Wanda Mae's Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

This delicious classic Lemon Meringue Pie recipe was one of my Grandma Wanda Mae's favorites. Her Lemon Meringue Pie is bursting with fresh lemon taste and a sweet, fluffy meringue topping. 

A couple of months ago I decided I would share her favorite dessert today in honor of her birthday. Wanda Mae would have been 95 years old today. Living 900 miles away from my grandparents almost my entire life I never got to share her birthday with her. I had no idea what her favorite dessert was.  So, I started asking around and my Aunt Glory surprised me with the knowledge that my Grandma had shared her favorite pie recipe with the newspaper and that she would send me a copy of the article. My heart exploded when there wasn't just a single recipe, but four and included in this article was this amazing photo. 

Believe it or not, I had only made pumpkin pies before, ( I am not a big pie eater) so I was a bit nervous tackling one with meringue. I made one pie per my Grandma's instructions and then made a second one, tweaking the recipe a bit as there wasn't enough meringue for the first one.  Here it is...

Thank you Aunt Glory for sharing this recipe and special piece of history with me.

Happy birthday Grams!

I already ate a slice for you. 

Wanda Mae's Homemade Lemon Meringue Pie (click here to print)

INGREDIENTS:

For the filling:

·       One pre-baked and cooled 8-9” pie crust

·       1 1/2 cups water

·       1 cup granulated sugar

·       3 tablespoons cornstarch

·       Juice from one fresh lemon

·       1 tablespoon lemon zest

·       2 large eggs yolks

·       1 tablespoon butter

For the meringue:

·       4 large egg whites

·       1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

·       1/2 cup granulated sugar

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 300°F.

Whisk water, sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Cook on medium-low heat, stirring often, until it’s thick and bubbly.

Place egg yolks into a medium sized bowl and whisk them gently. Once the lemon mixture is thick and bubbly, very slowly pour half a cup of the lemon mixture into the egg yolks, whisking constantly.  Pour the egg mixture back into the pan with the remaining lemon mixture, continuing to whisk. You want to avoid scrambling the eggs. Bring to a gentle boil, then cook for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in the butter until melted. Strain the lemon mixture through a mesh strainer and pour mixture into the pre-baked and cooled pie crust.

In a large bowl whisk with either a stand mixer or hand mixer the egg whites and cream of tartar. Beat on high speed until soft peaks form (if you remove the beaters the tips curl slightly) and then continue mixing while gradually adding the granulated sugar. Continue mixing until stiff peaks form (they’ll be glossy and stand straight).

Spread the meringue on the top of the lemon mixture, being sure that the meringue touches the crust and no lemon shows through. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the meringue is lightly browned.

Cool at room temperature for one hour, then refrigerate for at least 5 hours before slicing.

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