Lemon Meringue Pie
It all began with good neighbors. Years ago when our neighbors the Beekman’s moved to Lake City, a friend gave them a lemon and told them to plant the seeds—and they did. The seed sprouted and years later it was a tree that produced lots of lemons. So, like a good neighbor, they shared some lemons with the Tinsman’s down the road. Fast forward a few more years and the Tinsman’s shared some lemons with us—with the instructions to plant some seeds. That is just what we did. The seeds sprouted, and we had buckets of trees. We sent one home with my piano students, and another home with one of our workers, and we were left with two—but we didn’t know where to plant them. Then as the garden began to take shape, we decided to plant our little lemon trees in the middle of two of the 10 ft by 10 ft raised beds. There they grew for the next 7 years. Our friends trees had grown huge, and were producing massive amounts of lemons—but our two trees were staying small, being frozen back, finally growing—but producing NO lemons. The time came a few yeas ago to rebuild the garden boxes, and we decided that since the lemon tree would not produce, we would dig it up and replace it with a rose bush. Mom headed to the garden shed to get the pruners, and a shovel. Before she could get back our worker Steve declared—”It’s got flowers!” We teased that the tree feared for its life, and mustered all its energy to push out a few flowers to save its life. It worked, for instead of cutting it down, we pruned it and fed it, and put nice pretty flowers around it. That year a late freeze destroyed the fruit, but the next year it produced some lemons. This year the Ponderosa lemon tree (as we found out it is called), produced an abundance of lemons—large 2 to 5 pound lemons. They say that the Ponderosa lemon tree never knows when “enough is enough,” and it just produces to its hearts content.
The Ponderosa Lemon tree weighed down!
So, when life gives you lemons, you juice them and freeze the juice for lemonade throughout the year—but do be sure to save some of the juice to make a Lemon Meringue Pie. Since we are gluten free, I make my pie in individual glass pie plates. You can use custard cups, or just pour it into a precooked crust. The nice thing about using individual pie plates—you get to eat the whole pie all by yourself. I have also learned that it is best to make your meringue first—since it is supposed to go on the filling while the filling is still hot.
Lemon Meringue Pie
Lemon Filling:
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/2 cup arrowroot powder
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups sugar -I used Florida Organic Raw Sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
Meringue Topping:
4 egg whites
½ teaspoon cream of tartar 3 tablespoons sugar
Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
How to make the Meringue Topping:
Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top lemon filling.
Soft peak
Flat, but pointy
Stiff peaks
They stand firm in the mixer, and have lots of “mountain peaks.”
How to make the Lemon Filling:
Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.
In a medium saucepan, combine arrowroot powder, water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring constantly, bring mixture to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and gradually, half cup at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.
Return egg mixture to saucepan, return to the stove on medium heat, cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into custard cups and top with meringue while filling is still hot.
Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it touches the edges of the custard cups .
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure it is cooled completely before eating.
Then of course the only thing left to do is grab a spoon, dig in and ENJOY!