This lemon meringue pie came to be due to a sequence of gifts. The first was Always Home, Alice Waters' daughter's memoir. Reading about a richly aesthetic life in Berkeley, surrounded by dinners cooked over fire and eaten outside in a mild California night had me craving one thing (pie). The second gift was a surprise subscription to NYTimes cooking. I complained to a friend how I had used up free trials with all of my emails and the next day opened up my inbox to find that my complaining had compelled my good, kind friend to gift me a subscription. There is a lesson from this story. I will let you, the reader, determine it. Anyway, reading about Chez Panisse in the early 2000s and hungrily cruising the colorful pages of NY Times's densely populated pages landed me on the Chez Panisse lemon meringue pie recipe. It would be irrepresentative of my life to talk about lemon meringue pie without mentioning Amelia Bedelia. She was one of my favorite literary characters as a child, always misunderstanding directions while having fun. One of my favorite lessons (beyond "complaining will lead you to receiving the thing you desire most") that I learned from Amelia is that you can be very bad at your job, but if you end up making a fabulous lemon meringue pie for your employer, you will be just fine. To honor Amelia's love of chaos, I decided to put a bit of rosemary in the crust. I loved it. The other people who ate the pie didn't notice it. This post has two pies because I really don't like lemon meringue pie. I respect it as a cultural icon. I love the whim of a mess of toasted meringue. I like the process of making custard (due to my love of ice cream). However, lemon is my favorite flavor and I often feel sad that the pie it is most connected to is lemon meringue. I made this second pie a week after the lemon meringue to remind myself exactly what I want out of a lemon pie. The base is whipped lemon (more a mousse than a custard) and the topping is simple whipped cream. To me, that is all a lemon dessert should be. A neutral dairy base with over the top lemon flavor. Maybe some rosemary in the crust. Chez Panisse Lemon Meringue Pie
Recipe from NYT Cooking Yield: 1 pie | Total Time: 4 hours Ingredients 1 Round of pie dough For the filling: 2 Meyer lemons 2 eggs 3 egg yolks 6 tbsp sugar 3 tbsp salted butter, cut in 3 pieces 3 tbsp unsalted butter, cut in 3 pieces For the meringue: 3 egg whites, at warm room temperature ¼ tsp cream of tartar 6 tbsp superfine sugar ½ tsp vanilla extract Directions For the filling, grate the zest from the lemons into a bowl; strain in the lemon juice. In a saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks and sugar until just mixed. Stir in the lemon mixture, then the six tablespoons of butter. Cook, stirring constantly, over low to medium heat, until the mixture comes together and thickens enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat, allow to stand five minutes, then whisk briefly to smooth. Set aside. For the crust - preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line the rolled out and briefly frozen shell with aluminum foil, weight with beans or pie weights and bake for 20 minutes, or until set and dry looking. Remove the weights and foil, turn the heat down to 350 and continue baking until shell is golden brown, about 12 to 15 minutes. Set aside and allow to cool slightly. Spread the prepared filling in the shell and bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the filling is just set. Remove pie and turn oven to 375. For the meringue, beat the egg whites until frothy, add the cream of tartar and continue beating until rounded peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla. Spread the meringue over the filling, making sure it meets the edges of the crust to make a seal. Swirl in a design with a knife or spatula and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned. Allow to cool completely, from one to two hours, but do not refrigerate.
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