Monday, January 28, 2008

Lemon Soup Meringue Pie

This month's Daring Bakers Challenge was to make Lemon Meringue Pie. I was excited to try this recipe since it was my favorite dessert when I was growing up. I think I have made one or two in the past but it has been a LONG time.

It is definitely lemon season around here. I have a basket full of lemons from our lemon tree and several bags of Meyer lemons that friends have given me. I love using Meyer lemons; they are a little sweeter and very juicy.

The challenge was set by Jen at The Canadian Baker. You can find the recipe on her site. The recipe seemed pretty straightforward though a number of bakers reported having problems with the filling. I had waited to the last day to make the pie but it seemed like I would have plenty of time. The dough for the pie crust came together fine and it was easy to roll out. The kids had fun helping me roll out the dough and then they played with the extra dough. I didn't have pie weights so I raided the kid's piggy bank and used about $5 in change in the foiled lined crust. After baking the crust had shrunk a bit and didn't look as pretty but it was a nice golden brown.

Since I had to let it cool for the filling, I went to the grocery store though that took a whole lot longer than I expected. Once I got home, it was close to dinner time so I assembled the rest of the pie while heating up soup and boiling noodles. The filling involves cooking cornstarch and sugar in water until thick, adding it to egg yolks and cooking a bit more and then adding butter and lemon juice plus zest. The cornstarch and sugar got very thick, after adding the egg yolks and cooking a bit more, it was still very thick. But after adding the butter and lemon juice, it was more like soup. I thought it might thicken up more as it cooled but after adding the meringue on top, baking it for 20 more minutes, and then letting it cool, it was definitely not set.

Even though it wasn't pretty, the pie still tasted good. It was more like buttery crust and meringue with lemon sauce on top but it was still good. The lemon filling was tart but went well with the sweet meringue. I definitely want to try this again and get it right.

6 comments:

Deborah said...

It looks great - and as long as it tasted good, that's what matters!

Dolores said...

It's funny how a "quick trip" to the grocery store rarely is. I'm glad your pie tasted good, even if it didn't meet your expectations visually.

Molly Loves Paris said...

Your pie looks lovely, and you photo is really nice. I've been trying to figure out why some people have sauce instead of curd. It could be that you cooked the filling too long after it came to a boil, or you had it on too high a heat. Did it look like a sauce when you were done and putting it into the shell, or did it seem to turn into a sauce later, like after you cooked the meringue? Well I'm glad to hear yo ate it. One person threw it out!

Lunch Buckets said...

Maybe a nice summer dessert soup? Oh well - at least it tasted good!

Unknown said...

I hope you do try it again becuase this is a great pie. Yours looks great!

creampuff said...

Hey ... it looks pretty to me!