Lemon Meringue Pie

Instructions

Pastry Instructions

1. To start, blend together flour, salt, and sugar in a food processor. Then add in cold butter and shortening. Combine until the butter is pea-sized. Then add water and mix until the pastry comes together. This shouldn’t take long!
2. Place dough in the freezer to rest for 15-20 minutes.
3. Once chilled, roll out half the dough and leave the rest for another day. Place in a 9-inch pie plate.
4. In a preheated oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit, blind bake the pastry for 15-20 minutes (or until the edges are browned) with beans/weights on top of parchment paper to keep it from puffing up too much. 
5. In the last 5 minutes, remove the parchment and weight to let the bottom get some colour.

Filling Instructions

1. In a large pot, add sugar, salt, and cornstarch for the filling. Whisk together. Gradually pour in the water while whisking.
2. Over medium-high heat, bring the mixture to a boil, and boil gently for 3 minutes, whisking constantly. You may consider lowering the heat to medium.
3. Remove from heat; this is when you temper the yolks. Gradually whisk some of the hot mixture into the egg yolks, about half. Once done, add the yolks back to the pot.
4. Return to medium heat and cook for another 2 minutes, whisking all the while, until removing to add in lemon juice, zest, and butter. Let cool for a couple of minutes before pouring into the pie shell.

Meringue Instructions

1. While waiting for the filling to cool, whisk egg whites and cornstarch until soft peaks form, then gradually add in the sugar beating it until you have stiff peaks.

Baking Instructions

1. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F.
2. Pour filling into pie crust, smooth meringue on top, but keep some peaks. 
3. Bake for 15 minutes, or until peaks and edges of the meringue are a nice golden brown.
4. Let cool for at least 2 hours and then serve.