The Great American Pie Tour

As Easy as Eating Pie

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As presented in Grafton's Valley Messenger. Read Latest Edition

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Lemon Meringue Pie

The Pie that Lincoln Loved

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the mid 1800s, was known as the Athens of America. It was the place where both the Declaration of Independence and the United States Constitution were written. Philadelphia was the Mecca for all the great political minds of the day. As a bustling port town, Philadelphia made lemons, which were considered a delicacy, readily available. And so, one of the greatest innovators in American Cookery, Elizabeth Goodfellow, owner and operator of America’s first cooking school in Philadelphia became the “mother” of lemon meringue pie.

Elizabeth Goodfellow’s school produced many cooks who began to spread her genius of American cookery all over the country. While Elizabeth never produced a cookbook herself, her student Eliza Lesley’s cookbooks gave credit to her recipes and tutelage. Nancy Breedlove, a student of Goodfellow and a hotelier in Illinois where Abraham Lincoln stayed for weeks at a time before he was President, made a lemon custard pie that Lincoln loved! He asked Breedlove to write out the recipe for him. He told her later it was his favourite White House desert.

The more we research American pies, the more we find culture and innovation converge to make wonderful things. We have seen this in every pie we’ve researched. It isn’t just an abundance of harvest that makes us stuff something into a coffin (the first inedible pie crusts), bake it, and eat it. There’s more to the great pies of America. Culture and innovation are why apples are paired with cinnamon and nutmeg, why a cookie crust works better with a chocolate pie, why sweetened condensed milk is used to make key lime pie, and why meringue is made to top a lemon custard. One does not just waist the valuable parts of an egg. Meringue utilises the egg whites and subtly accents the creamy tart lemon curd base. Baking caramelises the meringue for a greater depth of flavour.

We will try the original Goodfellow recipe for Lemon meringue pie, as well as other recipes to find the best one. And mastering meringue will be a wonderful challenge!

You can find posts of our recipe progress, "tips and secrets” and other updates on our FaceBook page @coldbrewcafeaustralia. Search #greatamericanpietour to find our past posts and pies on the Great American Pie Tour and look for the final Lemon Meringue Pie recipe in the next printing of the Valley Messenger.

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Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe:

We employed Alton Brown’s Lemon Meringue Tart recipe for this lovely pie; but we wanted more lemon flavour so we exchanged a ¼ cup lemon juice for ¼ cup of water. This meringue is the best we’ve ever had. It is not to sweet and the perfect complement to the tangy lemon curd.

Paté Brisee:

This recipe makes 2 crusts for 9” pie or 1 full crust pie.
Split dough into two crusts by 340g per crust and freeze one for later.
Weigh, cut into ½” pieces and freeze a minimum of 15 minutes (but longer is better)
250g Butter
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with blades pulse 10 times
340g AP Flour
1 t Salt
1 t Sugar
Add Frozen butter pulse 12 more times
Add ½ C very cold water pulse 12 more times.
Butter should be pea size.
Dump crust mix into a bowl to finish flour distribution.
Compact and divide dough into two disks and refrigerate for minimum 1 hour.
Roll out dough to ⅛” thick and place in pie pan, crimp crust.
Put parchment or foil over crust and use pie weights to bake at 180 ℃ for 30 minutes. Remove pie weights and bake another 10 minutes until golden and crispy.

Separate 4 large eggs
Place the whites in the bowl of a mixer.
Place yolks in a saucepan

Lemon Curd:

Combine off heat:
4 egg yolks
50 grams corn flour
264 grams sugar
1 ¼ cups water
¼ teaspoon salt
¾ c lemon juice
On medium high heat whisking constantly bring to a boil. Turn down heat to bubbly simmer and cook for 1 full minute.
Add off heat whisking until butter is melted:
45 grams unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Pour lemon curd into cooled pie shell.
Cover with cling wrap and chill for at least 3 hours

Meringue:

In the mixing bowl bring whites to a runny foam.
Slowly add:
120 grams sugar
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Double boil while constantly whisking until whites reach 74℃.
Finish in the mixer whisking until whites are silvery, white, and form stiff peaks.

Assemble:

We slice the custard and crust before piping or piling meringue on pie and using a propane torch or a wind resistant lighter slowly toast the top of meringue.

Enjoy!

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