Recipe from Alice Waters and Chez Panisse
Adapted by Leslie Land
Updated Oct. 26, 2023
- Total Time
- About 4 hours
- Prep Time
- 30 minutes
- Cook Time
- 2 hours and 30 minutes, plus 1 hour’s cooling
- Rating
- 5(1,636)
- Notes
- Read community notes
This adaptation of Alice Waters’s lemon meringue pie, which came to the Times in a 1987, takes a little time, but your efforts will be rewarded with a spectacular centerpiece dessert: a cloud of toasted meringue atop a pool of buttery and bright lemon curd in a light and flaky crust. If you can’t find Meyer lemons, which aren’t as tangy as regular lemons, and have a spicy, floral note, regular supermarket lemons will make a worthy substitute. This recipe makes an elegant pie with a restrained ratio of lemon curd to meringue, but if you want more of a showstopper — the towering kind you might find in a diner or at a church picnic, for instance — you can double the filling as some of our readers do, and as we did for the photograph above. (Although you certainly could, we did not double the meringue. If you don't, save the leftover egg whites for another use.) —Leslie Land
Featured in: FOOD; American Pie
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Ingredients
Yield:One 9-inch pie
- 1disk flaky pie crust
- 2Meyer lemons or other large lemons (¼ cup lemon juice)
- 2eggs
- 3egg yolks
- 6tablespoons granulated sugar
- 3tablespoons salted butter, cut in 3 pieces
- 3tablespoons unsalted butter, cut in 3 pieces
- 3egg whites, at room temperature (about ½ cup)
- ¼teaspoon cream of tartar
- 6tablespoons granulated sugar
- ½teaspoon vanilla extract
The Filling
The Meringue
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Preparation
Step
1
Prepare the shell: Roll the pastry into a 12-inch circle, ⅛-inch thick, and fit gently into the pan. Trim the edge a half-inch beyond the rim, fold under and crimp or pinch to make a decorative edge. Prick the bottom with a fork. Freeze the shell for 20 to 30 minutes.
Step
2
Prepare the filling: Grate the zest from the lemons into a small, noncorrodable bowl. Strain in the lemon juice, then press through as much lemon pulp as possible.
Step
3
In a heavy, noncorrodable saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar until just mixed. Stir in the lemon juice and pulp, then the six tablespoons of butter.
Step
4
Cook, stirring constantly, over low to medium heat, until the mixture comes together and thickens enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat, allow to stand five minutes, then whisk briefly to smooth. (Strain through a sieve if you prefer a completely smooth filling.) Set aside.
Step
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Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the frozen shell with aluminum foil, weight with beans or pie weights and bake for 20 minutes, or until set and dry looking. Remove the weights and foil, turn the heat down to 350 and continue baking until shell is golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool slightly, but leave the oven on.
Step
6
Spread the prepared filling in the shell and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the filling is just set. Remove pie and turn oven to 375.
Step
7
Make the meringue. Beat the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and continue beating until rounded peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.
Step
8
Spread the meringue over the filling, making sure it meets the edges of the crust to make a seal. Swirl in a design with a knife or spatula and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned.
Step
9
Allow to cool completely, from one to two hours, but do not refrigerate.
- To make Key lime or lime meringue pie, follow instructions above, substituting the zest of two limes for that of the lemons, 6 tablespoons lime juice and pulp plus one tablespoon water for the lemon juice and pulp.
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1,636
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Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Lynn
I ended up having to double the recipe for filling, the recipe does not begin to fill a 9" pie shell even half way up the sides. Since I only had two Meyers lemons I used 2 large regular lemons in the second batch. Did anyone else find the filling insufficient? Delicious pie when we finally got around to eating it.
Abbie
This pie came out beautifully, but I made some changes.
1) Like other reviewers, I doubled the filling, and it was the perfect amount for a 9" pie.
2) For the doubled filling, I used 5 lemons instead of 4, which was a good cup of juice. The filling set correctly and I had no problems. Delicious, tart, not too sweet.
3) I used a Swiss (cooked) meringue.
4) I put the assembled pie under the broiler for a few minutes until the tips of the meringue were toasted.
Joyce
I wish they would say how much lemon juice. We have our own meyer lemon tree and the lemons differ in size quite a bit.
Miss Foy
We made it as written, and it is perfection. Proportionally, it's like pie used to be before it got cracker-barrelled and pauladeened.
Abbie
Just ate the first slice, and I need to make one change to my notes: the filling was a little too sour with the 5 lemons. I'd stick with 4 next time, or about 3/4 of a cup of lemon juice.
Katy
For those who doubled the filling, did you double the butter as well? 12 tablespoons seems like a lot of butter, especially when you take into account all the fat in the pie crust. I found a recipe on FBWorld.com that claims to be Alice Water's recipe and all ingredients for the filling are doubled with the exception of the butter. The meringue was doubled as well with except for the vanilla. Thoughts?
ann
Please include a measurement for the lemon juice!
Shelly
The recipe says not to refrigerate. Is it safe to store this on your counter for a couple of days? There's only two of us here, so it will take us more than an evening to eat this pie... What did others do?
Kirk Breault
Used a few drops of lemon juice instead of cream of tartar and everything worked like a charm.
Barbara Cohen
I made double the filling and meringue for a 2” deep 9” pie pan. I used The NY Times crust suggested and it was delicious. Most importantly I used 3/4 cup of lemon juice for the double recipe and did not use any zest. The pie was perfect. Lemony, not too sweet, but not too tart either. It was a hit all around. I encourage people to try to give the pie 2 hours to set. We ate ours about 1 hour after it was baked and it was still too warm. If I could have planned it better I would have waited.
Jessie
Thank you NYTimes for following up on my observation and reapportioning the serving size in the nutritional information. I feel heard.
JMR
Allowing the filling to cool down a fair bit, before sealing with meringue, should stop leakage.
Alex M.
Seems like the recipe may have been updated as I had plenty of filling - it certainly was not overfilled but ended with about an inch-deep fill. I added extra lemon juice and was glad to have done so.
I used my go-to pie dough recipe, but this recipe would taste best with a crust more like a pastry tart crust, and my pie crust recipe is exceedingly flaky (perfect for fruit pies, but wrong here). I'll try http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016816-sweet-tart-dough next time.
Michael
Made this as written and can see why many are doubling the recipe for filling or meringue or both. BUT I don’t believe this is meant to be the lofty pie of childhood marshmallow dreams. The amount of filling more closely resembles that of tarte au citron, and while a slice isn’t pictured on the recipe page, it’s clear that the meringue sits well inside the crust and not above it. The filling is potent enough as is; doubling it would be overkill. This recipe is about flavor not grandeur.
KIm
There's not enough curd or meringue for a 9-inch-wide/2-inch deep pie dish. I double both the curd and the meringue. I use 1.5 cups fresh squeezed lemon juice and double all the other ingredients for the curd. I pass the curd through a fine-mesh sieve after it cools for 5 minutes. When done, if you refrigerate, the meringue will weep. It's not the end of the world, but that's why it says don't refrigerate.
Brenda Kiefer
Have made this pie many times with amazing results every time. Always double the filling and meringue.
Dana
Skip the vanilla in the meringue. Turned it tan and distracted from the lemon.
Delicious, But Double The Filling!
Delicious. I halved the sugar for the meringue and added the zest of 2 lemons to the filling. Next time I make it I'll double the lemon filling recipe.
Sandy
Two Meyer lemons produce more than 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) juice. The tip for using lime juice specifies 6 tablespoons lime juice plus 1 tablespoon water so the volume of lemon juice doesn’t make sense. I followed the recipe using lime juice and water and it made a nice pie in an 8” pie shell. More filling and meringue would be needed for a larger pie as others have noted.
Meghan
Followed recipe as written and it was the best lemon meringue we’ve ever had! With the filling and the meringue, it fills the 9” plate to the top of the crust. This isn't meant on be one of those towering pies, but I’m sure you could adjust the meringue recipe to make more to pile high. I found this recipe to be the perfect amount of filling to meringue.
Westopher
With nearly 1,600 ratings and 5 stars, I had pretty high expectations. Followed the directions to the letter, and ended-up with a pie with barely half an inch of filling, and a meringue that looked fine for about 15 minutes before shrinking to half its size as it cooled. Worse still? It tasted like acidic nothingness. I'd try again and double the filling as so many suggest, but this clearly is not the recipe for me.
Lara
I had significant weeping with thus meringue recipe and the lemon filling did not set. I tried it again with some cornstarch in both the filling and the meringue and the structural integrity was maintained.
pokey
I made this pie for Thanksgiving. Sadly, it was too runny (I thought it had set) an the meringue weeped all over everything. Ugh. Not enough filling or meringue in the recipe for 9 inch crust. It tasted fine but was a mess on the dessert buffet.
Lara
I had the exact same issue! I had more success using cornstarch instead of cream of tartar in the meringue and adding cornstarch to the lemon filling.
Pokey
I also needed to double the recipe for filling.
steve
2023 1 stick butter 8 T sugar, 3/4 C juice, 10 eggs, pate sucre crust
Vivian
this recipe only made 1/2 the filling required to cover the bottom of a 9" pie crust. I quickly made it a second time and layered it into the pie crust.
Carson
Quality lemon meringue recipe. I do have a few notes: First, I added the zest of 3 large lemons since I like my curd to have a bit more bite to it. Second, I disagree with others saying the amount of curd wasn’t enough. This pie is meant to be half curd and half meringue, so I would use a regular pie crust and not a deep dish crust. Third, patience is key with the meringue! If it still turns out slightly runny after an extra 15 minutes of beating, adding a small amount of cornstarch helped.
Weezer
Wonderful. I used a larger pie plate and increased the filling and topping by 50%.
Hill
I just made this recipe and it is truly delicious and looks amazing. But as other people noted it is a trial and error recipe. I made my own classic sweet pastry 9 inch pie crust. Doubled the recipe for filling and meringue. Used less sugar in the meringue and refrigerated overnight. It did weep, but it didn’t taste soggy, which makes me think that you should make the meringue first and filling second. That way you can cover the filling with meringue when it is hot.
christina
This was delicious! I halved the filling and meringue recipes to make four lemon meringue tarts for a dinner for two with my husband. Delicious!
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