It’s been quite some time since we had a lemon pie at our house, but my mom has a good recipe that she has been making for years. Homemade lemon meringue pie. Is there anything tastier? I happen to love lemon anything. In fact, growing up my sister and I used to cut up lemons, salt them, and eat them. I know….not good for your teeth, but we sure loved them. The dentist told us to stop it, so we did.
Last year, I picked up a Meyer Lemon Tree and brought it with me from Alabama. It’s been sitting outside all summer, growing and actually getting some blooms going and it surprised me when 5 lemons began forming. Those 5 lemons grew and grew and then they turned yellow and were ready to pick. So, we had to do something with them and a homemade lemon pie was just the thing. We have 2 lemons left and will be making a lemon tart that mom found in a magazine, so I’ll post that one too, when we get to it.
I love this little lemon tree and what fun it was to watch the lemons grow, green at first and then turning that beautiful shade of yellow.
Picked and waiting for pie.
Our old church cookbook, which has lots of good tried and true Southern dishes inside. Mom contributed quite a few to this cookbook.
We grated the zest to save for future recipes.
Adding lemon juice to start cooking.
Stirring to thicken.
We used a ready-made piecrust for this, easier than making the crust. Mom is into short-cuts these days and I’m all for that too. Pie crust is baked and ready.
Adding the lemon filling.
All filled and ready for meringue.
Made from scratch meringue. YUM!!
Add a dollop and keep going.
More dollops and it is full and ready to bake.
Then it comes out looking like this! Isn’t is a beauty?
It’s the purdiest pie I’ve ever seen.
The meringue got a little weepy, but that didn’t change the taste. It is fantabulous!! If you refrigerate the pie, it should set up a little better for cutting.
Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 cup + 2 tsp. cornstarch
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup + 1 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 cup cold water
5 egg yolks, well-beaten
2 T. butter
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 baked pastry shell
In saucepan, thoroughly combine sugar, cornstarch and salt; blend in lemon juice, then cold water and egg yolks until very smooth. Add butter and gradually stir in boiling water. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, boil 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in grated peel. Partially cool while preparing meringue.
Meringue
5 egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup + 2 T. sugar
Beat meringue with electric mixer until stiff peaks form. Dollop on top of pie. Bake at 350 until brown on top. Let cool and refrigerate to set pie even more for cutting.
I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but I’m an avid cook, so it looks like it will suit me fine. I have a fmaily recipe but it’s a little eggier then I like, so this one calles for 2 less eggs and more startch. should work out just great. I’ll check back in. Thanks for sharing your family recipe.
I just had to comment on your final picture of sliced pie 🙂 The droplets on the meringue just made me smile. I heard my mothers voice talking about “angle tears”. She always calls those little droplets angel tears and I think they must be. Your pie, closeness with your Mother and this recipe are all beautiful. Thank you for sharing with us.
I made this a while ago with my Meyer lemons and it was so easy. It was WONDERFUL. Getting to make it again for Christmas with some more lemons from my tree. Yum!
…meant to say “getting ready”
The flavor of your filling was wonderful, however, when I cooked it to your specs it didn’t firm up properly, and I ended up with runny but delicious filling. I’d recommend including a temperature at which the filling should be when it’s sufficiently cooked on the stovetop? Very yummy, though.
I found this recipe when I was looking up whether Meyer lemons would make a good lemon meringue pie, or since they’re sweeter than regular lemons, if they would through the recipe off.
I suppose it goes without saying, but surely you meant to include only lemon zest, just the yellow part, and not lemon peel, which includes the bitter, white part. Looks like a fine recipe, and since it has withstood the test of time, I’m sure it is. At the moment I have some Meyer lemons that are insanely juicy. I’m going to give your recipe a try—right now, in fact.
Thank you for sharing the recipe!
HI, Jeff, thanks for stopping by & yes, only the zest for lemon pie!
Finished my pies 45 minutes ago. The air is very dry here today (dew point 24°), which bodes well for the meringue. They looked and smelled so good, It was hard to wait before I sliced into them. I made two because I wanted to try a saltine cracker crust recipe I read about, but I like the more solid, storebought crust better. Both pies are delicious. Thank you again for sharing!
I just love when you share the Mom recipes, and this one is a keeper!
Been looking for a good recipe. My mom made this all the time and now that she’s elderly we don’t get it any more. Figured I’d try my hand at it and give her a big piece (its her favorite pie). I live in California and we have a big Meyer Lemon tree in the back yard that has hundreds of lemons on it this year. Got to do something with them! lol
Jeffrey, I hope you enjoy!