Lemon Meringue Pie

As my mom can attest, I have had a lifelong infatuation with this particular dessert, and she has always been a fairly willing party to it, despite the fact that making lemon meringue pie is a good way to "dirty up every dish in the kitchen", to use her words. Consequently, I determined to put this theory to the test by making it as a surprise for mother's day when she came to visit. I realize that making one of *my* favorite desserts for a day dedicated to her is probably not the most thoughtful thing I could've done, but she likes it too, so everyone's happy.

From what I recall from my youth, making the pie was somewhere around 1-2 hours of actual work, excluding cleanup. Despite my best efforts at cleaning implements as I used them, this *did* indeed get a lot of different pans, bowls, and utensils dirty, but I didn't particularly mind this because it's truly a fascinating dish to make. It incorporates two very different baking staples (foam and custard) and thus provides a great deal for fledgling bakers to learn from. Of course, this also means there are plenty of potential stumbling blocks to encounter; thankfully, I didn't hit too many of these and those few that I did didn't have a huge impact on the final product.

But enough rambling. As with many of my recipes, I heisted my base from Good Eats, borrowing heavily from the actual episode ("I Pie") for the timing of certain steps. These instructions were particularly important for avoiding the soupy or watery problems with the custard that I have seen in any number of restaurant-produced versions.

Ingredients:
Lemon Custard
4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
1 1/3 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon zest

Meringue
4 egg whites
2 tablespoons sugar

1 Pie Crust (blind-baked)

Directions:
Preheat the oven to 375F (I always perform this step first, as it allows me to ensure that the oven retains much temperature after I open the door and let all the hot air out). The pie must be constructed in three distinct phases, and in a particular order: crust (if not using premade--I didn't), meringue, custard. The reasoning behind this is covered later.

After creating the crust, add the egg whites to the mixer bowl and hand-whip them a little bit to get the foam started (I did this with the whisk attachment for the mixer to save a utensil from being washed). Beat the eggs on medium-high speed until soft peaks form. Slowly add the sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks arise.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator.

For the custard, it is important to start off with a cold saucepan (I think a saucier would work better, but I don't have one). Add the water, corn starch, sugar, and salt and whisk until the ingredients are fairly well combined. The important part in this step is to make sure that the starch dissolves completely; otherwise, clumps may form in the final custard. Place the pan on medium heat and bring the mixture to a boil, stirring constantly. Once boiling is reached, the textural difference will be remarkable as the starch thickens things up to a fine goo. Boil for one minute, then remove the pan from the heat. Now comes the tricky part: tempering the egg yolks. In order to ensure that the yolks don't get heated too quickly, you must slowly bring up their temperature before adding them to the mixture. To do this, use the whisk to scoop up some of the sugar mixture and whisk it into the yolks. It's important that you don't add too much at once, which is why the whisk is used. Repeat this step until about half the sugar mixture has been added to the yolks, then dump the yolks into the pan (at this point, they are both diluted and warm enough to not cook prematurely).

Return the pan to the heat and reduce the temperature to low. Cook the mixture, stirring steadily, for at least another minute. This step eliminates an enzyme contained in the egg yolks that causes the watery condensation that destroys many a lemon meringue pie (this is due to their reaction with the corn starch, from my understanding; cooking them now effectively turns the enzyme off). Remove from the heat again and slowly stir in the lemon zest and juice. Note that it will take a few minutes to incorporate the juice, as the watery liquid will not want to mix with the fatty custard. Once the mix has reached a relatively creamy texture, pour it into the pie shell and set aside.

At this point, you *must* apply the meringue as soon as possible to ensure that the custard binds to it properly; otherwise, the meringue simply separates from the second layer and makes for a less presentable (although just as delicious) pie. Remove the meringue from the refrigerator and whisk it on the mixer (on medium-high speed) for a minute to "wake up" the meringue. Smear the meringue on top of the custard, making sure that it reaches all edges of the crust, lest it retract during cooking and not bind properly.

Bake for 12 minutes or until meringue is golden brown on the top. Remove and cool on a wire rack before serving.