Something cool with a perfect balance of sweetness and tartness is an ideal dessert for a hot summer day. This recipe is from Betty Crocker:

Luscious Lemon Meringue Pie

Perfect Baked Pie Crust (See Below)
3 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 drops yellow food color, if desired
Meringue (See Below)

Make Perfect Baked Pie Crust.

Reduce oven temperature to 400 degrees F.

Beat egg yolks with fork in small bowl. Mix sugar and cornstarch in 2-quart saucepan; gradually stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir 1 minute.

Immediately stir at least half of the hot mixture into egg yolks; stir back into hot mixture in saucepan. Boil and stir 1 minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter, lemon peel, lemon juice and food color. Pour into pie crust.

Prepare Meringue. Spoon onto hot pie filling. Spread over filling, carfully sealing meringue to edge of crust to prevent shrinking or weeping.

Bake 8 to 12 minutes or until meringue is light brown. Cool away from draft 2 hours. Cover and refrigerate cooled pie until serving. Immediately refrigerate any remaining pie.

Perfect Baked Pie Crust

1 cup Gold Medal® all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon shortening
2 to 3 tablespoons cold water

Heat oven to 475 degrees F. Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Cut in shortening, using pastry blender (or pulling 2 table knives through ingredients in opposite directions), until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost leaves side of bowl (1 to 2 teaspoons more water can be added if necessary).

Gather pastry into a ball. Shape into flattened round on lightly floured surface. Wrap flattened round of pastry in plastic wrap and refrigerate about 45 minutes or until dough is firm and cold, yet pliable. This allows the shortening to become slightly firm, which helps make the baked pastry more flaky. If refrigerated longer, let pastry soften slightly before rolling.

Roll pastry, using floured rolling pin, into circle 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and ease into plate, pressing firmly against bottom and side.

Trim overhanging edge of pastry 1 inch from rim of pie plate. Fold and roll pastry under, even with plate; flute as desired. Prick bottom and side of pastry thoroughly with fork. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown; cool on wire rack.

Meringue

3 egg whites
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in medium bowl with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Beat in sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue beating until stiff and glossy. Do not underbeat. Beat in vanilla.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 12:21 am and is filed under Desserts, Fruits, Food Companies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.