lemon bars or lemon meringue pie?

Answer 1

Pie is the best!

Grandma's Lemon Meringue Pie
This is the pie for all the true lovers of Lemon Meringue Pie.
1-1/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups water
3 eggs, separated
zest from 1 medium lemon
1/3 cup fresh lemon juice (juice from 1-1/2 medium lemons)
1 tablespoon butter
1 baked, cooled 9-inch pie crust
Preheat oven to 350°F.

Combine the sugar, flour, salt and water in a heavy saucepan. Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture boils. Boil, stirring constantly and vigorously, for 1 minute. (A long-handled spoon to stir with really helps here to get you back from the heat.) Remove from heat.

Slightly beat the egg yolks in a bowl with a fork. Mix about one-third of the boiled mixture with the egg yolks; then pour the egg yolk mixture back into the pan with the boiled ingredients, and cook for 1 more minute, stirring constantly and, again, vigorously. Remove from heat, and add the butter.

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Stir to mix thoroughly.

Pour into cooled, baked 9-inch pie crust and top with meringue (recipes follow), sealing meringue to edge of pastry. Bake in a 350°F oven 12 to 15 minutes or until nicely browned.



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Meringue

3 egg whites, at room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Beat the egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. With mixer running, add the cream of tartar, then gradually add the sugar, a tablespoon at a time, and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in the vanilla.

Pile atop pie, and bake at 350°F for 12 to 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Be sure to seal the meringue to the pastry edge when spreading it on your pie. To minimize "weeping", spread the meringue on the pie filling while the filling is hot. Also, remember that meringue pies cut better with a wet knife blade.



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Standard Pie Pastry

For a single-crust pie:

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 tablespoons ice water
1/2 cup Crisco or other good shortening
For a double-crust pie, simply double the above ingredients.

Preheat oven to 425°F.

Place the shortening in a bowl. Over it, pour 1 cup of the flour (reserving 1/4 cup flour) and the salt. With your pastry blender (some old timers use a fork), cut the flour and salt into the shortening until mixed.

Mix the 1/4 cup of reserved flour with the 2-1/2 tablespoons (estimate, or, if you must be exact, a half tablespoon equals 1-1/2 teaspoons) in a small cup to make a smooth paste. Pour the paste over the pastry mixture and continue cutting in with the pastry blender until incorporated. Remember, the less you work the dough, the lighter and flakier the pastry.

Form pastry into a ball, flatten and roll between sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of about 1/8 inch and 1 inch wider than pie pan. Peel off top piece of waxed paper (tear off in pieces, if you like), invert pie pan on dough surface, turn over, center dough on pie pan, and peel off second sheet of waxed paper. (If any little tears in the dough result, just pinch it back together.) Trim dough to a 1-inch overhang, then turn under to make an edge. You can put a fancy crimp in the edge, if you wish.

For a pre-baked pie shell, prick bottom and sides of pastry with a fork to avoid bubbles, and bake in a 425°F oven for 10 to 12 minutes until the crust is nicely browned.

Note: Many Lemon Meringue Pies call for cornstarch, rather than flour, as a thickener. While cornstarch may be a fine thickening agent, I prefer to use flour because it results in a better texture -- creamy rather than slick.

Answer 2

There both great but lemon bars travel better! Have you ever tried to eat a lemon meringue pie while driving? It's a little messy!

Answer 3

I'll take the lemon bars! I love lemon bars. I don't care for the pie much since it's the consistency of snot and has all that meringue.

Answer 4

I love lemon bars way better that the meringue pie.

Answer 5

lemon meringue pie with some nice cold milk yummmm

Can I have a pieece ??? I will bring the milk!

Answer 6

Argh! Tough choice. But I'd say the bars are more portable....you can rest one on a napkin and walk around. Pie is more tricky, because of that big pillow of meringue on top...you need a plate, and a fork, to finish that delicacy.

Both both dishes rule!!

Answer 7

I like both but I love lemon bars with real butter in the crust and if I use real lemon juice that I squeeze and grate a little rind in there. You can't beat that.

Answer 8

I like lemon bars, but I love lemon merangue pie with a thick layer of merangue.

Answer 9

lemon meringue pie!!

Answer 10

I love lemon bars. So thats my choice.