This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
This classic Lemon Meringue Pie recipe has a perfectly tart and sweet lemon custard filling topped with french meringue. It is all baked together to give you the perfect sliceable pie!
Get ready for an old fashioned lemon meringue pie that has a sliceable, flavorful lemon custard filling! I topped the tart custard with fluffy, elegant french meringue. Toasting the meringue in the oven cooks the meringue, makes it more stable and creates a show stopping pie. This lemon meringue pie is perfect for any holiday from Easter to Christmas.
Now that you have mastered par baking try other custard pies including but not limited to the best pecan pie, buttermilk pie or my delicious and decadent easy chocolate pie. If you love lemon, check out my fun twist on this dessert with my lemon meringue cheesecake!
Table of Contents
Why You Will Love This Lemon Meringue Pie
- An easy, bright and smooth lemon filling. This lemon custard requires no tempering, and finishing the custard with butter adds a rich, silky texture.
- Fluffy toasted meringue topping that won’t weep! Stabilizing the meringue with cream of tartar and cornstarch helps prevent the meringue from weeping.
- Perfectly flaky pie crust. I used a pâte sucrée (sweet pie crust) for this pie, but it would be excellent with any of my pie crust recipes!
Professional Tips for Making Lemon Meringue Pie
- Use fresh cold eggs. For the best meringue use fresh eggs and keep them cold. Fresh eggs are more stable than older eggs. Boxed or frozen egg whites will cause your meringue to be unstable. The process of freezing will cause protein denaturation and a shift in the eggs pH levels.
- Let the lemon filling boil for over a minute. When making most stirred custards like chocolate pudding or pastry cream it is very important to let them boil for at least one minute to ensure the cornstarch has been fully activated and the raw starch flavor and texture cooks out.
- Don’t over whip the french meringue. You want to whip the meringue to stiff peaks but you can’t leave the meringue whipping unattended. Over whipping the meringue will cause it to separate faster or even separate before you put it on the pie.
Ingredients & Substitutions
- Pie Crust: Choose your favorite pie crust and blind bake. I have many excellent pie crusts like my vodka pie crust, Crisco pie crust, all-butter pie crust, or almond flour pie crust. They all have different qualities but are all equally delicious.
- Granulated Sugar: The granulated sugar is here to thicken, sweeten, and stabilize the lemon custard filling and meringue.
- Cornstarch: Cornstarch is a thickener like the egg yolks for the custard filling, and it helps bind all the ingredients together when cooked. It will also prevent the lemon filling from separating. It will also help stabilize the meringue and keep it from weeping.
- Kosher Salt
- Egg Yolks and Whites: Separate the whole eggs by hand or using the shell. You can buy yolks and whites separately, but freshly separated egg whites will produce the best meringue.
- Water
- Lemons: When it comes to citrus, fresh is always best. Fresh lemon juice and zest will have a more rounded flavor than store-bought. Given that lemons are the flavor of this pie, I would suggest using fresh lemons. My new favorite tool for juicing is the OXO Citrus Juicer. If you want to use store-bought, make sure it is fresh to frozen lemon juice.
- Butter: Whisking in unsalted butter at the end of the cooking process for the lemon custard filling gives it a silky smooth texture and mouthfeel. You can also use my lemon curd recipe with gelatin.
- Cream of Tartar: Cream of Tartar helps stabilize the french meringue and keeps it from weeping.
- Vanilla Extract
See the recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Use lemon curd. Take my easy lemon curd recipe and stabilize it with gelatin for a perfect lemon curd meringue pie! I recommend completely blind baking the pie crust like I show you in this tutorial on how to blind bake pie crust then using a pre-cooked meringue like a swiss meringue or Italian meringue.
- Change the meringue. For an even more stable meringue topping, try my marshmallow frosting, which is essentially a Swiss meringue! You could also use an Italian meringue like the one in my marshmallow fluff recipe. These two types of meringue are denser than French meringue and typically sweeter. This makes them more stable but less traditional for this particular pie.
- Mix up the crust! I used a sweet tart crust (pâte sucrée) but this pie is also excellent with an all-butter pie crust, my vodka pie crust or even an almond pie crust. You could make it super old-fashioned and use my tender Crisco pie crust recipe!
- Add a layer of jam. On the par-baked pie crust, layer strawberry jam, mixed berry jam, or cherry preserves for a beautifully layered lemon meringue pie.
How to Make Classic Lemon Meringue Pie
Use these instructions to make a perfect lemon meringue pie every time! Further details and measurements can be found in the recipe card below.
Par-bake the crust:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Step 2: Line a 9-inch pie pan with the pie dough of your choosing. Roll the edges under and decoratively crimp.
Step 3: Crumple parchment paper to make it more pliable, then gently line the inside of the chilled pie shell. Fill with pie weights or beans.
I prefer beans to ceramic pie weights because beans still allow the crust to puff as steam escapes, which makes it flakey.
Step 4: Bake in the preheated oven with weights for 15-20 minutes or until the edges have begun to brown and the sides of the crust no longer look doughy. If you remove the weight too early, then the sides will collapse anyways.
This is especially true in a ceramic dish because they are kind of slippery.
Step 5: Since we are only partially baking the crust, you want to see some golden brown parts around the edges and bottom before you remove the pie crust from the oven. Remove the parchment and weights and set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.
Prepare the filling:
Step 6: In a large or medium saucepan, whisk together granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon zest.
This distributes the cornstarch between the sugar molecules, making it less likely to clump. It is the same process as making vanilla pudding.
Step 7: Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth. Slowly pour in the water, followed by lemon juice while whisking constantly. This reduces the likelihood of lumps and will help you get a smooth lemon custard.
Step 8: Cook the lemon mixture over medium heat while whisking or stirring with a rubber spatula constantly. The custard will slowly thicken and then will eventually simmer and boil.
When whisking, be sure to have the whisk touching the bottom of the pot. You also want to make sure you get in all the corners of the pot to keep the lemon custard from scorching or curdling.
Step 9: Allow the mixture to boil for 1-2 minutes over lower heat, then remove from heat and stir in butter.
If the mixture curdles you can strain through a fine mesh sieve and then add the butter.
Step 10: Pour onto the prepared crust. The crust can be warm or at room temperature. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
Make the french meringue:
Step 11: Dissolve cornstarch (for meringue) in warm water in a small bowl. Set aside.
When separating the egg whites you want to make sure there are no egg yolks in the whites. Also make sure the bowl that you are using for the meringue is very clean. Any fat will prevent the meringue from forming.
Step 12: Make French meringue by whisking the egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. You could also make it in a large bowl with a hand mixer.
Whisk the eggs and cream of tartar together first on medium high speed until the egg whites become foamy. Then slowly add the sugar to prevent all the sugar from pooling at the bottom of the bowl.
Step 13: Once all the sugar has been added, continue to beat on medium high speed until soft peaks form. Once the French meringue reaches soft peaks, slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture and continue to whisk un stiff peaks form.
Step 14: Cover filling with meringue, swirl decoratively using the back of a spoon and bake 325°F, 15-20 minutes. The meringue will be a nice golden brown.
Step 15: Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate at least 4 hours before slicing.
Chef Lindsey’s Recipe Tip
When slicing the pie use a large hot knife. Placing the knife in or under running hot water for a few seconds will get it warm. Wipe the water off the knife and slice the pie. Repeat as desired.
Frequently Asked Questions
Lemon meringue pie is best served the day of, but if there are leftovers, store the pie in the refrigerator for up to 2 days with the meringue on top covered lightly with plastic wrap. If you are storing for longer, scrap the meringue off the top and you can store the crust and filling in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to 2 months. Then I would suggest topping the pie with my marshmallow frosting and toasting the meringue with a kitchen torch.
The crust and the filling can be made a few days ahead. The meringue topping is best made on the day of serving, it will sit for a day or two in the refrigerator but any longer and the meringue will start to separate.
French meringue, though beautiful and delicious, can be sensitive. There are a few reasons why your meringue is weeping: humidity, using eggs that are too old, refrigeration after a few days, and under or over-whipping the meringue. Fortunately, using the cornstarch mixture in this meringue helps stabilize it.
This pie will shine brightly all on its own. Serve with mixed berry jam, easy blueberry sauce, or a swoosh of lemon curd whipped cream on the plate.
If you tried this recipe and loved it please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it goes in the comments below. I love hearing from you; your comments make my day!
Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
- 1, homemade or store bought pie crust enough for a single crust 9 inch pie
Filling:
- 1 cup sugar
- 4 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
- 6 egg yolks from large eggs
- 1 1/3 cups water cold
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest
- ½ cup lemon juice approximately 4 large lemons
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Meringue:
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch
- ½ cup water warm
- ¼ t cream of tartar
- 100 g granulated sugar
- 4 egg whites
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
Par-bake the crust:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Line a 9-inch pie pan with the pie dough of your choosing. Roll the edges under and decoratively crimp.
- Crumple parchment paper to make it more pliable, then gently line the inside of the chilled pie shell. Fill with pie weights or beans.
- Bake in the preheated oven with weights for 15-20 minutes or until the edges have begun to brown and the sides of the crust no longer look doughy. If you remove the weight too early, then the sides will collapse anyways.
- Since we are only partially baking the crust, you want to see some golden brown parts around the edges and bottom before you remove the pie crust from the oven. Remove the parchment and weights and set aside to cool while you prepare the filling.
Prepare the filling:
- In a large or medium saucepan, whisk together granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, and lemon zest.
- Whisk in the egg yolks until smooth. Slowly pour in the water, followed by lemon juice while whisking constantly. This reduces the likelihood of lumps and will help you get a smooth lemon custard.
- Cook the lemon mixture over medium heat while whisking or stirring with a rubber spatula constantly. The custard will slowly thicken and then will eventually simmer and boil.
- Allow the mixture to boil for 1-2 minutes over lower heat, then remove from heat and stir in butter.
- Pour onto the prepared crust. The crust can be warm or at room temperature. Reduce the oven temperature to 325°F.
Make the french meringue:
- Dissolve cornstarch (for meringue) in warm water in a small bowl. Set aside.
- Make French meringue by whisking the egg whites, cream of tartar and sugar together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. You could also make it in a large bowl with a hand mixer.
- Once all the sugar has been added, continue to beat on medium high speed until soft peaks form. Once the French meringue reaches soft peaks, slowly pour in the cornstarch mixture and continue to whisk un stiff peaks form.
- Cover filling with meringue, swirl decoratively using the back of a spoon and bake 325°F, 15-20 minutes. The meringue will be a nice golden brown.
- Cool to room temperature and then refrigerate at least 4 hours before slicing.
Notes
Nutrition
Before You Go
I hope you enjoyed this professional chef-tested pie recipe. Check out other delicious custard pies like banana cream pie or french silk pie, or try more of my lemon desserts.
