You’ll find lemon pie on the menu at many Southern restaurants, but if you’re used to homemade lemon meringue pie, you’ll likely be disappointed. It’s better to get your pie at a family dinner or pot luck meal, or you can make your own.
The recipe looks a little complicated, but it's not really hard to make Southern Lemon Meringue Pie. Just be sure to watch the boiling times and follow the directions closely on making the meringue including beating it enough to get the air needed for the topping to be high and fluffy.
Classic Southern Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe
Ingredients:
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup cornstarch
- 1 cup water
- 2 eggs (slightly beaten)
- 2 TBS butter
- 1 tsp grated lemon peel
- ½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Directions
- Prebake a pie crust according to your favorite pie crust recipe or bake a frozen or refrigerator pie shell according to package directions. Be sure to prick the shell with a fork, so it does not bubble up while it’s baking.
- Separate the eggs and put the yolks in a small bowl (and save the egg whites for the meringue). Stir the yolks lightly.
- Put sugar and cornstarch in a sauce pan and slowly add water while stirring to get ingredients mixed well.
- Turn heat to medium and stir while sugar/cornstarch mixture comes to a boil. Continue to stir for one minute as mixture boils lightly. If it’s popping up, then turn back the heat just a little. The mixture should be getting thicker at this stage.
- Add a couple of TBS of the hot sugar/cornstarch mixture to the bowl with the egg yolks and stir quickly. This keeps the egg yolks from curdling (cooking quickly and leaving eggy bits in the pie).
- Pour the bowl with egg yolks and hot mixture back into the sauce pan with the rest of the filling. Stir while still lightly boiling for another minute, and then remove from heat.
- Add the butter, lemon peel, and lemon juice. You can also put in a couple of small squirts of yellow food coloring if you like your lemon pie a brighter yellow color.
- Pour the lemon pie mixture into the baked pie crust.
Meringue Recipe for Classic Southern Lemon Pie
Ingredients:
- 2 egg whites (saved from the eggs separated to make the pie filling)
- ¼ tsp cream of tarter (usually in the spice section in a small can or plastic bottle)
- ¼ cup sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla
Directions:
Reheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Beat egg whites and cream of tarter. This can be done by hand but take a really long time. It’s much easier to use an electric mixer, and the meringue is fluffier.
- Gradually add the sugar about 1 TBS at a time and beat each time. Beat well. The mixture should be stiff and look glossy.
- Beat in vanilla or vanilla flavoring and beat again.
- Mound the meringue on top of the lemon pie and spread evenly. Use the spatula or spoon to make pretty swirls on top.
- Be sure that the meringue touches the edges of the pie crust, or it will shrink and not look as pretty. You can use your finger to tap it lightly up against the crust edges.
- Bake around 10 minutes in the oven or until the meringue is lightly browned. Watch closely. It does not take long from beautifully browned to burned.
The pie is best chilled for an hour or more before serving.
Other Popular Southern Pie Recipes:
Pecan Pie - It does not get any more Southern than this. Take this fabulous pie to a gathering and expect to bring home an empty pie plate.
Easy Fresh Strawberry Pie - If you've ever had a slice of strawberry pie at Shoney's, then this is a very similar pie recipe. This is a really easy pie to make, and it's hard to wait for it to cool. In fact, you can just eat it warm.
Cyndi Allison - Southern born and fed, Cyndi Allison is a college lecturer and newspaper advisor as well as being a freelance writer. She writes on ...
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