Lemon Meringue Pie

Everytime my family visits my grandma there is a freshly made lemon meringue pie just waiting for us.  It sits on her counter, humble, like it has been there all along, like it takes nothing to make, and like lemon meringue pie is a daily occurence in her household, which it may very well be.  My Grandma is a boss.  While it's entirely possible that she makes pie every other day, I'm pretty sure that she makes Lemon Meringue on the occasion that we visit.  It is a true family favorite. 

In honor of my grandma, on her birthday, I had the urge to make lemon meringue pies.  Yes, pies! I recently inherited small tart pans from my paternal grandma and have been eyeing them since I got them.  So, I whipped up a pie crust (this is a lie), and made lemon meringue mini pies!

Although lemon meringue is my favorite kind of pie, I have never attempted to make it.  Pies are not my favorite.  When I lied about whipping up a pie crust, I meant that pie crust is my demise.  I have yet to perfect the art of pie crust making, but hopefully the gene for this trait will show itself soon.  I usually use shortening in my pie crust, but this time I didn't have enough.  I found this website: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/perfect_pie_crust/ that helped!!!

The lemon meringue pies were so cute!!! I was ooohing and aaahing as I took them out of the oven.

 Delicious!  The pie crust turned out okay, a little too flaky for my taste.  I think the recipe I used with part butter part shortening would be great for a quiche, but next time I'll stick to shortening alone even though it grosses me out.

I used the Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie recipe from AllRecipes.  Instead of using pre-made pie crust, I made used the Combination Butter and Shortening Crust from the SimplyRecipes website.  The recipe filled four 6 inch tart pans.

I brought a couple of these to my grandma (or Lola in tagalog) for her surprise party.  I knew they weren't as good as hers, because nothing ever is, but she still enjoyed them!

Happy 87th Birthday Lola!  Here's to you and lemon meringue pie!