| Level: | Easy |
| Total: | 1 hr 45 min |
| Active: | 35 min |
| Yield: | 8 servings |
Ingredients
- One 9-inch frozen pie crust
- 1 tablespoon plus 1/2 teaspoon powdered unflavored gelatin
- Zest of 3 lemons plus 3/4 cup plus 2 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 4 large egg whites
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
- For the crust and lemon curd filling: Bake the crust according to the package instructions. Let cool.
- Add 1/4 cup water to a bowl and sprinkle with the gelatin. Let the gelatin bloom while you prepare the filling.
- In a pot, bring the lemon zest and juice and half of the sugar to a boil. In a separate bowl, vigorously whisk the eggs with the remaining sugar until completely incorporated.
- Bring the pot off the heat and let cool slightly. Slowly add the egg and sugar mixture to the pot, whisking continually. Using a candy thermometer, heat the mixture to 185 degrees F, whisking vigorously. Add the bloomed gelatin and butter. Mix thoroughly using an immersion blender. Strain, then pour into the pie shell. Refrigerate until completely set, about 1 hour.
- For the meringue: Mix the sugar and 1/2 cup water in a pot and heat to 248 degrees F.
- In a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar. Whisk on medium speed until soft peaks form. Switch the speed to high, slowly add the sugar and water mixture in a thin steam and whisk until fully incorporated and stiff peaks form.
- Spread the meringue generously on the pie and style using a palette knife (offset spatula) as desired. With a kitchen blowtorch, gently go over the meringue until a toasted color is achieved. Or place under the boiler until browned, 2 to 3 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Serving Size | 1 of 8 servings |
| Calories | 725 |
| Total Fat | 32 g |
| Saturated Fat | 18 g |
| Carbohydrates | 107 g |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Sugar | 90 g |
| Protein | 6 g |
| Cholesterol | 131 mg |
| Sodium | 178 mg |
Reviews
Love his recipes, however, this was terrible. Waste of time and money.
The best pie ever
Winged it after watching the episode, was amazed at how simple it was with just a little patience. So excited to try this all time favorite!
This must be a restaurant recipe that was adapted to us. The quantity of the meringue was way off. Mine was almost 6 inches thick and I only used half. This was way too much gelatin.
Watched the show yesterday, and made the pie this morning. The meringue never got light and fluffy. I worry that 2.5 cups of sugar is too much weight for the meringue. My meringue ended up not setting. I believe that there is a sugar weight to egg white ratio, and this receipt seems to let the sugar overpower the egg.
Incredibly rich! Very good but the meringue ended up too sweet and the filling was tasty but again rich because of all the butter. Made this for Easter and half the guests could not finish their piece but wanted to box up what was left.
I tried this for the family since Lemon Meringue is our traditional Easter dessert. While everyone enjoyed it, this recipe met with mixed reviews. The curd flavor is very good. The curd is much closer to a flan texture than my usual recipe and it didn’t have as much tart lemon flavor. Since it is already cold and set when the meringue is added, it holds the meringue very well.
The Swiss meringue was a hit for all but one person, who prefers the light French style. The Swiss meringue did not shrink, separate from the curd or develop the drops of sugar on top. This meringue has a similar texture to marshmallow cream/fluff but is not as sweet. It doesn’t cut ‘clean’ and you need to wipe the knife after each cut. While it takes a lot more work, the positives outweigh the negatives. NOTE: You really need a stand mixer — I nearly burned up my hand mixer because you need to beat the meringue for a long time.
I will modify next Easter and will probably use my traditional curd with the Swiss meringue. This is personal preference and certainly not to say this curd isn’t good, because it is.
Curious as to why my review was never posted. It was sent in a month ago…..twice. It was the first low rating I have submitted. I gave good explanations as to why. Makes me leery of trusting rating reviews when deciding to try a new recipe. ???
I loved this lemon curd… and thought the meringue was going g to be the answer to my meringue problems! It looked beautiful, however was SO grainy… made it hard to eat. What went wrong?
This is so much more complicated than the Comstock cornstarch receipt. The lemon part was fine but the meringue was not anything I am used to. It was marshmallow fluff. It ran off the top after you cut one piece. Way to sweet.