A Tale of Two LMPs

On a business trip recently, a quick Yelp search yielded a result that sounded promising. A local diner, more than one person gushed about their desserts. Specifically, they gushed about their pie. Including this teaser:

"The pies...you must try coconut creme or lemon meringue."

So, of course, I went.


You should understand that Lemon Meringue Pie is, for me, kind of an obsession. I'll try just about any LMP, because I'm perennially in search of my ideal. I'm sure the perfect LMP is out there. I just haven't found it yet.

You probably know that I want a firm crust. After all, I believe that pie should offer distinct textures, and the crust is just one of them. The filling should be soft, yet firm enough to hold it's shape after being cut. It should be extremely tart, to balance the sweet meringue. And it should just explode with lemon flavor. All of this lemon perfection should be topped with beautiful, snowy, meringue. Enough meringue to give textural contrast, but not enough to get in the way of the lemon flavor.

This is the lemon pie that haunts my dreams.

At the diner, the pie was a little bit of a disappointment. Not a firm enough crust (I know that there are people who believe that crust should be soft; they're crazy.) The filling was too sweet, and clearly set with cornstarch, probably dyed with food color. The meringue tasted like, well, meringue. Which is pretty tasteless, when it comes right down to it. Of course, I ate the whole piece of pie. It's like bad pizza, it's still pretty good.

Back at home, I needed to make five LMPs. For a party, not for my personal consumption. Even though I had a very clear idea of what I wanted out of this pie, I had never actually tried to make one. My first attempt came from one of my favorite cookbooks. It started with a partially baked pie crust, topped with a briefly cooked lemon custard which was folded together with beaten egg whites. The whole thing was baked briefly, just enough to set the egg whites into a foam. The result was like a LMP where the topping had gotten confused with the filling and baked together. I mean, it looked like food, it just didn't eat like food. To make matters worse, the filling, once cut, looked disturbingly like scrambled eggs in a pie crust.  Discouraged, I went to bed to sleep on it.

The next day, I woke with new inspiration. I had never seen this recipe, but it seemed like everything should work. I fully baked a pie crust, then filled it with a lemon curd recipe that I had tested a few months ago. Lemon curd can be too sweet, almost cloying, but not this stuff.  It will wake you up in the morning.  I still wasn't sure what would happen when chilled, though. It was possible the curd would not come to a complete set, making for a delicious mess. It could also leak liquid into the crust, ruining the texture of the pie. I put it in the fridge to determine the result.

Never one for patience, I pulled it out and cut a piece only a couple of hours later. Not complete success, yet, but I was on the way. I could tell after cutting it that I had cut too soon. The top of the pie was completely chilled, about a centimeter down was not yet chilled. And, true to form, the chilled portion retained the cut, while the room temp portion pooled together. Still, I ate the piece and the flavor was pretty amazing. I put the rest of the pie back in the fridge to see if it would all set up to my liking. A few hours later, the next piece emerged completely set and clean. The crust was still firm, not soft. I mean, you could pick up a piece of pie and eat it out of hand. Not that I would do that, honey.

Is my search for the perfect LMP over? Well, no. I have yet to try this out on non-family members. It was really too strong for Thing One and Thing Two. And I do have some remaining questions about that crust.  Was the crust I used really the best? Could I come up with another one, maybe one that would elevate the final product? I'll have to keep on trying and let you know.

The Best LMP I've had yet:

Crust:

1 ⅔ C. instant flour (such as Wondra)
7 Tbsp. + 1 ½ tsp. butter-flavored shortening
1 tsp. salt
2 scant tsp. nonfat dry milk powder
1 ½ tsp. light corn syrup
1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
¼ C. + 2 tsp. water

Pre-heat your oven to 350 (I know, it's a little low, but I tried it and I like it for this crust.)

Process the flour and the shortening in a food processor until crumbly, rather worked in. 

In a measuring cup, stir together the salt, nonfat dry milk, corn syrup, vinegar, and water. Add this liquid to the flour mixture a little at a time, processing well after each addition. Process until the dough comes together.  I've found that it remains crumbly, and needs to be pressed together.)

Roll out the crust between two pieces of parchment paper.

Fit the crust into a pie pan, dock it with a fork (poke holes in the bottom so air doesn't get trapped and make bubbles, which are less fun to eat.) Make the edge look pretty.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until done.

Filling:

5 Lemons
4 eggs
1 ½ C. sugar
2 sticks of butter

Juice the lemons.  Using a microplane grater, remove the zest from the lemon rinds.  Put juice, zest, eggs, sugar, and butter into a pan and whisk together.  Cook over medium heat, whisking gently the entire time, just until it boils.  Once it boils, remove from the heat, pour through a strainer into your pie shell.  Chill this entire concoction until cold and set, probably no less than four hours.

Meringue:

4 egg whites
1/2 C. sugar

Beat the egg whites until foamy. In a slow stream, beat in the sugar. Continue beating until the eggs whites hold stiff peaks, but no longer.

Use a piping bag and a star tip to put pretty little decorative meringue shapes on top of the lemon filling. Use a butane torch and singe the meringue to make it look pretty. Your kids may not dig this recipe. But I do.