March Coffee and Pie Chat

Hey y’all! It’s time for our monthly coffee and pie chat. If you remember, Daenel over at Living Outside the Stacks, and I are hosting a monthly pie along where we provide a seasonal recipe, and some tips and tricks, and then we encourage you to make the pie and then come back next week, grab a cup of coffee, a piece of pie, and then we chat. Last month we made a Lemon Lime Chess Pie which was so simple but yet so delicious. You can see our February pie results results here and here. For March we decided to stick to the citrus theme since it is still in season. But this month we’re challenging ourselves a bit more and we are making a pie that has special memories for me.

This month we’re making lemon meringue pie, but not just any lemon meringue pie. We’re using, in part, my Mamaw’s recipe. I tweaked it some but underneath it all, it’s my Mamaw’s. Growing up in Southern Appalachia, lemon meringue pie was a staple. And my Mamaw was definitely a southern cook. She made everything from scratch and her lemon meringue pie was to-die-for! Unfortunately she passed away when I was 14 so I never really got the chance to learn much from her in the kitchen. But I remember watching my Mamaw in the kitchen cooking, baking, and making from scratch. So I knew when Daenel and I started the pie along, lemon meringue pie was at the top of my list. But getting my Mamaw’s recipe proved to be difficult. It seems that she never really wrote her recipes down (I get that! I don’t write mine down either). But I was able to get a recipe that she used as her base recipe and then I just tweaked it from there. I hope y’all are ready for a challenge and want to try something new! Without further ado, here’s the pie.

The Recipe:
The Crust:
1 half recipe pie crust (see my post here and here on crust)

You will need to blind bake the crust. After making your pie dough and lining your pie plate, use a fork and pierce the bottom of the crust several times, then line your crust with parchment paper and fill with dried beans or pie weights. Make sure you fill the crust to the top so your crust doesn’t pull away from the sides of the pie plate. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes, then remove from the oven.

Remove the dried beans or pie weights and parchment paper from the crust, let sit for about 10 minutes and then return the crust to the oven. Bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes, until the crust is golden.

Cool before filling.

For the Lemon Filling:
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 cups milk
2/3 cup flour
5 eggs separated
1/4 tsp salt
juice of 2 lemons
rind of 2 lemons, grated
3 tbsp butter

Prepare the Filling:
Combine sugar, milk, and flour in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it begins to boil, stirring constantly. Once it thickens slightly and comes to a boil, remove from heat; add salt, lemon juice, and grated rind. Stir together and then add back to heat. Cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat. Add butter. Stir until butter is melted and incorporated into the mixture. Then temper your eggs (slowly add about ¼ cup of lemon mixture to eggs, stirring eggs rapidly to keep from cooking the eggs). Once you’ve tempered the eggs, add the eggs back to the lemon mixture and put back to heat. Cook until thick, stirring constantly to prevent scorching, for an additional 5 minutes.  

For meringue:
5 egg whites, at room temperature
¼ tsp cream of tartar
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract

Pour room temperature eggs into a very clean bowl and whip with handheld beater or stand mixer until they are glossy and smooth—about 20 minutes.  Just before stiff peaks start to form, add cream of tartar and beat to incorporate. Cream of tartar will help the meringue hold its shape. Next, slowly add sugar and vanilla. Once all ingredients have been incorporated, beat mixture until stiff peaks form and the mixture is smooth and glossy.

Assemble the Pie:
Remove filling from heat, pour into baked pie shell, and top with meringue. Place 4 inches under heat and bake in a 375 degree F oven for 12-15 minutes, or until browned, watching pie all the time as it will brown very quickly. Keep moving pie around to ensure even browning.

Cool completely before serving.

Tips and Tricks:
1. separate egg yolks and whites when eggs are cold and then allow whites to come to room temperature before making meringue
2. do  not over whip egg whites. They should be smooth and glossy.
3. make sure your filling of your pie is hot before adding meringue to it. The heat will help bake the meringue and adhere it to the pie. The best way to do this is to start the meringue while making the lemon filling. I have a stand mixer so this is easier to do than if using a hand held mixer.
4. spread meringue on top of pie starting around the edges and finishing with the middle to ensure it doesn’t pull away from edges
5. I would increase the lemons used to 3 for a more tart pie. I used Meyer lemons which I love but you can use regular lemons.
6. my filling was just a tad too thick so decrease the final cook time on the filling to 2-3 minutes. It should look like the labeled pic above.
7. as always, have all your ingredients ready and measured beforehand. You will really need it for this recipe.
8. make, and blind bake, your crust the day before. It will save you some time. This pie is very time consuming so anything you can do beforehand, the better. Getting the egg whites to room temperature will take some time as well.
9. experiment with the flavors. I thought about using lemon extract instead of vanilla extract in the meringue.
10. take your time. This pie does not want to be rushed. It will all come together with some patience, some prep, and some love.

This is a hard pie, I’m not going to lie. But boy is it worth it. I think my pie filling was just a tad too thick and I wanted it to be a little more tart. So I’ll continue to play with this recipe, but I think I’ve got my Mamaw’s recipe here. I hope you enjoy this pie as much as I did. Happy baking!