Easy Lemon Meringue Pie

I had never made a lemon meringue pie . . . or a meringue of any kind, so I was not expecting my first attempt to be successful, but it was!!!  My aunt requested this pie for Easter, and I found a recipe online and tweaked it slightly.  I used my own trusty pie crust recipe.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

My Pie Crust:

Combine 1 1/2 c. flour with 1/2 t. salt.  Cut in 1/2 c. of shortening until the mixture is well combined (coarse crumbs).  In a separate bowl, beat an egg and stir in 1/4 c. water and 1/2 t. white vinegar.  Add to the flour mixture and stir together (I also usually throw a couple teaspoons of vanilla in).  Knead the dough, roll it out, and put it in your pie pan.  Pre-bake the crust, but leave it slightly undercooked as it will go back in the oven with the pie-filling.

Pie Filling Ingredients:

1 c. sugar               2 T. butter

2 T. flour                4 egg yolks  

3 T. cornstarch       1 1/2 c. water

1/4 t. salt                2 lemons

1 t. lemon extract

Meringue Ingredients:

4 egg whites

6 T. sugar

1 t. lemon extract

*Squeeze the juice out of both lemons (watch out for the seeds), and zest both of the lemons.

*In a medium saucepan,  stir together the sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, water, lemon juice, lemon zest, and lemon flavoring. 

*Heat slowly, continuously stirring until the mixture begins to boil.  Add the butter and keep stirring.  

*Put the egg yolks in a separate bowl, and add some of the heated sugar mixture to the egg yolks and stir then add the entire yolk mixture back into the sugar mixture.  

*Continue cooking until the mixture is nice and thick, then pour/spread into the pie shell.

*For the meringue, put the 4 egg whites in a bowl and beat until it is very foamy (I used my stand-mixer, put it on high, and let it go for about 10 minutes).  

*While beating, gradually add the 6 T. of sugar.  Keep whipping the egg whites and sugar until the mixture looks like whipped cream.  

* Mix in the lemon flavoring. 

*Spread over the top of the lemon mix in the pie shell and bake until the top of the meringue is golden brown (approximately 15 minutes).