I love lemon meringue pie, as much for the look of it, as the taste. The tart filling on this version is covered in sweet honey meringue. I added a floral twist that adds a subtle scent of lavender to the not-so-subtle taste of honey.
This Lemon Honey-Meringue Pie is very easy to make, but there are some steps to follow that will take your pie from a weepy mess to a magnificent mile-high showpiece.
Do you have pie questions or need to troubleshoot your recipe? Check out my guide on how to make pie crust.
And if you love honey as much as I do, check out my Buzzworthy Bakes episode of Zoë Bakes on Magnolia Network!
Ingredients
- 3 cups (410g) all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 2 1/2 sticks (285g) unsalted butter cut into small pieces and well chilled
- 1/3 cup (78g) lard or vegetable shortening frozen
- 1/2 cup ice water more may be needed
- 1 tbsp vodka or lemon juice
- 1 recipe Lemon Filling from Rose Levy Beranbaum see note
Honey Lavender Meringue
- 1 cup egg whites
- 1 1/2 cups honey
- 1-2 tsp lavender extract (or any scent you like or none at all)
Instructions
- Watch me make this pie in my Instagram Story Highlights.
- Pie Crust: Combine the flour, salt and sugar. Add 1/3 of the butter. Use a pastry cutter, your hands, or a food processor to work the butter into the flour, until it looks like cornmeal and starts to stick together when squeezed. Work in the remaining butter until some of the butter is in pea-sized pieces. If the butter is too soft, place the bowl in the freezer for about 15 minutes, and then try again. Work in the lard in the same way.
- Mix together the water and vodka, add to the flour/butter mixture. Stir this with your hand or a wooden spoon, but be very gentle. The goal is to keep the pea-sized chunks of butter intact.
- When most of the flour is coming together, gently press and fold the dough into a ball. It should not be perfectly smooth, but, it should also not seem dry or crumbly.
- Divide the dough into two pieces and create round disks. Wrap the dough in plastic and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.
To Roll Out the Pie Crust
- When you are ready to prepare the pie, roll one of the disks out on a well floured surface. If the dough seems hard, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 to 15 minutes. This will prevent the edges from cracking too much. You still want the dough to be chilled, so the butter doesn’t get too soft.
- As you are rolling, you can round out the edges with your hands. Cracking edges are part of the beast, but this will help to keep them smoother.
- Once you have it rolled out to about 1/8-inch thick round, measure the dough to make sure it will fit the 10-inch pie plate. I usually just hold the plate over the dough and eye it. There should be about 2-inches of extra dough beyond the bottom of the plate.
- Blind Bake the dough, which means to pre-bake the crust with pie weights or dried beans. You can learn more here.
Lemon Filling
- Follow Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe for the lemon filling. I only used her filling recipe, not the meringue. Pour the filling into the blind baked and cooled pie crust. Chill. When ready to serve, make the meringue.
Honey Meringue
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites, then pour in the honey. Stir the mixture constantly over a water bath until it's hot to the touch, about 160°F.
- Whip to medium stiff peaks, then add lavender extract or other flavors and a healthy pinch of salt. Continue whipping to stiff peaks. The meringue has to be super stable before adding to the chilled pie.
Assembly
- GENTLY place the meringue on the pie. Make the peaks and torch! You can always leave the peaks pure and white, but I like to toast them.
- Use a thin bladed knife dipped in hot water to slice your Lemon Honey-Meringue Pie. The meringue will want to stick to its neighbor, so it may take a little effort to remove it from the pan cleanly.
Notes
I only used Rose’s filling, not the meringue. I like the look and texture of Swiss Meringue, but as she says, Italian meringue isn’t quite as sweet. RECIPE.
You can see me make this Lemon Honey-Meringue pie in my Instagram Story Highlights.
This is not the make-ahead kind of pie. It’s really best eaten the day you make it. You can prepare the filling one day and top it the day you serve.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
I love lemon meringue pie and this one looks incredible and sounds divine with the honey addition. YUM!
This pie looks stunning! Can’t wait to bake this for my husband!
Hello, Can you please tell me specifically where I can watch the videos that you refer to in this recipe? I see your Instagram page, and see posts about this pie, but no videos about blind baking or lemon pie…? Thanks in advance.
Hi Hailey,
They are in the highlights, which live between my bio and the square pictures below. You should see a row of round images, which are the videos. You may need to update the app to find them.
Thanks, Zoë
I love how velvety your honey lavander meringue looks! It also has amazing volume. This lemon honey meringue pie looks like such a treat!
is the lard/frozen butter supposed to go in with the cold butter?
I was also a bit confused when looking at your video of making the pie: The recipe you link to for the curd uses water with the sugar before adding eggs, your Instagram video didn’t. I went ahead and followed the recipe and it seems to have turned out good 🙂 Still have to wait for the dough to chill etc. but I think it will turn out good. I just wonder if me adding the frozen butter with the regular butter might have been the reason why my dough feels very sticky.
Thanks for all your wonderful recipes!
Hi Larissa! Zoë has updated the recipe to better clarify the instructions, so I hope that’s helpful for next time. Did it end up turning out ok? Cheers!