Mistakes . . .

Ok - so sorry for posting the family -o-meter on our site. You guys were probably thinking . . .what the heck? It downloads it automatically and I thought I was downloading it to my personal blog instead of the cooking blog (I use the same username and password for both).



Anyway, it's been a long time since I've been on here so I thought I better contribute. I made my first lemon meringue pie for my Dad's birthday (his favorite) recently. It turned out to be absolutely gorgeous - but a total mess! I was so distraught! The pie TASTED FABULOUS but the filling did not set AT ALL! I was so worried about doing the meringue part right (which turned out awesome) that I guess I didn't worry too much about the filling. I followed the recipe exactly so I'm not sure if I just did something wrong or if it was the recipe. I am posting the recipe below and hopefully someone can tell me what I did wrong, how to make it better in the future, or post a better recipe for me.



Thanks for all your help!

Lemon Meringue Pie

Use the egg whites left over from separating eggs for the lemon filling to make the meringue. Letting the egg whites stand at room temperature is okay for up to 30 minutes. They'll beat up well after being out of the refigerator for a short time.



Pastry for One-Crust Pie (note: I used Carrie's awesome pie crust recipe for this)



Filling:

3 large egg yolks (reserve the egg whites for meringue)

1 1/2 cups sugar

1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 1/2 cups water

3 tablespoons butter or stick margarine

2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

1/2 cup lemon juice

2 drops yellow food color, if desired

1. Bake pastry for baked one-crust pie.

2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Complete step 2 of Meringue.

3. While sugar mixture for meringue is colling, beat egg yolks with fork in small bowl; set aside. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 2-quart saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stiffing constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute.

4. Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture into egg yolks, then stir back into hot mizture in saucepan. Boil and stif 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon peel, lemon juice and food color. Press plastic wrap on filling to prevent a tough layer from forming on top.

5. Complete step 3 of meringue onto hot lemon filling. Spread over filling, carefully sealing meringue to edge of crust to prevent shrinking or weeping.

6. Bake 15 minutes or until meringue is light brown. Cool away from draft 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate cooled pie until serving. Store covered in refrigerator.

Meringue:

1/2 cup sugar

4 teaspoons cornstarch

1/2 cup cold water

4 large egg whites

1/8 teaspoon salt

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 1-quart saucepan. Stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Cool completely while making filling for pie recipe. (To cool more quickly, place in freezer for about 10 minutes).

3. Beat egg whiltes and salt in large bowl with electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks just begin to form. Very gradually beat in sugar mixture until stiff peaks form.

4. Spoon meringue onto hot pie filling. Spread over filling, carefully sealing meringue to edge of crust to prevent shrinking. Bake about 15 minutes or until meringue is light brown. Cool away from drafts.