Lemon Honey-Meringue Pie

Step 1

Watch me make this pie in my Instagram Story Highlights.

Step 2

Pie Crust: Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add 1/3 of the butter. Use a pastry cutter, your hands, or a food processor to work the butter into the flour, until it looks like cornmeal and starts to stick together when squeezed. Work in the remaining butter until some of the butter is in pea-sized pieces. If the butter is too soft, place the bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and then try again. Work in the lard in the same way.

Step 3

Mix together the water and vodka, add to the flour/butter mixture. Stir this with your hand or a wooden spoon, but be very gentle. The goal is to keep the pea-sized chunks of butter intact.

Step 4

When most of the flour is coming together, gently press and fold the dough into a ball. It should not be perfectly smooth, but, it should also not seem dry or crumbly.

Step 5

Divide the dough into two pieces and create round disks. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.

Step 6

When you are ready to prepare the pie, roll one of the disks out on a well floured surface. If the dough seems hard, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will prevent the edges from cracking too much. You still want the dough to be chilled, so the butter doesn’t get too soft.

Step 7

As you are rolling, you can round out the edges with your hands. Cracking edges are part of the beast, but this will help to keep them smoother.

Step 8

Once you have it rolled out to about 1/8-inch thick round, measure the dough to make sure it will fit the 10-inch pie plate. I usually just hold the plate over the dough and eye it. There should be about 2-inches of extra dough beyond the bottom of the plate.

Step 9

Blind Bake the dough, which means to pre-bake the crust with pie weights or dried beans. You can learn more here.

Step 10

Follow Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for the lemon filling. I only used her filling recipe, not the meringue. Pour the filling into the blind baked and cooled pie crust. Chill. When ready to serve, make the meringue.

Step 11

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites, then pour in the honey. Stir the mixture constantly over a water bath until it's hot to the touch, about 160°F.

Step 12

Whip to medium stiff peaks, then add lavender extract or other flavors and a healthy pinch of salt. Continue whipping to stiff peaks. The meringue has to be super stable before adding to the chilled pie.

Step 13

GENTLY place the meringue on the pie. Make the peaks and torch! You can always leave the peaks pure and white, but I like to toast them.

Step 14

Use a thin bladed knife dipped in hot water to slice your Lemon Honey-Meringue Pie. The meringue will want to stick to its neighbor, so it may take a little effort to remove it from the pan cleanly.