Lemon Pie

Posted for Wendy!!



Lemon Meringue Pie

Crust
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons (very cold) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup (chilled) vegetable shortening, cut into 4 pieces
2 tablespoons ice cold vodka
1-2 tablespoons ice water

1. Process ¾ cup flour, salt, and sugar in food processor using 2-3, one-second pulses. Add butter and shortening and process for 10 seconds (dough will be in uneven clumps – do not over process… there should be visible pieces of butter but no dry (uncoated) flour. until homogeneous dough just starts to collect in uneven clumps, about 15 seconds (dough will resemble cottage cheese curds and there should be no uncoated flour). Scrape bowl of food processor with rubber spatula to redistribute dough around blade. Add remaining ½ cup flour and pulse quickly, 4-6 times. Empty flour mixture into a bowl.

2. Sprinkle cold vodka and ice water over mixture. Mix lightly with a rubber spatula or by hand until dough sticks together. (But don’t handle too much—the key to flaky crust is minimal handling.) Gather dough into a disk and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for one hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees and move oven rack to lowest position.

3. After one hour, roll out dough and place in pie plate. (For this crust, you may want to roll out between two sheets of waxed paper, using extra flour sparingly if needed.) Refrigerate dough in pie plate for 20 minutes.

4. Remove from refrigerator and line crust with foil. Fill with pie weights (or pennies—the copper is a good heat conductor). Place pie plate on rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes.

5. Remove from oven, remove foil and weights. Rotate crust on baking sheet and return to oven for 10 minutes or until crust is crisp and golden . Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Lemon Filling:
1 cup sugar
¼ cup + 1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups cold water
6 egg yolks
1 tablespoon lemon zest and juice from 3 lemons (about ½ cup)
2 tablespoons butter

1.Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and water in saucepan. Simmer over medium heat, whisking as mixture thickens. When mixture simmers, whisk egg yolks into the pan. Add lemon zest, lemon juice. Continue to simmer and add butter. Whisk over low heat until mixture becomes thick.

2.Leave lemon filling in the pan and cover with plastic wrap while meringue is prepared.

Meringue Topping:
6 egg whites
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ to ½ cup sugar (depending on your preference)

1.Preheat oven to 325 degrees and adjust oven rack to middle position.
2.Beat egg whites and vanilla until foamy.
3.Mix cream of tartar and sugar in small bowl.
4.Continue beating egg white mixture, adding sugar in small amounts, until still peaks form.
5.Remove plastic wrap from lemon filling and return to low heat very briefly. Pour hot filling into baked (cooled) pie shell.
6.Top with meringue and bake the pie until meringue begins to brown. (10-15 minutes). Remove from oven and cool for several hours.


(Adapted from Cook's Illustrated and The New Best Recipe Cookbook)