Hey, how about another recipe? This is an old family recipe that I know my great-grandmother used to make; it might be older than that. My grandmother made it a lot because it was my grandfather's favorite dessert. It's easier to make than you might think.
1 pre-baked pie crust*
4 eggs, separated
2/3 cup sugar for filling
1/2 cup sugar for meringue
Juice and grated rind of two lemons
1 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons corn starch
Beat the 4 egg whites until they form soft peaks, add 1/2 cup sugar and continue beating until meringue is shiny and forms stiff peaks. Rub both lemons with a fine grater until most of the yellow rind has been removed. Juice lemons and remove any seeds. Combine egg yolks, 2/3 cup sugar, lemon juice and rind and water and heat to a simmer. Mix corn starch with a small amount of water and add to filling mixture. Cook until thickened to the consistency of gravy. Remove from heat and fold in about half the egg whites, leaving enough for meringue. Place filling in pie crust and top with remaining egg whites, making sure to seal the edges to the crust to prevent weeping. Bake at 350 until the tips of the meringue are browned (about 15 minutes or so).
*I like the Jiffy pie crust mix because it's cheap and foolproof.
Note: The recipe card I have for this skimps on a lot of the preparation details, so I've filled in the blanks as best I can. If something doesn't make sense, let me know and I'll correct it.
Update 9/28/07: Goofy Girl's questions have led me to update the directions. Hope they're a little clearer now!
This sounds delish, so I'm going to try to make it today. QQ - do I really grate the ENTIRE rinds of both lemons? Is there an easy way to do this? I have one of those fancy planer/graters, but it seems like it would take a while to whittle down the entire rind. (and I always seem to grate my FINGERS more than whatever food item I'm working on, with that thing). Tips are appreciated.
Also, the egg white and the sugar go into making the meringue, but you left out details about HOW it is made. Can I just whip this all together until it looks meringue-y?
I'll let you know how it turns out!
Posted by: Goofy Girl | September 28, 2007 at 09:21 AM
I made this pie! First off...DELISH! And...EASY!
Second, here's some tips I would add:
1. Do NOT attempt to beat egg whites into meringue BY HAND, unless you are the Bionic Woman. Ouch. After 15 minutes of forearm-cramping whisking, I broke out the mixer. WAY easier. Duh.
2. I think I got crazy with the amount of rind I added, because the pie was tart-tart-tart. Next time I think I will use only rind from ONE lemon. Also, I had really large lemons. (stop snickering)
3. In typical Goofy-fashion, I misjudged splitting the meringue in half, so I had a huge pie, and not nearly enough meringue to cover it. The inevitably 'weeping' occured, so now I know what THAT looks like.
4. This is not the type of pie you remove from the oven and eat. Again...duh. About an hour in the fridge set it up enough to slice.
And once again...DELISH!
Posted by: Goofy Girl | September 30, 2007 at 09:08 PM