This is the Lemon Meringue Pie recipe that I use and love! It is not overly sweet. To me, it is just right!
lt sure beats using a lemon pudding mix in a box. It tastes SO much better than a bakery lemon meringue pie too.
I will admit, it does take time to make from scratch with fresh lemons, but the steps are straightforward and worth it!
I use fresh lemons for the juice and the lemon peel. If you use bottled lemon juice and dried lemon peel from a jar it still comes out delicious, but using fresh lemons is even better.
You can also add two drops of yellow food coloring to the filling if you want a deeper yellow color.
I first published this recipe in May, 2014 and updated it to my new format in May, 2022.
See the steps to make it in the slideshow below.
Enjoy!
Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 1 pie shell baked, 9-inch
FILLING:
- 1 cup sugar scant
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 ½ cups water
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon peel fresh, or from a jar
- ⅓ cup lemon juice fresh (about 2 lemons), or from a bottle
MERINGUE TOPPING:
- 4 egg whites
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 6 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- 2 FOR THE FILLING: In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, flour cornstarch, and salt.
- 3 Stir in the water. Cook over medium high heat until it is thickened and bubbly.
- 4 Reduce the heat to low. Cook and stir for two more minutes. Remove the pan from the heat. Set aside.
- 5 In a small dish, beat the 3 egg yolks.
- 6 Mix 1 cup of the hot lemon filling with the yolks in the dish to temper the egg yolks. Return this to the hot filling in the pan and over medium high heat constantly stir it and bring it to a gentle boil.
- 7 Reduce the heat to low and cook it for two more minutes. Remove it from the heat.
- 8 Stir in the butter, lemon peel, and lemon juice.
- 9 Pour the filling into the baked 9-inch pie shell.
- 10 FOR THE MERINGUE: With a mixer and whisk attachment, beat all the meringue ingredients on high speed for 4 minutes until there are stiff peaks.
- 11 Spread the meringue to the edges of pie shell touching the pie edges so the meringue won’t shrink in. With a rubber spatula make peaks in the meringue.
- 12 Bake at 350° for 15 minutes or until the meringue peaks are light brown.
- 13 Cool the pie on wire rack.
- 14 Store the pie covered in the refrigerator.