Impress your friends and family with this amazing meringue lemon pie.

Is there anything more delightful than a Lemon Meringue Pie? This classic dessert is a perfect balance of tart, sour filling and a light, fluffy sweet meringue topping that melts in your mouth. Nestled in a flaky crust, it’s a treat that’s both comforting and refreshing.You may think this is a very complicated recipe but, actually making this meringue lemon pie is super easy! 

I The sour taste of the lemon and sweetness of the crust and the meringue create an amazingly balanced dessert.
Preparing the meringue might seem tricky but I can assure that it’s easy! The best part is that you won’t need to go through the long slow cooking process the merengue usually need.

Reduced sugar version of the classic pie

Usually meringue is prepared with a lot of sugar, but you can actually reduce the quantity. Since both lemon jam or curd are already sweet, I like my desserts to be more on a milder side. To do so I use less sugar for the meringue topping. However if you like a sweeter dessert you can double the amount of sugar I use for the meringue.

I usually use my home made lemon jam. I prepare the jam with the amazing lemons that grow on my parent’s backyard. They’re big and juicy and I also use the zest to make it more tasty. Making it at home allows me to reduce the sugar quantity. I like the jam to be tart and not sugary.
When you use lemon curd instead  you’ll get a heavier pie since the curd is made using eggs, butter and more sugar than the classic jam.

The last tip, as usual, is to use a less refined flour, organic if possibile, and not bleached. White flour as we all know has a very high glycemic index (it’s just plain carbs) whereas if you use whole wheat you’ll also get important nutritional value from the wheat germ and the fiber of the husk.

Why you’ll love this recipe

• Zesty Lemon Filling: Bursting with the bright, citrusy flavor of fresh lemons, this pie is perfect for every occasion. I prefer lemon jam to lemon curd, it makes the cake lighter and more lemony.
• Cloud-Like Meringue: Whipped to perfection with glossy peaks and toasted just right. This is the perfect show-stopper when you have guests (Actually I made this cake for my wedding).
• Homemade Crust: Delicate and golden, the home made pastry is the perfect foundation for this pie. By making your own you’ll also make a lighter cake. Usually the classic dough for crostata contain no sugar and not too much butter, but still retails its flaky texture.

Whether you’re baking it for a holiday, a party, or simply because you deserve it, Lemon Meringue Pie is the cake to make.

Lemon meringue pie: variations and serving suggestions

Even though a large pie is always beautiful, you can make this dessert even more beautiful. To impress your guests try making mini individual pies. This variation is perfect for buffets or brunches. This way everyone can have a single mini pie instead of cutting larger one.

Mini pies are useful also to control the amount of dessert you’re eating if you want to reduce your sugar intake.

If you do not have lemon jam or curd, you could swap it for a jam like orange or raspberry or blackberry.  Remember to use a sour jam, if you use peach, apricots or strawberry jam the tart taste will be overloaded with sugar.

Fresh berries are also great to substitute jam. In this case I add  one or two tablespoons of sugar to the fruit or double the amount of sugar in the meringue.
You can also try my crostata recipe if you prefer a simpler dessert.

Healthy tip: do not use a kitchen torch to brown the meringue. Although it may seem useful, the torch adds hydrocarbons and acrylamide to your cake. Something I definitely would avoid!

Print Pin

Meringue lemon pie

A show-stopper dessert you must try. This lemon merengue pie is perfect for any occasion, beautiful and very tasty.

Course Sweet treat

Cuisine Italian

Keyword lemon merengue pie, lemon pie, merengue pie

Prep Time 40 minutes minutes

Cook Time 55 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 35 minutes minutes

Servings 12

Equipment

• 1 9inch round baking tray (24cm)

Ingredients

• 300 gr of lemon jam or lemon curd
• 2 egg yolks
• 120 gr butter or coconut oil room temperature
• 1 pinch of salt
• 2 tsp of sugar
• 300 gr flour + 50gr to dust the board
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• For the meringue
• 2 egg whites
• 50 gr of powdered sugar

Instructions

• To make the pastry, sift the flour into a large bowl. Add salt, sugar and stir well. Tear the butter with your fingers into the bowl and mix it with the flour mixture until it becomes crumbly.
• Make a hole in the center and add the beaten yolks. Mix the dough by squishing it through your fingers until it becomes soft and smooth. Squishing instead of kneading will slow the formation of the gluten bond that will turn the pastry hard when cooked. Let the pastry sit in the fridge for half an hour, covered with a plastic wrap.
• Remove the pastry from the fridge and flatten it with a rolling pin. Lay the flattened dough in the tray and fill it with the lemon jam or curd. Cook in a preheated oven at 190/200°C for about 40 minutes.
• As the tart cools down, prepare the meringue. Whisk the egg whites with the sugar using an electric whisk. As it starts to set, add a little at a time the powdered sugar and keep whisking until it form very stiff peaks.
• Put the meringue in a piping bag and decorate the pie. Put the tart back in the oven at 50/80°C for 15 minutes. Broil it for 3 minutes to golden the merengue on top of the tarte. Serve it cool.