Lemon Meringue Pie with Gluten Free Crust

Lemon meringue pie in progress. Lemon curd is very good but a bit too sweet and not enough lemon and not enough volume. CC#2 suggests adding sesame or ground flax seeds in GF crust. NYT recipe by Leslie Land (behind paywall) was a starting point.

Ingredients and Instructions:

• Lemon Curd

  • 3 large lemons, zest lemon first, and squeeze to yield 1/3+ cup of lemon juice and pulp

  • 3 eggs

  • 4 egg yolks

  • 5 tbsp sugar

  • 6 tbsp butter, cut in 6 pieces

  • 1/4 tsp salt

    In saucepan, beat the eggs, yolks, and sugar until just mixed. Stir in the lemon juice and pulp, then butter and salt. Cook over low to medium heat, until mixture comes together and thickens enough to coat a spoon (170F). Remove from heat, allow to stand 5 minutes, then whisk briefly to smooth. Set aside.

  • Cooks Illustrated Lemon Curd

    • 1/3 cup lemon juice, 2 large eggs, plus 1 large egg yolk, 1/2 cup sugar, 2 tbsp butter cut into pieces, 1 tbsp heavy cream, 1/4 tsp vanilla extract, and pinch of salt

    • Heat lemon juice in small sauce pan over medium heat until hot but not boiling. Whisk eggs, yolk and sugar in another bowel and slowing pour hot lemon juice into the eggs whisking constantly, then return mixture to sauce pan and cook over medium heat, constantly stirring until back of spoon is coated (170F), about 3 minutes.

• GF Brown Butter Tart/Pie Crust (gum free)

  • 80g almond flour

  • 107g sweet rice flour

  • 60g buckwheat flour (or oat, sorghum, or teff flour)

  • 16g tapioca flour

  • 50g sugar

  • 1/4 tsp salt

  • 8 tbsp butter (1 stick)

    Combine flours and sugar. Melt and brown butter in sauce pan on medium heat (1-3 minutes), scrapping bottom of pan constantly until butter turns golden. Off heat, add 2 tbsp of water to brown butter and stir. Pour hot butter into flour mixture, stir to form dough, add more water, 1 tbsp at a time to form pliable dough. Scatter dough in 11 inch tart pan (with removable bottom) and pat evenly to form crust. Bake crust over wire rack set on jellyroll pan at 350F for 30 minutes.

    Note: Normally I include 66g of sugar in the flour mix but because the sweetness of the lemon curd, I reduced sugar here to 40g. Either way the crust tastes like short bread and is very good on its own. The GF flour mix is adapted from Bonjon Gourmet’s gluten free crust and the brown butter method from Cooks Illustrated’s Modern Fresh Fruit Pie. This crust was fabulously paired with my Red Wine Poached Pear Tart (stay tuned)!

  The Meringue

  • 3 egg whites at warm room tempreture

  • 1/4 tsp cream of tartar

  • 3 tbsp superfine sugar

  • 1/2 vanilla extract

    Beat egg whites until frothy, add cream of tartar and continue beating until rounded peaks form. Beat in sugar and vanilla.

Assembly:

• Spread the lemon curd in the tart and bake at 350F for 10 to 15 minutes or until just set. Remove pie and turn oven to 375F

• Spread the meringue over the filling, making sure that it meets the edges of the crust and is sealed. Decorate at will. Bake for 10 minutes until lightly browned.

Note: Don’t overbeat meringue (pictured above—too dry and tastes almost like candy). As a matter of fact, without the meringue, this would make a super lemon tart.