Lemon Meringue Pie

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With a graham cracker crust and sweetened condensed milk filling, this lemon meringue pie is foolproof and easy.

Slice of lemon meringue pie on a plate with a fork.

This lemon meringue pie recipe comes from Myra Santoro, the mom of one of my oldest and dearest friends. Originally from Snow Hill, North Carolina, Myra is a fabulous Southern cook with a huge heart. As a kid, I practically lived at her house and, with so many good smells coming from the kitchen, I was always trying to finagle a way to stay for dinner.

Unlike most lemon meringue pie recipes, which can be rife with issues — a soggy crust, a soupy filling, or a meringue that weeps — Myra’s recipe is foolproof. It’s delicious too: I once made it and left it on the counter with a note for my husband and kids to try it. I came home to find the pie butchered with forks and almost entirely gone; they had not even bothered to slice it!

What You’ll Need To Make Myra’s Lemon Meringue Pie

Pie ingredients including graham cracker crumbs, eggs, and condensed milk.

How To Make Lemon Meringue Pie

Step 1: Make the Crust

Graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a bowl.Start with the crust. In a medium bowl, combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add the melted butter.

Melted butter in a bowl with graham cracker crumbs and sugar.

Stir with a fork first, and then your hands until the mixture is well combined.

Graham cracker mixture in a bowl.

Using your fingers and the bottom of a clean drinking glass or measuring cup, press the crumbs firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a deep dish pie pan. The crust should be about 1/4-in thick. Bake for about 10 minutes, until just slightly browned. Let the crust sit on a wire rack while you prepared the rest of the pie, and lower the oven temperature to 325°F.

Pie pan with a graham cracker crust.

Step 2: Make the Filling

Combine the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a medium bowl.

Egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, and lemon in a bowl.

Whisk to combine and set aside.

Whisk in a bowl of lemon mixture.

Step 3: Make the Meringue

Bring about 1/2 inch of water to a simmer in a pot that’s large enough to hold the bowl of a stand mixer without letting it touch the water. Reduce the heat to low.

Put the egg whites and sugar in the bowl off the heat and whisk until frothy. Put the bowl over the pot and whisk gently but constantly until the whites are very warm to the touch, or about 115°F and the sugar is completely dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes. (Heating the egg whites and sugar before beating them helps stabilize the meringue so it doesn’t weep once cooked.)

Person whisking egg whites and sugar in a bowl on a saucepan on a stovetop.

Remove the bowl from the heat and transfer it to the stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment. Add the cream of tartar.

Bowl in a stand mixer with a whisk attachment.

Beat over medium-high speed until the egg whites form thick, glossy medium-firm peaks, 3 to 5 minutes total.

Thick, glossy egg white mixture in a stand mixer.

When you lift the whisk out of the bowl, the whites should hold their shape but curl at their tips.

Egg white mixture with a curled peak.

Step 4: Assemble the Pie

Pour the lemon filling into the baked crust.

Lemon filling in a graham cracker crust.

Mound the meringue onto the wet lemon filling.

Meringue on wet lemon filling in a pie pan.

Using a soup spoon, gently spread the meringue over the entire surface of the filling, making sure to go all the way to the crust’s edge (it is essential that the edge of the meringue be anchored to the rim of the crust; otherwise it will shrink). Make decorative peaks and swirls in the meringue with the back of the spoon.

Meringue piled on a lemon pie.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned.

Baked lemon meringue pie in a pie pan.

Let the pie cool completely on a rack before serving, about 3 hours.

Fork on a plate with a slice of lemon meringue pie.

Photo by Our Salty Kitchen

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Easy Lemon Meringue Pie

With a graham cracker crust and sweetened condensed milk filling, this lemon meringue pie is foolproof and easy.

Servings: Serves 8 to 10
Prep Time: 25 Minutes
Cook Time: 20 Minutes
Total Time: 45 Minutes

Ingredients

For the Crust

  • 1½ cups graham cracker crumbs, from about 12 whole crackers
  • ⅓ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted

For the Filling

  • 4 large egg yolks (reserve the whites for the meringue)
  • 1 (14-oz) can Eagle sweetened condensed milk (see note)
  • 1 teaspoon packed finely grated lemon zest, from 1 lemon
  • ½ cup fresh lemon juice, from about 3 lemons

For the Meringue

  • 4 large egg whites
  • 6 tablespoons sugar
  • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar

Instructions

For the Crust:

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and set an oven rack in the middle position.
  2. In a medium bowl, mix together the graham cracker crumbs and sugar. Add the melted butter; stir with a fork first, and then your hands until the mixture is well combined. Using your fingers and the bottom of a clean drinking glass or measuring cup, press the crumbs firmly into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 x 1.5-inch pie pan. The crust should be about ¼ inch thick.
  3. Bake for about 10 minutes, until just slightly browned. Let the crust sit on a wire rack while you prepared the rest of the pie. Lower the oven temperature to 325°F.

For the Filling:

  1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sweetened condensed milk, lemon zest, and lemon juice. Pour into the warm crust.

For the Meringue:

  1. Bring about ½ inch of water to a simmer in a pot that's large enough to hold the bowl of a stand mixer without letting it touch the water. Reduce the heat to low. Put the egg whites and sugar in the bowl off the heat and whisk until frothy. Put the bowl over the pot and whisk gently but constantly until the whites are very warm to the touch, or about 115°F (the temperature does not need to be exact; the mixture should feel hot, but not so hot that you can't leave your finger in there) and the sugar is completely dissolved, 2 to 4 minutes.
  2. Remove the bowl from the heat and transfer it to the stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment. Add the cream of tartar. Beat over medium high speed until the egg whites form thick, glossy medium-firm peaks (they should hold their shape but curl at their tips), 3 to 5 minutes total.
  3. Mound the meringue onto the wet lemon filling. Using a soup spoon, gently spread the meringue over the entire surface of the filling, making sure to go all the way to the crust’s edge (it is essential that the edge of the meringue be anchored to the rim of the crust; otherwise it will shrink). Make decorative peaks and swirls in the meringue with the back of the spoon.
  4. (Be sure you've reduced the oven temperature to 325°F.) Bake for about 20 minutes, or until the meringue is lightly browned. Let the pie cool completely on a rack before serving, about 3 hours.
  5. Lemon meringue pie is best eaten the day it’s made, but leftovers will keep, loosely tented with aluminum foil and refrigerated, for 2 days. Just keep in mind that meringue gets quite sticky in the fridge. Do not freeze.
  6. Note: Several readers have had issues with the filling being too runny. I believe this is likely caused by using less common brands of sweetened condensed milk, such as Meadow Gold or Weis. Please use Eagle brand sweetened condensed milk for reliable results. Also, for Canadians, please note that Canadian Eagle sweetened condensed milk comes in a smaller-sized can than the American version (you will need two cans but you won't use all of it).

Nutrition Information

Powered by Edamam

  • Per serving (10 servings)
  • Calories: 309
  • Fat: 11 g
  • Saturated fat: 6 g
  • Carbohydrates: 47 g
  • Sugar: 39 g
  • Fiber: 0 g
  • Protein: 7 g
  • Sodium: 138 mg
  • Cholesterol: 100 mg

This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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Comments

  • Way too sweet and hardly any lemon flavour.

    • — Dawn on April 9, 2023
    • Reply
  • Really really tasty! I made it for my mom and dad as a surprise for when they came home from work, followed the recipe and took my time since I’ve never made pie on my own, it turned out lovely except for a few issues.
    The pie crust was way too dry and didn’t hold when I sliced it out for serving so either I didn’t pack it in hard enough or it lacks in moisture, though I think it’s a mix of both(some parts did hold but I’m talking majority here).
    And the lemon juice somehow separated and forced the meringue to separate the two layers while also making it quite runny (mind you this comment is written 10 minutes after the pie was taken out of the oven).
    Super tasty, dad gave a thumbs up, really easy to make even for a 16 year old, and not many issues!! Thank you for this recipe 🙂

    • — Eli on March 29, 2023
    • Reply
  • I made this recipe and followed it exactly and it came out perfect. It is so delicious and easy to make. I always thought lemon meringue was something hard to make, but I was wrong. Thank you once again Jenn!

    • — Taline on March 13, 2023
    • Reply
  • Pie does not set unless you use eagle I guess… I think there needs to be a better setting agent in this recipe

    • — Sad Cook on February 4, 2023
    • Reply
  • Terrible! Easy to make, but that’s it. Wife and I split one piece and threw rest away. Crust does not work as well as normal pie crust. Almost no lemon flavor.

    • — Jon Choate on December 29, 2022
    • Reply
  • I have been making Borden’s Eagle Brand “Magic Lemon Meringue Pie” recipe since the 1950’s (7th grade for me). Quite a few years back I started having trouble with it being too runny so I had to freeze it to get it solid. (BTW It’s really yummy frozen!). Fought with it and froze it for decades. Then a few years ago I couldn’t find the recipe so looked it up on the internet. The old recipe called for 2 eggs but the new one I found called for 3 eggs. Much better but still didn’t get solid like the old days. Then I found my old recipe where it called for 1 can of BEBSCondensed Milk (15.5oz). AHA, they made the cans smaller. How mean. Anyway, today is my birthday and like every year I’m making myself 2 pies so I was researching the recipe and found yours. This time I will try with the 4 eggs. I think this will solve my runny problems. So, it’s not just the can size but also the # of eggs! Voila’ Only took me 7 decades. It’s never too late to learn. Thank for posting this recipe.

    • — Diane on December 16, 2022
    • Reply
  • I made this recipe for my book club that has a gluten free member. I thought it was very easy, and everyone enjoyed it!

    • — Nancy P on November 15, 2022
    • Reply
  • Made this and it was DELICIOUS and easy to make. Everyone loved it. It was even great the next day after being in the refrigerator over night. I think I actually prefer it chilled. I’ve made a number of your recipes and they ALL have been fantastic! Thank you! 😊

    • — ybrennan on November 7, 2022
    • Reply
  • Does the filling set after it cools? Mine looks beautiful but its jiggly so should I cook longer?

    • Hi Darlene, I know I’m weighing in too late to help, but yes, the filling should firm up a bit as it sits. How did it come out?

  • Can this pie be made a day ahead of time? Love your receipes Jenn!

    • Hi Samantha, so glad you like the recipes! This is best on the day it’s made, but if necessary, you can make it and keep it refrigerated, loosely tented with aluminum foil. Just keep in mind that meringue gets quite sticky in the fridge. Hope that helps!

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