Lemon Meringue Pie

Hello lemon lovers! And those of you who are reading this who may despise lemon, hello to you too! : ) Lemon meringue pie is one of Garrett's and my favorite desserts. I was flipping through my InStyle magazine and came across a recipe for it and we decided to make it last night at 11:45pm. The recipe I have has a surprise ingredient: poppy seeds. However, because we are boring and because Garrett once saw a Seinfeld episode where Elaine had poppy seeds before a drug test and ended up failing due to the poppy seeds, we decided to do without them. I recently was hired for a new job where there will be drug testing and Garrett's Seinfeld story scared me away from adding the poppy seeds. But by all means if you aren't being drug tested, don't believe in the Seinfeld theory, or just wanted the added bonus of a cute crust, add them!

Recipe:

Poppy Seed Crust

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 tbsp poppy seeds

Pinch of salt

1/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 inch cubes

1/2 cup ice-cold water

1. Mix flour, poppy seeds, and salt. 2. Mix butter into dry mixture until it has a sand-like consistency, with butter the size of peas. 3. Add water 1tbsp at a time until dough is just combined. 4. Flatten into a disc, wrap with foil, and chill for 1 hour. 5. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 6. Roll out dough and place in 9 in. pie pan. Trim edges and crimp with back of fork tines. 7. Line crust with parchment, fill with pie weights (we used uncooked beans), bake for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 375 and bake an extra 12 minutes. Let cool.

 Roll out the dough:

Place into pie pan, use fork tines to crimp the crust and have husband put the metal fist into the picture:

Now for the best part! 

Lemon Curd:

1 cup water

1/2 milk

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup cornstarch

5 egg yolks

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)

Zest from 3 lemons

4 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Bring water, milk, sugar, and cornstarch to a boil, whisking continuously. Turn off heat. 2. In a medium bowl, whisk yolks. Very gradually add in 1/2 cup of the hot liquid. 3. Turn on heat, add yolk mixture to pot, whisking vigorously until bubbles appear. 4. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice and zest, whisk until smooth. 5. Slowly stir in butter until melted. 6. Poor over crust. 

Meringue:

5 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1. With a hand mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. 2. Add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Be careful not to over work the meringue. 

 Putting it all together:

1. Preheat oven to 325.

2. Pour lemon curd over crust.

3. Top with meringue. Use whisk to create dramatic peaks.

4. Bake for 20 minutes. Serve chilled.

Let cool before you dig into it!