Gluten Free Lemon Meringue Pie with Pistachio Crust

This pie was such a hit, I received many requests for a recipe and a request from Dan to make it again the next day. So I'm sharing the recipe with you!

Lemon Meringue Pie - ready to serve!

My inspiration story: There's this restaurant called Magazino in Tel Aviv - I've never been but we have a couple of friends who are obsessed with their desserts.

We went over to their house to celebrate a birthday, and they brought a lemon meringue pie with a pistachio crust and it, sadly, had gluten in it. I got a bowl of gummy candies and was delighted to eat to my heart's content.

Dan enjoyed every bite of his cake and I told him not to worry. I would eat it soon too.

And here we are, two weeks later, with my own version of this pie - GLUTEN FREE!

The crust part was easy enough to invent - but the lemon filling part I looked up. After reviewing several recipes, I decided to try Alton Brown's recipe, because I respect him and his science-based cooking. And because it didn't have any flour in the filling :)

pistachio crust in the making (yes, my counter is that hideous color)

I made sure to prep all of the materials before starting the cooking itself as the lemon filling needs continuous whisking over heat - so make sure you have everything in advance, and prepare it to be at hand's reach during the process. Prepping the ingredients is the part that takes the longest - squeezing lemons for the lemon juice, getting the zest, crushing the pistachios...from there, putting it together goes quite quickly!

Alright - here it is.

Ingredients:

Pistachio Crust:

200 grams pistachios - pealed

5 tbsp gluten free flour

1/2 cup butter - melted

3 tbsp sugar

Lemon Filling:

4 egg yolks (leave the whites in a separate bowl for the meringue)

1/3 cup corn starch

1 1/2 cups water

1 1/3 cups sugar

1/4 tsp salt

3 tbsp butter

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest

Meringue Topping:

6 egg whites

4 tbsp sugar

Instructions:

For the crust:

1. Heat oven to 180*C

2. Crush pistachios until fine

3. Mix pie crust ingredients (butter, sugar, pistachios) and press into a round spring pan until it thinly covers the bottom and a little bit up the sides

4. Bake crust for approximately 8-10 minutes

For the meringue topping:

1. Place egg whites in large mixer bowl (with a whisk attachment) and beat until soft peaks form.

2. Add the sugar gradually and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

3. Let stand until your lemon filling is ready

For the lemon filling:

1. In a medium size mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks and set aside

2. In a medium saucepan, whisk to combine the water, cornstarch, salt and sugar. Turn on medium heat and stir frequently while the mixture heats. After coming to a boil, keep mixing for 1 minute.

3. Remove from heat and gradually, one whisk at a time, add half of the hot mixture to the whipped egg yolks. Stir until half of the mixture is combined.

4. Return the egg mixture to the saucepan with the rest of the hot mixture. Turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for another minute.

5. Remove from heat and gently stir in the butter, lemon juice and zest until well combined.

6. While still hot, pour the mixture into the pie shell.

7. Pour the meringue onto the lemon filling while still hot. Make sure the meringue completely covers the filling right up to the edge of the crust.

8. Bake for 10-12 minutes - or until meringue is golden.

9. Remove from oven and cool.

10. Once cool, place in refrigerator for at least 6 hours before serving.

Enjoy!