is basically what you're looking for here. Alright, now I'm going to transfer this to the mixing bowl. (upbeat music) - To the corn mixture we are going to add a little vanilla and four egg whites that have been at room temperature for at least half an hour. You don't get maximum volume from egg whites unless they have actually reached room temperature. Now we're going to beat this until it's foamy and then add the rest of the sugar. Here we go.

Here you can see we have a lot of foam, the whites have lightened, so now we're going to add the sugar while mixing one tablespoon at a time to make sure it dissolves. (upbeat music) - And you added the sugar very slowly to help it incorporate better and not be so heavy. So that it doesn't collapse. - Good. You want to make sure everything has dissolved, so I'm scraping it off the sides here. You don't want to end up with a heavy or wet spot on the meringue. You want everything to be nice and fluffy. (soft music) That sounds promising. - Mmmm. - Here we go. - Perfect. (soft music) - We have all our pieces ready, now it's time to put our cake together.

So here is our baked and cooled crust. To that I'm going to add our still warm filling. - She'll just spread the filling on the sides of the base and then I'll go ahead and add the meringue right away. Since the filling is still hot, it will help the meringue start cooking right away. I'm going to start with a small amount and make sure to seal the meringue to the sides of the crust. That way it won't shrink during the baking process. I'm also trying not to press too hard so the meringue doesn't deflate. - Fluffy marshmallow clouds. - Yes.

There is a lot of volume in this meringue. - So where we baked our crust at a higher temperature of 425, we will now bake the pie at a lower temperature of 350, just to cook and brown the meringue. If you make it at too high a temperature, the meringue will burn, but the inside will not be fully cooked. (upbeat music) - Alright, here's our finished cake. We bake it for about 25 minutes, and we bake on the lowest rack. That way it browned evenly and then the crust baked evenly as well. - Once it came out, we let it rest on a rack for about an hour and then refrigerated it for at least three hours.

You want the filling to be nice and cold before you cut it so it can set and not be too hot yet. - No pressure. (Shannon laughs) (upbeat music) - Look at that. Woohoo. - Here we go. - Health. - Health. (upbeat music) - Crispy crust, firm filling, meringue that isn't weepy or wet. - Super good. - Bye guys, I have to go eat this. (soft music)