This is the perfect lemon meringue pie! With a delicious homemade pie crust, tart and smooth lemon filling, and a fluffy toasted meringue topping, it’s impossible to resist.
Let’s welcome a fresh new season with a fresh new pie—the pie I’ve been taunting you with for weeks!! The beautiful, the timeless, the Classic Lemon Meringue Pie.
My lemon meringue pie recipe has a billowy and toasty meringue topping, a balanced sweet/tart lemon filling, and an extra thick and flaky pie crust. I worked on this recipe for a long time, making at least a dozen meringue pies in the past few months. Both my kitchen and head were exploding lemons. Whenever we had friends or family stop by, I’d force lemon meringue pie on them. “PLEASE TELL ME YOUR THOUGHTS” I begged while barely blinking.
How to Make Lemon Meringue Pie
Over the years and especially the past few months, I learned that lemon meringue pie can be a daunting process but it doesn’t have to be. Let me make this recipe easy for you by giving you a tested (and praised!!!) recipe, lots of helpful recipe notes, and a video so you can watch it come to life. Perhaps you’re looking for Easter dessert recipes? Celebrating a birthday? Or just want to enjoy a beautiful lemon-y pie? No matter your reason, I’ve got you 🙂
- Blind bake pie crust
- Prepare lemon meringue pie filling
- Whip meringue topping
- Spread meringue on top of filling
- Bake pie until toasty brown on top
Now that you have a general idea of the process, let’s learn why this lemon meringue pie recipe works and what mistakes to avoid.
Here’s Why This Recipe Works
There are 3 main roadblocks when making lemon meringue pie: a soggy pie crust, a watery lemon filling, and/or a weeping meringue. Let’s work through each.
- Let’s avoid a soggy pie crust: Start by reviewing how we blind bake pie crust. You want to partially blind bake the crust because it will continue to bake when you bake the assembled lemon meringue pie. Watch me blind bake the crust I use for this lemon meringue pie in my separate post on how to blind bake pie crust. Lots of tips and tricks there. And to get those pretty decorative edges, see my how to crimp and flute pie crust tutorial.
- Let’s avoid a watery lemon filling: This is where I always had the most trouble. Lemon meringue pie filling is basically a thinner version of lemon curd. You’ll temper egg yolks. And before you run away screaming, watch me do this in the video below. Promise it’s not scary. While lemon meringue pie filling should be blissfully creamy, we also want it to be stable enough to slice somewhat neatly. (Think: a slightly firmer version of pudding, but not as firm as jello.) There was a lot of back and forth with the water vs lemon juice vs cornstarch vs sugar amounts. Follow my lemon meringue pie filling below. It’s not too tart, not too sweet, and has the silkiest, yet not-too-watery texture.
- Let’s avoid a weeping meringue: There are many different types of meringue topping, but let’s use a French meringue. Beat egg whites into soft peaks, add sugar, then beat into stiff peaks. Unless you want to waste a bunch of egg whites in failed meringue attempts, read these tips: Make sure you begin with just egg whites. Not even a drip of egg yolks. Make sure the bowl you’re using is completely wiped clean. No oil or water residue. Make sure you add cream of tartar. This will stabilize your meringue. Make sure you add the sugar *after* soft peaks are formed. If added before that, the egg whites could stretch too much which prevents a stiff peak altogether. (These tips apply for my chocolate swirled meringue cookies, too.) Make sure you spread the meringue topping so it touches the pie crust. This seals the lemon filling underneath and allows the crust to grip onto the meringue so the two do not separate. And, finally, don’t make lemon meringue pie on a humid day.
How to Make Lemon Meringue Pie Topping
The meringue toasts in the oven. A lot of recipes call for putting the whole pie under the broiler, but I prefer to bake it so that the egg whites have a chance to cook through. Also, see the end of step 6 in the recipe below. Make sure you spread the meringue topping on while the filling is still warm. The warm filling helps seal the two layers together, preventing separation.
- Did you know? (1) Room temperature egg whites whip faster than cold egg whites. And (2) room temperature egg whites whip into a greater volume than cold egg whites. So make sure your egg whites are at room temperature before starting the meringue.
- Time saving tip: You need 5 egg yolks for the lemon filling and 5 egg whites for the meringue topping. Separate the 5 eggs while they are cold. (Cold eggs separate easier! Remember NO egg yolks in the meringue, not even a smidge.) Leave the egg whites out on the counter. Blind bake the pie crust and prepare the lemon filling. By the time you’re ready to start the meringue, the egg whites will be room temperature.
Meringue can be tricky, but you’re a baker and you can absolutely handle this.
Craving something smaller? Here is my lemon bars recipe. Or, if you’re a lemon dessert lover, check out our top favorites in the The Lemon Dessert Collection.
Print
Classic Lemon Meringue Pie
- Prep Time: 6 hours
- Cook Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours, 10 minutes
- Yield: one 9-inch pie
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
This is the perfect lemon meringue pie! With a delicious homemade pie crust, tart and smooth lemon filling, and a fluffy toasted meringue topping, it’s impossible to resist.
Ingredients
- Homemade Pie Crust*
- 5 large egg yolks (use the whites in the meringue below)
- 1 and 1/3 cups (320ml) water
- 1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup (38g) cornstarch
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (120ml) fresh lemon juice
- 1 Tablespoon lemon zest
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
Meringue
- 5 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Pie crust: I like to make sure my pie dough is prepared before I begin making lemon meringue pie. I always make pie dough the night before because it needs to chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours before rolling out and blind baking (next step).
- Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C) and adjust your oven rack to the lowest position. Partially blind bake pie crust in a 9-inch pie dish. (Follow blind baking instructions through step 9. Be sure to crimp or flute the pie crust edges, too.) Tip: You can get started on the lemon meringue pie filling steps while your crust is blind baking. But making the filling is time sensitive because you will temper the egg yolks, so if multi-tasking isn’t your thing, just wait until your crust is done blind baking before beginning the filling.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350°F (177°C).
- Watch the video below to see how I work through each of the following steps.
- Make the filling: Whisk the egg yolks together in a medium bowl or liquid measuring cup. Set aside. Whisk the water, granulated sugar, cornstarch, salt, lemon juice, and lemon zest together in a medium saucepan over medium heat. The mixture will be thin and cloudy, then eventually begin thickening and bubbling after about 6 minutes. Once thickened, give it a whisk and reduce heat to low.
- Temper the egg yolks: Very slowly stream a few large spoonfuls of warm lemon mixture into the beaten egg yolks. Then, also in a very slow stream, whisk the egg yolk mixture into the saucepan. Turn heat back up to medium. Cook until the mixture is thick and big bubbles begin bursting at the surface. Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the butter. Spread filling into the warm partially baked crust. Set aside as you prepare the meringue. (Don’t let the filling cool down too much as you want a warm filling when you top with the meringue in step 7. The warm filling helps seal the two layers together, preventing separation.)
- Make the meringue: With a handheld mixer or a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar together on medium speed for 1 minute, then increase to high speed until soft peaks form, about 4 more minutes. Add the sugar and salt, then continue beating on high speed until glossy stiff peaks form, about 2 more minutes. Spread meringue on top of filling. (I like to make decorative peaks with the back of a large spoon.) Make sure you spread the meringue all the way to the edges so that it touches the crust. This helps prevent the meringue from weeping.
- Bake pie on the lowest oven rack for 20-25 minutes. (If the meringue is browning too quickly, tent a piece of foil over it as best you can without the foil touching the meringue.) When pie is done, remove from the oven, place on a wire rack, and allow to cool at room temperature for 1 hour before placing in the refrigerator to chill. Chill for 4 hours before slicing and serving.
- Cover any leftovers and store in the refrigerator. Lemon meringue pie tastes best on day 1 because it doesn’t keep very well. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, the meringue will wilt and separate over time. Best to enjoy right away.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: The pie crust can be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. You can also blind bake the crust ahead of time, see how to blind bake pie crust for details. Lemon meringue pie is not the best pie to freeze. The filling and meringue’s texture are never quite the same.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | 9-inch Pie Dish | Rolling Pin | Pie Weights | Glass Mixing Bowls | Citrus Zester | Saucepan | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Pie Crust: My homemade pie crust recipe makes 2 pie crusts. If you use my “dough strip” method explained in my how to blind bake pie crust tutorial, you will need 1 and 1/2 pie crusts. Or you can skip that little trick and just use 1 pie crust.
- Prepare Ahead of Time: Prep all of your ingredients before you begin, including grating the lemon zest and separating the eggs. Don’t multitask unless you’re confident! The filling is time sensitive and you want to make sure everything is ready when you need to add it. Prep all of the meringue ingredients as well. You want them on hand, especially the sugar and salt, the very moment you need them. Don’t walk away from the bowl of egg whites as they whip. Meringue can beat into stiff peaks quite quickly.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Love this recipe!!
Is cream of tartar absolutely mandatory? Can I sub it for anything else?
Hi Eli, Usually substituting 1 teaspoon of lemon juice for 1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar can do the trick for meringue. Let us know if you give it a try!
I think I took the crust direction too literally and overworked the dough while “folding it in on itself”. Ended up stretchy and even the bigger “half” of the dough was pulling back into the pie dish on the pre bake. Was able to rescue that partially and the rest the merengue covered nicely. Theb other partsxwent well. That was a tower of merengue. Can’t wait to try it after it cools and gets a few hours overnight in the fridge.
For us with diabetics in our family could you put the carbs and other nutritional values at the end of the recipe
Hi Rebecca, We don’t usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://www.verywellfit.com/recipe-nutrition-analyzer-4157076
If the meringue wilts, why not use an Italian meringue? Less wilting and separation.
Hi Patricia, you could certainly use an Italian meringue if you prefer. For an Italian-style meringue, you would need to bake the filling (without the meringue on top) for at least 15 minutes. Then, what we would do, is let it cool completely and add the meringue. Toast it with a blow torch. Or, to toast it in the oven: Instead of a torch, you can use your oven. Preheat to 450°F (232°C), and bake until the meringue begins to brown, usually about 2–3 minutes—keep a close eye on it. You could also use the broiler, but we find this method quickly burns the exposed crust, so we generally don’t recommend it unless you cover just the crust with some aluminum foil. We do something like this with our pumpkin meringue pie.
What size baking tin do you use and is a pyrex one okay? Do you take the crust out of the tin before adding the filling or leave it in and serve from the tin?
Hi Jenny, a 9-inch pie dish is best, and yes, you can use an oven-safe Pyrex. We leave the crust in the pan to add the filling and serve directly from the die dish.
The filling is perfection! It sets up beautifully, slices cleanly, and is neither too tart nor too sweet. I used my own crust and meringue.
can the short bread crust from your lemon bars be used instead of the pie crust?
Hi dj, you could definitely try this recipe with a shortbread crust. Hope you enjoy it if you give it a try!
First time making a lemon meringue pie. Followed the recipe to the T. Took the advice of having all the ingredients measure out. My mother in law in her words “I don’t like sweets or pies, if I had to choose I would take a slice of lemon “.
She ate the whole pie in 2 days! Thanks! No water, no weeping meringue, just prefect looking pie.
Made this pie recipe for the very first time and it was perfect! Hubby loved it!
This turned out AHHHHHMAZING. Even though I left out the butter by accident! Still super delicious. One change – I made it with a graham cracker and gingersnap crust (from Sally’s recipe – but I subbed 4 sheets for what I eyeballed was the same amount of gingersnap.) I pre-baked the crust for 10 minutes. My meringue set and browned in about 15 minutes… And for those having trouble with the curd, it’s super key to get it to that thick, big bubble stage. And as noted here, as it’s firming up (earlier in the cooking and it’s not quite coming together add a touch more corn starch) Overall – another win for Sally’s Baking Addiction!
If I do not want the meringue. Do I still need to bake it after I pour the lemon filling into tart/pie
Hi Vivien, you can skip the meringue and make this a plain lemon pie. The filling won’t be very thick. We would extend the bake time to about 35-40 minutes or until the filling appears set. Or, you might enjoy our Creamy Lemon Pie instead!
The BEST Lemon Meringue Pie ever!
I followed the recipe exactly. The pie crust stayed perfect for 3 days…no soggy bottom. I had to hide a piece of pie in the refrigerator to conduct my crust experiment! The meringue never slid off the lemon pie filling and never weeped. The smooth filling held its shape when the pie was cut, and the flavor was spot on. I will only use this recipe in the future. Thank you for all of the tips along the way. This is the quintessential lemon meringue pie recipe.
Perfection! I was so nervous making this for Father’s Day because my husband loves lemon meringue pie and is persnickety. Everyone loved it! Just follow the recipe to a “t” and you won’t go wrong. ( Important to read through all the information, too).
Perfection! I was so nervous msking this gor Father’s Day be suse my hysband lives lemon meringue pie and is persnickety. Everyone loved it! Just follow the recipe to a “t” and you won’t go wrong. ( Important to read through all the information, too).
Perfect! My crust is still a “work in progress”— a little ugly but tastes good. I was VERY cautious about tempering the egg yolks so my filling was a success— the curd was just right! And by bringing the meringue to the edge of the crust I think I avoided any weeping. Very happy with how this turned out!
I am trying to replicate my Grandmother’s recipe for lemon bars. The bars have a cookie like crust on top and bottom with lemon pie filling in the middle. Wondering if I make this filling and let it cool if I could put it between the cookie layers and bake it for 35 minutes. Do you think this filling would be ok with the bake? Thank you.
Hi Ann! We’re unsure how this filling would hold, but don’t think it would be the best option. We would recommend our lemon bars with a shortbread crust or these oatmeal lemon crumble bars instead.
I have made this recipe twice recently and it is soooooo good! Best lemon meringue pie I’ve ever had. Good instructions made it super easy
i can’t see in written instructions when to add butter – just going to follw video as i am part way through it
Hi Ma Ma, see middle of step 6: “Remove the pan from heat and whisk in the butter.”
Hi. I followed the recipe to a T but the lemon part didn’t thicken that well. The meringue came out perfect. I did make 2 pies and everything was doubled. I made sure to double check that. Unsure what I did wrong. The pies are baking right now. I guess I’ll have to wait n see if the lemon becomes thicker once it’s refrigerated. I’m crossing my fingers.
P. S. I make lemon pies about twice a year so I have experience with them.
Hi Mona, lemon meringue can be rather finicky, so we recommend making two separate batches for best results. Did the filling thicken nicely on the stove? If the recipe was doubled, it may have needed a bit longer on the stove to properly thicken. Thank you for giving this recipe a try!
I’ve made the full pie & it turned out great! Can I use the same recipe and make minis instead? I want to bring it to a bbq & not have to worry about cutting, forks, etc Thx!
Hi Stacy, absolutely. You can use this recipe for mini pies but we’re unsure of the exact bake time. Let us know if you give it a try!
I was wondering if this recipe would be okay to make into tarts instead of a large pie? I assume it’s fairly similar even if not, just a few changes.
Hi Bridget, you can use this recipe for mini pies/tartlets but we’re unsure of the exact bake time. You may need to make a few batches, depending on how many mini pies you’d like to make. Let us know if you give it a try!
I made the mistake of starting this pie one day ahead… Can I not finish the filling today and do that tomorrow? I’ve already put in the butter and the egg yolks!
Hi Evelyne, this filling is pretty time-sensitive, and should be added to the pie crust and topped with meringue while still warm. You can, however, refrigerate the finished pie overnight and cross your fingers! Lemon meringue pie tastes best on day 1 because it doesn’t keep very well. No matter how hard you try to prevent it, the meringue will wilt and separate over time.
I love lemon meringue with graham cracker crust. I’m actually about to make one right now. You should definitely try it.
Delicious!
Made this for Easter and everyone lLoved it! Question: has anyone tried this with a graham cracker crust? My hubby is not a huge pastry fan so would like to try again with a graham crust and see how it compares.
hi sally im kinda confused how long do you partially blind bake the pie crust ?
Hi Kathleen, you will want to follow the partial blind baking steps through step 9. So, an initial 15–16 minutes while the pie crust is filled with pie weights, then remove, prick the crust, and return to the oven until the bottom crust is just beginning to brown, about 7–8 minutes.
Hi there, quick question.
So I followed the instructions for leaving the pie out for 1 hour after baking and only then moving to the fridge for 4 hours thereafter to chill.
Nevertheless, when I took the pie out of the fridge, my meringue was covered in condensation!
Any tips on how I can avoid that? The pie plate did feel a little warm still when I put it in the fridge (despite sitting out for 1 hour already)—should I have waited even longer before putting it in the fridge?
Note that I stored the pie in the fridge using a “cake keeper.”
Thanks!
Hi Nick, it’s likely nothing you are doing wrong with the meringue, it may still be a little too warm when you move it to the refrigerator. Depending on the temperature in your kitchen it simply might need to sit at room temperature a little longer next time. Hope this helps!
This was a hit! I used a lemon/lime hybrid from our tree and added about 4x the amount of zest. Came out soooooo good!
I don’t see the ingredients or amounts for the lemon filling. Am I just missing it somehow? I made this before and it came out great.
Hi Joanne, if you “jump to recipe” you’ll see the Description and then Ingredients. The first is a link for our homemade pie crust and the next 8 ingredients are for the lemon filling. Hope that helps!
Your recipe is darn near perfect . I added a few more dabs of lemon zest, but that’s it . Also .. the info on par baking the crust was very informative, ive been baking for more than 50 years and always stumbled through that part baking .
We’re so happy to read this, Maryanne!
I just tested this recipe side by side with two others (well-known in the baking world), and your recipe came in first place, heads and shoulders above the others. Gorgeous pie that came together easily with delicious results and a beautiful presentation. Thank you again for ANOTHER “go-to” recipe in my book.
Can I make mini lemon meringue pies from this recipe?
Hi Jenna, absolutely! Bake time will vary depending on the exact size of your mini pie pans.
Yummm. Perfect sour/sweet taste and such great lessons on egg temperature, meringue and par baking crust. Thank you