Lemon Meringue Pie (American)
Serves 6–8 Time Prep: 45 minutes Baking: ~35 minutes Difficulty 3/5 Ingredients 13 Steps 16
This is the American old-fashioned lemon meringue pie with a gel-like filling. If you want a sticky filling, use the British Lemon Meringue Pie recipe instead.
Ingredients
Pie filling
- 1½ cups (360 ml) cold water
- 1 cup (240 g) white granulated sugar
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (120 ml) lemon juice (from about 2 lemons or bottled lemon juice)
- 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from about 2 lemons)
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 4 egg yolks, beaten
- ⅛ teaspoon ground turmeric
Meringue
- 4 egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 6 tablespoons white granulated sugar
Steps
Pie crust
- Prepare and bake Grandma's Pie Crust, or a ready-made refrigerated or frozen pie crust.
- Cool.
Pie filling
- In a saucepan, whisk together the water, sugar, flour, cornstarch, salt, turmeric, lemon juice and lemon zest. Stir until lumps dissolve.
- Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture simmers.
- Add the butter. Stir until melted.
- Beat the egg yolks in a small bowl. Stir in about ½ cup (120 g) of the hot lemon mixture to temper the yolks.
- Pour the tempered egg mixture into the simmering lemon mixture. Stir until well mixed.
- Simmer about 2 minutes, stirring constantly, until thickened.
- Pour into the cooled pie shell. Cool while preparing the meringue.
Meringue
- Whip 4 egg whites in a mixer at high speed until foamy.
- Add the cream of tartar. Continue beating, adding sugar 1 tablespoon at a time, about 30 seconds between additions.
- Beat until stiff peaks form when the beaters are raised.
- Spread the meringue over the pie with a rubber spatula, starting on the filling and spreading over the crust edges to seal in the filling.
- Form peaks: touch the meringue with the flat side of a rubber spatula and pull away. Repeat over the whole surface.
- Bake at 350°F (180°C), 15 minutes, until the high points are lightly browned.
- Serve at room temperature or chilled.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Lemon Meringue Pie (American)” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-26, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Photo. Lemon Meringue Pie 1.jpg by H Padleckas, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia. Resized; otherwise unchanged.