Lemon Meringue Pie
torched peaks, all the way across
Three things go wrong with a lemon meringue pie and all three are solved by the same handful of rules.
It weeps, it shrinks, and it slides. Weeping is undissolved sugar — rub a little meringue between your fingers and if it feels gritty, keep whipping. Shrinking is the meringue not being anchored, which is why it has to be spread right to the pastry edge and sealed all the way round. Sliding is meringue spread onto cold filling: it goes on hot, so the underside cooks against the curd and grips.
Peaks pulled up with the back of a spoon and torched. Every tip goes dark and the valleys stay pale, and that contrast is the whole look.
- Feeds
- 10
- Hands-on
- 1 hour
- Meringue
- Onto HOT filling
- Chill
- 4 hours
What you need
The shell
- 1 blind-baked pastry shell, 9 inch, fully cooked
The lemon filling
- 1 1/3 cups sugar
- 1/3 cup cornflour
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 5 egg yolks
- 2/3 cup lemon juice — fresh, about 5 lemons
- Zest of 3 lemons
- 3 tbsp butter
The meringue
- 5 egg whites, at room temperature
- 1 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
How it goes
1 — Cook the cornflour base properly first
Sugar, cornflour, salt and water whisked in a pan and brought to a boil, then boiled for a full minute while whisking. Starch that has not boiled will thin out later and the pie will never set.
2 — Temper the yolks, do not dump them in
A ladle of the hot mixture whisked into the yolks first, then the yolks back into the pan. Straight in, they scramble.
3 — Lemon juice and butter OFF the heat
Both at the end. Acid added early weakens cornflour's thickening power, and butter boiled into it splits.
pro tip — Fresh lemons. Bottled juice tastes of the bottle and this is a pie with nowhere to hide it.
4 — Whip the whites with cream of tartar
Room temperature whites to soft peaks with the cream of tartar, then sugar added a spoonful at a time. Slowly — sugar dumped in collapses the foam you just built.
5 — Whip until it is not gritty between your fingers
Rub a little between finger and thumb. Any grain means undissolved sugar, and undissolved sugar is what beads and weeps on the surface later. Stiff, glossy, smooth.
6 — Meringue onto HOT filling, sealed to the crust
Filling poured into the shell and the meringue spread on immediately while it is steaming. Spread right out to touch the pastry all the way round — that seal is what stops it shrinking back.
7 — Pull the peaks with a spoon, then torch or bake
The back of a spoon pressed on and lifted straight up, over and over. Then a blowtorch moved constantly, or fifteen minutes at 350°F for a gentler all-over gold.
8 — Four hours in the fridge before cutting
Cut with a hot wet knife, wiped between slices. Any colder than four hours and the curd is still loose.
Every peak dark, every valley pale. That is the whole photograph. LFG.