My Mom has always made the most wonderful Lemon Meringue Pie. It’s another vintage recipe from 60, 70 or 80 years ago, even older since her Mom made it also.

It’s simple, too, because she uses the box lemon pudding mix, the kind you have to cook, but she cooks it in the microwave so it’s still super easy and quick. She says it only takes 15 minutes to make. Period.



Follow directions on the Lemon Pudding Box and put in the microwave for about 5 minutes, stirring 3 or 4 times.

While that’s going on you are going to beat 2 egg whites (I would like to see the pie even higher than this so next time I’m going to add another egg white or two so that it really piles up high). When the whites form soft peaks you can add about a tablespoon of sugar or a little more and keep beating a few more minutes until stiff peaks form. Here is a link on how to make perfect egg whites on My Recipes. There is evidently a whole science to beating egg white. Some people add cream of tartar, also.

You can use any pie shell recipe or purchase a frozen pie shell (that’s my favorite way to do it) but we made this pie shell from a Jiffy Pie Shell box. All you have to do is add water so it goes pretty fast.  We cooked the pie shell for about 10 minutes until it was browned around the top crust.



When the pudding is boiling, it comes out of the microwave and is poured directly into the pie crust.

Now comes the fun part: You FOLD (not stir) the egg whites into the hot lemon pudding. There is a certain technique – you have to bring up the lemon pudding from the bottom of the pie to the top of the egg whites. Keep folding and folding, very gently, so as not to take the air out of the egg whites. You don’t want it all mixed together. You want to fold them together gently to keep the lightness.

Here is Mom folding in the egg whites.







Then my Mom likes to put ground walnuts on the top to make it even more luscious.









See the beaten egg whites? I folded them almost all the way down to the crust. That makes the pie super fluffy.



Since we made the pie at night I used my new homemade light box!! It’s super easy to make and the pictures are so much nicer than the ones I used to take under regular light bulbs.







See how nice and light it is? I have to do something about lining the inside of the box, too. In this picture I put a napkin in the back and a dishcloth on the bottom.

If you want to make your own light box (it was super easy – I cut out 3 sides of an 18 by 18 inch box – leaving only an inch or so all around. Then I glued white fabric on top of the “holes”. Three metal lights are needed. They’re really cheap and “sunlight” light bulbs to go in them. Then you direct the lights through the covered fabric “holes”. Heidi at One Creative Mommy, and Shannon at Sewing Barefoot and Never Homemaker all have great tutorials on how to make light boxes.

Does anyone else feel the need to have a light box?

Thanks for reading, my friends. Have a great weekend!