The Ultimate Lemon Meringue Pie

Sorry, but this just didn't work for me. The crust was good, the meringue lovely (I used all 6 egg whites and adjusted the sugar etc to compensate). The problem was with the ingredients and method of making the filling, I think. I have only made LMP a few times and always used a recipe that had a lemon curd type of filling. Never a problem with runny filling or flavourless filling. Due to the rave reviews I thought I'd try this to see what I was missing. My first question was about adding so much water to the filling ingredients. I noticed many LMP recipes use a water and cornstarch based filling which seems to provide much less flavour than one using mostly or all lemon juice for the filling. I also didn't understand adding unbeaten egg yolks to all that sugar and cornstarch. That seems like asking for trouble along the lines of little bits of tough egg floating in the filling. Why not combine the water and beaten egg yolks or even a little water and egg yolks? Or add some of the cold water to the sugar and cornstarch, then add the rest to the yolks and combine? It would prevent egg lumps that one reviewer said she dealt with by using an immersion blender. Then the cooking instructions seem backwards. They say to cook the sugar, cornstarch, yolks and water "until thickened", then add the lemon juice, rind and butter. I did cook the sugar mixture until very thick (like icing or heavy custard) but once I added the juice and the butter it became pourable and never thickened up again. The pie has been in the fridge for 24 hours and the filling is still the consistency of melted ice cream. Why not cook the filling with the butter and lemon juice in it so you can accurately judge the consistency? Did I cook it too long? Not long enough? There is no real way to know. The taste is okay but not special even using fresh lemon juice, sweeter today than yesterday we all agreed, and the meringue did not weep at all. It looked lovely until we cut it and it poured itself out of its crust. IMHO, just not worth the effort given the ease by which one can make a real lemon curd for such a pie and avoid the issue of "will it or wont it" thicken.

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I made this for my husband's birthday and he proclaimed it 5 stars. It was definitely delicious, but time consuming. I made a few minor modifications to the recipe based on previous reviews.

Made the crust as described and it was fantastic.

Made the filling as described but increased the cornstarch to 1/2 cup and brought the mixture to a light boil and added the lemon juice/zest in and also boiled for a few minutes. Removed from heat and stirred in the butter. The filling set up beautifully and had no lumps as earlier reviewers had mentioned.

Made the meringue as described but am not sure I understand the purpose of the cornstarch. Meringue should set up fine without it so I may try it without the cornstarch next time. It did taste wonderful though!

Overall a great tasting recipe, just requires some attention to detail!! Thanks for sharing!

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My mother has always wished for her mother's lemon pie, but she passed away before she ever knew the secret of her pie. I made this for my mom today for her birthday and when she tasted it she said, "That's my mom's pie!" I was so happy and proud! We enjoyed it so much and it will be my one and only lemon pie recipe...Just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart!

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Before attempting my first lemon meringue pie, as I have never made one, I researched through all the reviews. I started to sweat getting very nervous & confused due to so many different opinions & additional tweaking recommendations. It's my boyfriends 39th birthday, and this is is fav pie, however, only his mother has them for him thus far, & I never found anything special about her version.
Well, I followed this recipe to the T, with a little help from my lovely 8 year old daughter, & chose as many others to mix the zest in the pot while the curd is thickening. Well, it turned out beautifully! Since I had to use 6 egg yolks, I kept the 6 whites from them & chose to make my meringue with 6 egg whites vs. the called for 4. I am sooo glad I did! The meringue was so gigh & beautiful!!!
Well, I let it cool to near about room temp., then put it on the fridge for tomorrow. This morning a lot of the meringue had fallen :( I am so glad I used more meringue then what was called for. Totally bummed it fell a bit, & I am taking it for dessert tonight, sure hope it still tastes good! I will post a pic of the finished product fresh from the oven. If WAS so perfect :( Otherwise, I will try this recipe again, with even MORE meringue!!

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Without a doubt-the most delicious pie recipe I have ever come across. I have made this pie over 20 times since I found the recipe in 2005. My husband fell in love with me all over again-and does-every time I make it. My kids love it. My parents love it. They requested this and only this for my offerings to their Thanksgiving table. :) I made out easy! The lemon filling is superb. It is just the right amount of tangy and it tastes super delicious mixed with the vanilla-sweet meringue. The meringue is delicious. I was always one to only eat a little bit of meringue until now. This meringue is so silky smooth-"like butta". The crust is amazing. I use this crust recipe with every pie I make. I cannot justify buying a store bought crust ever again. It is simple to make and it is so good that you will never be able to eat another crust without comparing. This pie is worth every amount of effort you have to put into it. Perhaps the directions could have been organized better-but they are easy to follow regardless.

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Great! I love Lemon Meringue Pie... It is so good and the meringue came out really fluffy...Thanks will make this one over and over.

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I really did like this, though I made a reg. crust as I had no graham crakers. I will be trying it with the graham crakers next week...Made with extra ripe meyer lemons, think it makes a difference for the flavor

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Wonderful! Reminds me of my grandma's lemon meringue pie and I just loved making this, serving it to my family and eating a piece or two myself! The crust is a golden flaky treat and the lemon filling is just tart enough to bite you a little, but sweet enough to make you want another mouthful. The meringue crusted beautifully and I am tempted to make a little more meringue next time so we can have a little higher pie for a little guiltier indulgence! Totally a keeper.

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Followed the directions exactly and it turned out perfectly! I'm in SoCal and used extra ripe Meyers lemons from my yard. I think anyone having issues with how their pie turns out is most likely not an very experienced baker. I think they're probably not cooking the filling long enough and do not know what the consistency of the filling should be. Personally I know times and amounts in a recipe are subjective to your altitude and ingredients. If you have any experience with baking you shouldn't have any trouble adjusting as needed. Also, while cooking the filling you have to whisk it almost constantly and aggressively. If you don't you will end up with lumps but that's what will happen any sort of filling or curd.

Mine turned out wonderfully and the only thing I changed is I used a traditional pie crust. I'm from the South and we never use a graham cracker crust for this pie.

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The crust was great but it fell apart easily when going into the pan. The filling was delicious but had a little too much of an eggy taste. Maybe i'll cut down to 4 yolks next time. The meringue shaped beautifully! Thank you for this recipe!

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This was my first time making lemon meringue pie (or any pie with meringue) and I was pleased with how it came out. Everyone raved about it, and I already received several requests to make it again.

My alterations:

Crust-I used a Pillsbury premade crust

Filling-After reading the reviews, I I used a good 1/3 cup of cornstarch (about a teaspoon over 1/3 cup) to make sure it would set. Also, I added the lemon juice at the same time as the egg yolks, though I waited on adding the zest and butter until the filling firmed up to make sure that it wouldn't have set and then get too runny and not set afterward.

Meringue-Like others here, I chose to make a 6-egg white meringue since the filling used 6 yolks (I increased the other ingredients correspondingly).

Thanks so much for posting this!

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If you ever make a LMP- MAKE THIS ONE. It is simply outstanding. As with most other reviews on various recipies, "the one thing I changed" was...NOTHING. Simply delicious.
Thank You

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Made this for my boss's birthday party. Was a complete hit. Pies turned out beautifully and they were the perfect consistency. They had the perfect tartness and best lemon flavor of any lemon meringe I've tried. Will be making them for Thanksgiving again! Thank you!

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This recipe was AMAZING!!! I made this pie after a horrible recipe disaster and it was the best second attempt at lemon meringue that I've ever made!The whites were fluffy and sweet and the lemon filling was tart and lemony and delicious.The graham crackers in the crust really gave it something different and my family loved it.

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I don't really want to rate this on the first time making it due to for some reason my pie is slightly runny also and I am not sure why when I followed the steps as written. I will make another before I rate this complete to see if it comes out the same way after reading other reviews to why this may have happen. I really feel it should have 5 stars.

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As with a lot of other reviewers, this was my first attempt at a lemon meringue pie and I was very nervous. My grandson & I measured everything out ahead of time since things move quickly once you start cooking. Time was short so we used the Pillsbury refrigerated crusts instead of making homemade but made the filling and the meringue as directed, adding a bit more lemon juice & zest. I'm happy to say that it came out wonderfully delicious! The meringue was light and fluffy, the filling set beautifully and was very tasty. If I ever get a request to make a lemon meringue pie in the future, this is the recipe that I'm coming back to.

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My first ever attempt to make a LMP. I didn't think too much of the pieshell, the filling was very dry, though I got a bit distracted during the cooking process, so this could be my fault. It was nice and lemony and flavour was good.
Meringue was sensational though, very light and fluffy.
Will make again, but tweak the recipe, probably just with sweet short crust pastry and will give the filling another try by cooking it more like a custard.
I would give it 3 stars for filling and crust but 5 for meringue!

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This was very good. I was apprehensive about making a homemade lemon meringue pie, but the results are worth making it from scratch. I skipped the pastry step and used a Pillsbury pre-made instead. A few people mentioned that their filling didn't set-up, so I added a spoon of the cornstarch mixture that was meant for the meringue into the pie filling and had no problems. The pie was great, light with just the right amount of tartness, not overly sweet like packaged lemon pies can be. Everyone was marveling at the meringue and wanted to know my secret for making such picture perfect meringue!

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The flavor of this pie was amazing! I made it for Easter this year and everyone said it was the best lemon pie they ever had. I made it 2 days ahead of time which was a bad idea. The meringue had started to separate. Next time I will make it the day before. Otherwise it was excellent! I used a traditional crust, not the graham cracker one.

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Fantastic recipe!!! Thanks so much... Have a quick question tho, can I make the crust in advance and How long does it last in the fridge? Hope someone can tell me, thanks.

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