Although I have made pies in the past, meringue pie was a new venture for me with this episode. I don’t have anything against meringue pies, though I suppose I probably prefer a good double-crusted fruit pie. Having made Alton’s pecan pie last Thanksgiving, I was pretty confident that Alton’s lemon meringue pie would be spectacular. He broke his pie recipe into two parts, the first being the crust.
Pie Crust
Alton’s pie crust calls for both butter and lard, with the butter primarily providing flavor and the lard ensuring a flaky texture. The recipe starts with placing 3 oz of cubed butter in the freezer for 15 minutes, along with 1 oz of cubed lard. Also, at this time, place two pie plates in the freezer.
Lard and butter, cubed and headed to the freezer.
While the fat chills, put some ice in a squirt bottle with 1/4 C water. Next, in a food processor pulse together 6 ounces of flour with 1/2 t salt.
Flour and salt in the food processor.
Add the chilled butter, pulsing the mixture five or six times.
Add the cubed lard and pulse three more times.
Use the squirt bottle to thoroughly spritz the surface of the flour mixture and pulse the dough five times.
Spritzing dough surface with ice water.
The dough should hold together when squeezed, which should take approximately 2 T of ice water. Continue spritzing the dough with more water until it holds together easily without crumbling. I found that I needed to spritz the dough several times.
Once the dough holds together, move the dough to a large ziplock bag, squeezing the dough into a ball, and then flattening it into a disc. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
When the dough has chilled, remove it from the refrigerator and cut off the two sides of the ziplock bag, leaving the zipper top and the sealed bottom intact. Open the bag and flour both sides of the dough.
Edges of sides of ziplock cut off, and dough floured.
Close the bag again and use a rolling pin to roll the dough until it barely reaches beyond the open edges of the bag. I love Alton’s method of rolling pie dough in a bag because it keeps my counter and rolling pin clean!
Floured dough, rolled out inside of ziplock bag.
Peel back the plastic and re-flour the top of the dough.
Ziplock opened and top surface re-floured.
Place one of your chilled pie pans on top of the floured dough and flip the dough onto the back of the pan.
Remove the plastic from the dough and place the second cold pie plate upside down on the dough, so the dough is between the two pie plates (the dough will be lining the second plate).
Second cold pie plate placed on top of dough upside down, so dough is lining second pie plate.
Flip the pie plates again and remove the top plate (the first one), and your second pie plate will be perfectly lined with your dough; just be sure to press the dough down into the edges of the pan.
Pie plates flipped over with dough between them. Dough is lining second pie plate.
Cut away any excess dough hanging over the edges. There is no need to make the dough edges fancy, as they will be covered with meringue. Use a fork to dock the bottom of the crust and place the dough in the refrigerator to cool for 10-15 minutes. This helps to form fat layers in the dough, which will yield a flaky crust.
Docked dough. Excess dough removed.
While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 425. When the oven is ready, place the pie crust on a baking sheet, line it with parchment paper, and fill the crust with dried beans or pie weights. Bake the crust for 15 minutes.
Crust lined with parchment and beans, and placed in oven for 15 minutes.
After 15 minutes, remove the parchment and beans/weights, and bake the crust for an additional 10-15 minutes, or until golden.
Let the crust cool completely before using. You could use this pie crust for any type of pie, but I had to continue on and make a lemon meringue filling, as that was what Alton did in the episode. This pie crust recipe is super easy and I love Alton’s tips/tricks for rolling the dough and lining the pie plate.
Lemon Meringue Pie
I ended up making Alton’s lemon meringue pie twice in two days. Why? My first lemon meringue pie was lemon soup. I had followed Alton’s directions exactly as he made the pie in the episode, which resulted in a filling that was not nearly thick enough. For my second pie, I cooked my filling much longer than Alton recommended and ended up with a perfect pie. Here, I’ll go through the steps as Alton did them, giving my recommended changes along the way. The lemon meringue pie begins with making the meringue. Place 4 egg whites (save the yolks for the lemon filling) in the bowl of a mixer and add a pinch of cream of tartar (helps to denature proteins).
Whip the whites by hand until they are frothy.
Egg whites beaten to a froth by hand.
Then, beat with the mixer on medium-high. When you have a light foam in the bowl, begin slowly adding 2 T sugar with the mixer running.
Beat the whites until you have stiff peaks. You can check for stiff peaks by quickly dipping/withdrawing your beater – if a peak forms and remains, you have stiff peaks. If a peak forms, but falls, you need to keep beating. Once you have stiff peaks, place a pan lid on the bowl and set it aside in a cool place.
Oh, and preheat your oven to 375. To make the lemon filling, whisk 4 egg yolks in a medium bowl and set them aside.
Beaten egg yolks.
In a saucier whisk together 1/3 C cornstarch and 1 1/2 C water, placing it over medium heat.
Cornstarch and water in saucier.
Whisk 1 1/3 C sugar and 1/4 t salt into the starch mixture. Stir this mixture often, bringing it to a boil.
Once boiling, simmer the mixture for an additional minute.
Simmering starch mixture.
Remove the pan from the heat and slowly beat about half of the hot mixture into the bowl of beaten egg yolks, adding only a whisk-full at a time.
When half of the hot mixture has been added to the yolks, whisk the egg mixture back into the pan.
Egg mixture whisked back into saucier.
Alton tells you to return the pan to the heat, simmering it for one minute; I did this with my first pie and the mixture was very runny, but I assumed it would thicken later. Nope. Instead, for my second pie, I cooked the mixture for about 10 minutes, until it was bubbling and quite thick. Keep in mind that the mixture will not thicken much later, so you want it to resemble your desired pie filling texture now.
Once thickened, turn off the heat and stir in 3 T butter.
Butter whisked in.
When the butter has melted, add 1 T lemon zest and 1/2 C fresh lemon juice.
Finished lemon filling.
Pour the filling into the baked/cooled crust.
Finished lemon filling poured into cooled crust.
Working quickly, beat your meringue again for about 30 seconds to plump it up.
Refreshed meringue.
Dump the meringue on the hot lemon filling, spreading it with a spatula to seal it against the crust edges. Smooth the top.
Meringue, spread onto hot lemon filling.
Place the pie on a baking sheet and bake it at 375 for 10-12 minutes, or until golden. Let the pie cool completely before slicing.
Meringue after baking.
A slice of lemon meringue pie.
This pie was great… the second time around. Alton’s crust recipe is fool-proof, flaky, and buttery. His lemon filling has a perfect balance of tartness and sweetness, and is bursting with lemon flavor. And, his meringue came out perfectly both times I made it. If you are interested in making a lemon meringue pie, do this one, but be sure to cook your lemon filling until it is thick.
Allison Cooks Alton's Good Eats 