This Lemon Meringue Pie is the perfect refreshing dessert for spring days. All-butter crust, silky, zesty Lemon Curd, and toasted Italian Meringue make this pie difficult to resist.

With the Easter holidays around the corner, I have already started thinking about refreshing desserts to share with my family and friends. Lemon Meringue Pie is one of those recipes that are both pretty and delicious - perfect for gatherings and special occasions. Lemon pie could be served with some whipped cream on top, but whipping and toasting Italian meringue makes it way more interesting both in looks and taste.

The recipe includes three steps:

1. Preparing a homemade shortcrust pastry and blind-baking it until golden

2. Making silky lemon curd as filling

3.Whipping Italian meringue and toasting it with a culinary torch.

HOW TO PREPARE A FULL-PROOF PIE CRUST

For this recipe, I am using a shortcrust pastry made with egg yolk, honey, water, flour, and butter. The honey in the recipe is optional but will help you achieve that nice, golden color of the crust. This recipe is my go-to recipe when baking pies filled with cream, as it creates this soft dough that is easy to use and, once baked, results in a flaky, buttery base. You can prepare the dough either by hand or in a stand mixer - just make sure to use low speed when incorporating the flour. As soon as the flour traces disappear, your dough is ready to be chilled in the fridge. Make sure not to overmix. Overmixing will "wake up" the gluten in the flour, developing an elastic and gummy texture for your dough.

how to perfectly blind bake your crust

For those who are not very familiar with this term, blind baking is partially or entirely baking the pie before adding the filling. This will result in a crisp pastry shell that can be then filled with your favorite cream, in this case, lemon curd.

The whole process is pretty simple. All you need to do is roll out the dough and transfer it to your baking pan. With a fork, create a few wholes to prevent the rising of the dough. Then line the unbaked pie crust with parchment paper and weigh it down with either pie weights or dry beans (this option is cheaper, and you can reuse them for all your future pie recipes). I usually use either dry white beans or dry chickpeas. A note to that: the beans used for blind baking can not be used for cooking later on - so make sure to store them in a different jar for future bakings.

Preheat your oven according to the recipe, and bake the tart for 15 minutes. Once the crust is set and the edges are golden, remove the weights/beans and leave the crust to bake thoroughly, usually for another 8-10 minutes, depending on the oven. Let it cool before filling with lemon curd.

HOW TO MAKE A HOMEMADE LEMON CURD

Lemon curd is easy to make, and you need four simple ingredients: lemons, sugar, eggs, and butter. Mixing these ingredients and bringing them to heat will create a delicious, silky lemon curd with a fantastic, tangy flavor. Lemon curd can be stored for a couple of days in the fridge and used for different recipes - scones, cakes, pancakes, and pies. To prevent any lumps, whisk the cream constantly until thickened. Once you get the desired texture, add in butter, whisk until melted, then cover with plastic wrap. In that way, your lemon curd will stay creamy and will not create a so-called "skin" on the top while cooling.

how to prepare italian meringue

While sometimes preparing a meringue could sound terrifying, Italian meringue is easy to follow. The result is this silky, beautiful meringue that you can use on top of your cake.

Italian meringue is so silky, thick, and delicious, and perfect for covering the cakes as it is safe to eat due to mixing the egg whites with hot sugar syrup. It is made by cooking a sugar syrup, then adding that hot syrup to whipping egg whites. To have a perfectly whipped meringue, make sure to have a thermometer, as it will be of enormous help while preparing the syrup. If you are going for a toasted meringue-like in the pictures, make sure to have a culinary torch. Every kitchen should have one, especially if you love meringue. Finishing off the cakes and pies with some toasted meringue is both delicious and beautiful to see, so I highly recommend you to try it out. Making a meringue will be easier if you have a stand mixer running on itself, but the hand mixer could work as well. Make sure to add syrup slowly and beat the eggs continuously until the result is super glossy meringue and stiff peaks are formed.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE
Marija Gvozdenovic

INGREDIENTS

Serves  8-1O 

For the crust

170g butter

70g powdered sugar

1 tbsp honey

1 egg yolk (leave the egg white for the meringue)

pinch of salt 

1 tsp water

zest of half lemon

290g all-purpose flour

FOR THE lemon curd 

2 whole eggs, room temperature

2 egg yolks, room temperature ( leave the egg whites for the meringue)

120g granulated sugar

juice from 2 medium lemons

zest from 1 lemon

110g butter

FOR THE ITALIAN MERINGUE 

3 egg whites

170g granulated sugar

85g water 

1/8 tsp cream tartar

METHOD

Step 1 - Prepare the crust.

In a large bowl (or stand mixer) combine butter and sugar. The butter should be firm, but not too cold. Beat on medium speed until combined. Add honey and egg yolk and mix again. Mix salt and one tsp of water and combine until the salt has dissolved. Add it to the mixture along with lemon zest and beat once more. Sift flour and incorporate it with the rest of the ingredients. As soon as the flour disappeared and all ingredients seem to be combined, cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

Step 2 - Prepare the lemon curd.

In a medium heatproof bowl, place eggs, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, and whisk to combine. Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (bain-marie). Cook on low heat, whisking constantly until the mixture becomes thick (it takes between 10 and 15 minutes). The curd will thicken more once cooled. As soon as the lemon curd becomes thick and shiny yellow, remove from the heat and stir in butter. Whisk until butter is completely melted and incorporated. Cover the top with plastic wrap and let cool down. If you are preparing it in advance, once cooled, place the lemon curd in the fridge. Take it out of the fridge 30 min. before assembling the tart.

Step 3 - Bake the crust

Preheat your oven at 180 C (350 F). Take the dough out of the fridge. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough. I am using 24cm tart pan with removable bottom. Grease and flour your tart pan (if needed), then transfer gently your dough making sure to cover nicely all the edges of the tart pan. With a fork make a few wholes in the crust, then lay a sheet of parchment paper over the crust and fill it with raw beans (any kind of beans or chickpeas can work). This will prevent the crust to raise and will give it a nice golden color.  Bake the crust in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. The border should start to get golden. Take the tart out of the oven, remove the beans and parchment paper. Place the tart back to the oven until golden, for another 5-8 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool completely before pouring the lemon curd. 

Step 4 - Prepare the Italian Meringue

I recommend preparing the Italian meringue just before serving or just a few hours before, as meringue tastes the best once freshly made.
Place the egg whites and cream of tartar into the mixing bowl. In a medium pot, combine the sugar and water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir the mixture until it begins to simmer, but once it does, stop stirring. If any sugar crystals are visible on the sides of the pot, use a pastry brush dipped in cool water to brush them away. Continue to cook until the mixture reaches  110°C  (230°F)  on a thermometer. When the temperature reaches 110°C, start whipping the egg whites on medium speed—the goal is to get it frothy by the time the sugar syrup reaches 115°C (240°F). When the sugar syrup reaches 115°C (240°F), raise the mixer speed to be high, and gently pour the hot sugar syrup into the mixing bowl. Once all the syrup is incorporated, continue to whip until the meringue holds desired peaks - it will take about 10 minutes for meringue to make stiff peeks. Use immediately to cover your lemon pie. Toast the top of the meringue with a culinary torch, if desired. Serve chilled in small slices. The lemon pie can stay in fridge for up to 3 days. 

NECESSARY OBJECTS
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