Pie, pie, everybody loves pie...

I blame my love of lemon meringue on my mother. She makes a mean lemon meringue, at least as far as flavor goes. Her meringue is loose and tends to get really weepy after a little bit, but the flavor... She's where I learned the power of just a little lemon peel, although she was more likely to grab for the lemon extract. Still, I blame my love of this particular pie on my mother. I knew it was special if she made lemon meringue.

I had lemons, I had butter, I had sugar and flour and eggs. Sounds like pie, doesn't it, Dear Reader? Let's go to the kitchen.

Lemon Meringue Pie
1 Baked Pastry Shell (recipe below)
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Dash salt
1 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 teaspoons shredded lemon peel
1/3 cup lemon juice
Meringue:
3 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon shredded lemon peel
6 tablespoons sugar

Prepare pastry shell (see below), set aside. Separate egg yolks from whites, set whites aside for meringue. Stir 1/2 teaspoon lemon peel into 6 tablespoons sugar for meringue (flavors the sugar). Heat oven to 350 degrees. Zest your lemons, juice your lemons. I got the juice and peel from 2 medium sized lemons. I would say aim for 2, but use up to 4 if you have to.





FILLING:
In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, flour, cornstarch, and salt.
Gradually whisk in water.





Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens and bubbles. [This is where it turns away from food into a science project. You know those petri dishes filled with agar they used to use in biology class? Yeah. You'll recognize it when it gets to this stage. See?]
Reduce heat when mixture bubbles. Keep stirring and cooking for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat.



Slightly beat egg yolks with a fork. Stir in 1 cup of the hot mixture into the egg. Blend well.






Return mixture to saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil. Reduce heat, cook and keep stirring for 2 more minutes.
Remove from heat. Stir in butter and lemon peel.
Stir in lemon juice. Keep filling warm while you prepare the meringue.




MERINGUE:
In a glass, copper or stainless-steel bowl, start mixing the egg whites with an electric mixer on medium speed until soft peaks form.





Gradually add the prepared sugar a tablespoon at a time, mixing each tablespoon in thoroughly. Keep beating on high speed until stiff peaks form and the sugar dissolves.





Pour hot filling into baked pastry shell.









Top with meringue, being sure to seal to the edge of the pastry. Then mound into the center of the pie.
Bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
Cool on a wire rack for 1 hour.
Chill for 3 to 4 hours.
Slice and serve.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Baked Pastry Shell:
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and cut into pieces
1 to 2 tablespoons cold water

Combine the flour, salt and butter in a medium bowl. Either cut with a pastry blender or rub with your fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the water 1 tablespoon at a time and mix until the dough comes together and is no longer dry, being careful not to overmix. Form into a disk, wrap in plastic, refrigerate for 1 hour.
You can also throw the butter, flour and salt into a food processor and pulse until it looks like coarse crumbs. Drizzle the water in until it gathers together and starts to pull away from the sides of the container. Gather it into a disk, wrap in plastic, refrigerate for 1 hour.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, fit to the pan. Rest in refrigerator for 1 hour. Dock crust with tines of fork. Line crust with 2 layers of regular foil or 1 layer of heavy foil. Bake at 450 for 8 minutes. Remove foil. Bake an additional 5 to 7 minutes or until golden. Cool.


I was actually concerned, and apologized to Sic_un for the quality of my meringue. It's tight. Meaning small bubbles, tight foam. I should have apologized for the crust. I don't have a rolling rig, you see. So I was (really!) using one of my white cutting mats (perfectly acceptable substitute for a rolling mat) and (ahem) a can of soup. Yes, Dear Reader... I made my crust using a can of soup as a roller. I'm ashamed. But I did make the crust. Next time, I may just get a frozen crust and make it a bit easier on myself. Also, I was concerned the meringue might get a little weepy or slippery on the pie, so I heated the finished mixture over medium heat for about 2 minutes after I finished whipping the meringue. It cooked up the mixture really pretty. I actually ended up getting the meringue a little too baked, so it did this seepy thing where the oil from the lemon peel came through the meringue after it cooled. No harm, no foul. And it really is really really good. Make a pie, Dear Reader.
Oh, and points to you if you can name the movie the title of this post comes from.