this amazing, delicious lemon meringue pie is grain free and gluten free– not that you’d be able to tell. Filled with a sweet-yet-tart lemon filling and topped with a fluffy meringue.
Lemon meringue pie is definitely the best dessert ever, right? Like, if you go to someone’s house for dinner, and they have a LEMON MERINGUE PIE for dessert?! You cannot not be impressed. And also excited. There’s just something about a lemon meringue pie, not only the fact that it’s just a yummy, yummy thing to eat, but the fact that it looks quite beautiful (and sort of intimidating) to make.
Lemon meringue pie is definitely intimidating, actually. It’s because it’s complicated. It’s layered. There’s the crust. There’s the lemon-y tart yet still sweet filling. There’s the fluffy, towering meringue topping. It’s a lot of things to do. That’s probably why I made it for the very first time in all my life while we are all in quarantine. Because, time.
Okay, maybe not only because I had time on my hands but because I really love lemon meringue pie, it used to be what I would ask for as my birthday cake growing up because I wasn’t into actual birthday cake. I wanted to make something special, something different.
I had a fresh batch of my lemon curd, too, which made my life a lot easier when putting this pie together. The lemon filling in this lemon meringue pie is exactly one batch of my homemade lemon curd– so you can go ahead and prep that ahead of time, following the recipe here. To make your life easier, I will also include the same recipe below, so you don’t need to toggle between two pages.
I use this lovely lemon curd not only to create an extravagant pie for no occasion whatsoever (I mean, at this point we can barely even tell the days apart), I also use it to make this absolutely divine lemon curd loaf. Add that to your to-do list! It’s amazing.
Back to the dessert at hand, though. This lemon meringue pie tastes exactly like…LEMON MERINGUE PIE!! I mean to say, it does not taste “gluten free” “grain free” or “refined sugar free” BUT IT IS. So yeah, it’s safe to say I will never be making another lemon meringue pie recipe again, even if it’s for those crazy gluten-eaters, I will definitely be bringing this recipe and watch them eat it in amazement (and with mouths watering for more). TRUST ME.
It has a homemade pie crust that’s got the perfect amount of texture to it thanks to the inclusion of unsweetened shredded coconut. Of course, being on the SCD diet, honey is the replacement for any type of granulated sugar, when it comes to the meringue topping. The filling is so rich, velvet-y and lemon-y, with the perfect tang to it’s sweetness.
I’ll stop rambling now and let you get into the recipe below. Be aware that it’s broken down into the many parts that you need to do to make the pie, that being: filling, crust, topping and finally, PIE. We’ll start with preparing the lemon curd filling, before we prepare the pie crust and finally, we’ll do our meringue topping. Enjoy, and tag me/let me know on Instagram if you make this! @Grainfreee.
lemon meringue pie: ingredients
lemon curd filling
- 5 egg yolks (save all your egg whites for the meringue!!)
- 4 lemons, to equal 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice & 2 tbsp of lemon zest
- 3 tbsp of coconut oil or butter
- 1/2 cup of honey
pie crust
- 1 cup + 1/4 cup of almond flour
- 1/2 cup of unsweetened finely shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp of butter
- 2 tbsp of honey
- 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract
meringue
- 5 egg whites
- 1/2 cup of honey
- 1 tsp of pure vanilla extract
lemon meringue pie: how to
lemon curd filling
- whisk egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl, and then whisk rest of the ingredients except your coconut oil (or butter, depending on your preference)
- place egg yolks-lemon-honey mixture in a double boiler, (or use a stove top safe bowl on top of a saucepan), fill water in the bottom pot and allowing it to simmer, not letting the water touch the upper pot/stove top safe bowl. continue to whisk everything, for 20 minutes or so, it should begin to thicken.
- once it thickens, whisk in your coconut oil (or butter), 1 tbsp at a time
- remove from heat and allow to cool, store in fridge while you prep the rest of the pie.
pie crust
- in a medium bowl, mix all your ingredients until well combined.
- add a layer of parchment paper to line your pie dish, to avoid any sticking or mess issues, and then firmly pat down your pie crust batter with your fingers, bringing it up to the edges of the pie dish and pressing it in.
- bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 10 mins or so, you want it just lightly golden brown, as it’ll be going in the oven again later.
- once it’s cooked, remove and place in the fridge to allow to cool and set completely. it may take a couple of hours to completely cool and allow the curd to solidify a bit.
meringue
- whip your egg whites using a hand mixer or stand mixer, forming stiff peaks.
- drizzle in the honey and vanilla extract, as you mix the egg whites, and continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
- once the stiff peaks have formed, stop blending and remove from the stand mixer and set aside.
prepare your pie
- once you have everything prepared, spread the lemon curd filling across the pie crust, evenly.
- from there, layer your meringue topping using a spatula. It’s quite easy to make it look fluffy and pretty without really trying! Just spread the meringue with the back of a spatula around the pie swirling the layers in a circular fashion, to create a peak at the middle of the pie.
- to finish it up, return to the oven at 350 and bake for 8 minutes. turn down the temperature to 330 and bake for another 10 minutes. be sure to check in between to avoid burning/getting overly brown.
- store in the fridge to allow the pie to set before serving. best enjoyed fresh!
lemon meringue pie (grain free, scd diet)
Ingredients
Lemon Curd Filling
- 5 egg yolks save all your egg whites for the meringue!!
- 4 lemons equal 1/2 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 2 tbsp lemon zest
- 3 tbsp coconut oil or butter
- 1/2 cup honey
Lemon Meringue Pie Crust
- 1 + 1/4 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup unsweetened, finely shredded coconut
- 3 tbsp butter or coconut oil
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Lemon Meringue Topping
- 5 egg whites
- 1/2 cup honey
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
Instructions
Lemon Curd Filling
- whisk egg yolks in a medium-sized bowl, and then whisk rest of the ingredients except your coconut oil (or butter, depending on your preference).
- place egg yolks-lemon-honey mixture in a double boiler, (or use a stove top safe bowl on top of a saucepan), fill water in the bottom pot and allow the double boiler to simmer, not letting the water touch the upper pot/stove top safe bowl.
- continue to whisk everything, for 20 minutes or so, it should begin to thicken.
- once it thickens, whisk in your coconut oil (or butter), 1 tbsp at a time. remove from heat and allow to cool, store in fridge while you prep the rest of the pie.
- remove from heat and allow to cool, store in fridge while you prep the rest of the pie.
Lemon Meringue Pie Crust
- in a medium bowl, mix all your ingredients until well combined.
- add a layer of parchment paper to line your pie dish, to avoid any sticking or mess issues, and then firmly pat down your pie crust batter with your fingers, bringing it up to the edges of the pie dish and pressing it in.
- bake in a preheated oven at 350 for 10 mins or so, you want it just lightly golden brown, as it’ll be going in the oven again later.
- once it’s cooked, remove and set aside to allow to cool.
Lemon Meringue Topping
- whip your egg whites using a hand mixer or stand mixer, forming stiff peaks.
- drizzle in the honey and vanilla extract, as you mix the egg whites, and continue mixing until stiff peaks form.
- once the stiff peaks have formed, stop blending and remove from the stand mixer and set aside.
Finally, put your pie together
- once you have everything prepared, spread the lemon curd filling across the pie crust, evenly.
- from there, layer your meringue topping using a spatula. It’s quite easy to make it look fluffy and pretty without really trying! Just spread the meringue with the back of a spatula around the pie swirling the layers in a circular fashion, to create a peak at the middle of the pie.
- to finish it up, return to the oven at 350 and bake for 8 minutes. turn down the temperature to 330 and bake for another 10 minutes. be sure to check in between to avoid burning/getting overly brown.
- store in the fridge to allow the pie to set before serving. best enjoyed fresh!
What size pan?
It’s a traditional size pie pan, so I would say 9 inch!