dairy-free lemon meringue pie
A meal is never truly over in my house until we finish dessert. I grew up in a family where desserts are the first thing we think about when preparing a menu for an upcoming lunch or dinner party. Desserts are so precious to us that they are also the first thing we look at on a restaurant’s menu. I have my mom to blame for my sweet tooth, as it’s something I inherited from her side of the family given that my dad never really ate any desserts except fruit until he married my mom. Things quickly changed when they got married and now not one dinner goes by without him also asking what’s for dessert. After over 20 years of marriage, he pretty much likes all things sweet, but if he had to pick one dessert among them all it would definitely be lemon meringue pie — not just any lemon pie, however, it has to be this particular one.
I’m more of a creamy-chocolately-fudgey kind of dessert girl, so lemon pie would be the last dessert I’d order at a restaurant or prepare at home — until I tried this one and understood why my dad loves it so much. I’ve always found lemon pies and citrus desserts way too sour and not sweet enough to satisfy my cravings, but this lemon meringue pie really hits the spot as it has the perfect balance of sweet and sour and comes topped with golden meringue — a treat that I simply adore.
This is a dessert that takes some time to make, so prepare it in advance or give yourself an afternoon to assemble it. You’ll first have to prepare a batch of buttery dough for the base of the pie and bake it until firm and golden. Then comes the lemon curd, which needs to be cooked and whisked in a saucepan until thick and smelling deliciously of lemon. Once the curd cools down, it is poured into the pie crust and left alone until it reaches room temperature. Finally comes the meringue, made out of egg whites whipped until firm and layered on top of the lemon curd and baked for 10 minutes until slightly golden. The best part of it all is that this lemon meringue pie is entirely dairy-free, yet still so tasty — perfect for a lactose-intolorant girl like me! And besides for my mother-in-law’s lemon pie, this is the only other one that I truly enjoy eating, especially the day after it has been made. Trust me, it’s entirely worth the wait!
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup (113g) margarine, softened
- 6 tablespoons cold water
- 2 cups granulated sugar
- ¾ cups cornstarch
- 2 cups water
- ½ stick (55g) margarine + 1 tablespoon, melted
- 4 egg yolks
- Zest grated from 1 lemon
- ¾ cup lemon juice
- 4 egg whites
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar or salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Preheat oven to 350°F/180°C.
- In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the ingredients for the pie crust. Mix well with your hands until fully incorporated. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 3 minutes for it to harden a bit. Place the dough in between two sheets of wax paper and roll out into a circle shape. Revert the dough into a circle Pyrex and pinch the sides around the top of the Pyrex. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden. Do not worry if the dough puffs up a bit; it will all fall down once you fill it with the lemon curd.
- To make the lemon curd, combine the granulated sugar, cornstarch and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to boil, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens and bubbles, about 5 minutes. Remove the saucepan from the heat source and let it cool down. Add the melted margarine to the saucepan and mix to combine. In a small bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the lemon zest and add to the saucepan, mixing well to combine. Heat the mixture again while adding the lemon juice. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour the lemon curd onto the pie crust. Let it cool completely to room temperature before topping it with the meringue.
- Preheat oven again to 350°F/180°C.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar (or salt) until fluffy. Gradually add the granulated sugar while continuing to beat until hard peaks form, about 5 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and beat just to combine. Top the pie with the meringue, pulling it up a bit with the spatula on certain spots to create peaks. Bake for 10 minutes until the peaks become slightly golden. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
CAN BE PREPARED IN ADVANCE: You can bake the pie crust and fill it with the lemon curd a day in advance. Let it cool down to room temperature, then cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the next day. Prepare the meringue the day you serve the dessert. The pie is even better the next day, so I tend to always make it a day in advance!
How did your dairy-free lemon meringue pie come out? Share photos of your recipe on Instagram by tagging #savormania
Your pie looks just lovely! I know it is good……..http://savorthebest.com/lemon-meringue-pie/
Thank you, Pat!
Butter is a dairy product fyi. 😉
You are absolutely right, that’s why I use margarine instead in this recipe!
Margarine is dairy free. Butter is not used in this recipe.
In the instructions it says to pour the curd into the crust, as you take it off the heat. In the verbiage before that, it says to let it cool. Which is it?
Hi Diana, sorry for the confusion, it’s easier to pour into the crust when it’s still warm but not boiling hot.
P.s, I just made it and it was amazing thank you so much! I’m allergic to dairy and whey powder and this was really, really helpful!
Hi Holly, I’m so happy you liked the recipe!
The only thing is I made the pie, it was Burnt the cooking time was way to long. Check at 30 minuets. I followed the recipe EXEXACTLY but I got Burnt. I loved the flavor the lemon and the marunge but just a shorter cooking time. Thanks lots for the recipe though it was really good! !!!!!?
Hi, thanks for stopping by. Cooking time sometimes varies between ovens, I’m sorry it got burnt! I’m glad you liked the recipe 🙂
I made this for our thanksgiving dinner (in Canada!) Very delicious and it looked amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Hi Iris, I’m so happy you liked the pie and that it was part of your Thanksgiving dinner! Thanks so much for stopping by.
I made this pie it tastes delicious but it watered down. The meringue is maybe good only the u make it? There was fluid between the curd and meringue
Hi Esther, thanks for stopping by, I’m sorry your meringue watered down! Did you wait until the lemon curd cooled down before topping it with the meringue? Another reason why your meringue watered down might be the fact that the sugar didn’t dissolve completely into the egg whites while beating them together.
Hi! Do you think coconut oil could work instead of margarine? I have all the other ingredients, just not margarine. And I try to stay away from soybean which is an oil usually used in margarine.
Hi Cassie, thanks for stopping by! I’ve never tried using coconut oil (or any other oil) instead or margarine in this recipe, so I’m sorry I can’t comment on how it would work. The margarine gives the pie a “buttery” taste though, so I’m afraid that with coconut oil you’d lose that flavor. If you do give it a try with coconut oil let me know how it goes!
I made it with coconut oil and gluten free flour, the oil works well, but the pastry won’t colour well and is a bit brittle. I’d also definitely add some xantham gun next time for gf. I’d also say 2 egg yolks is plenty for the curd. Great recipe though
Hi does this freeze well?
Hi there, I’ve never tried freezing it, I don’t think meringue freezes well. Maybe try making just the pie (without the meringue) and freezing it, and then thaw it the day you want to serve it and top it with freshly made meringue.
Btw it looks fab just my egg whites didn’t get stiff
I made this today it was so good and easy to make 🙂
This was wonderful! At first, I tried to cook the NYTimes’ best lemon meringue pie recipe with subbing out the butter, but the curd tasted gross. So then I searched and found this, and it worked great! My boyfriend is dairy intolerant and was in heaven. I gave a few pieces to the rest of my family, who can eat dairy, and my dad said, “Keep this recipe!” And my boyfriend complained, “Why are you giving away MY dairy free pie to people who can eat dairy??” It was sadly eaten in a day. I will make it again!
Here’s some useful tips / advice for other readers:
1. I used a premade non-dairy organic pie crust from Whole Foods. It cracked a little during cooking but tasted great.
2. I didn’t have enough lemon juice from 3 little lemons, so I added a lime.
3. I needed to bake the meringue a bit longer–15 minutes, I think.
4. I used Truvia for a little of the sugar—1/4c. Truvia and 1. cups sugar in the lemon filling; next time I will try more! (I’m undergoing a big medical treatment next month and will have to go lower sugar and I desperately don’t want to give up desserts!)
I can’t wait to make it again!
My boyfriend can’t eat dairy and I always am trying to find desserts we both like. It’s so hard! I even tried a NYT recipe subbing the dairy before finding this one and it was disastrous. But I’ve made this one 3 times now because we both love it so much. Now the only problem is that he doesn’t want me to try out any new dessert recipes–he just wants this one!
Great job. It’s so hard to find a great dairy free recipe. I’d love a great DF key lime pie or banana cream pie recipe if you make them! 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and for such a lovely comment! I’m so glad you all liked the recipe. Dairy-free key lime pie and banana cream pie both sound like great recipes for me to work on! Thanks for the ideas 🙂