Lemon Meringue Pie.
It's classic.
It tastes like summer sunshine in late spring and standing barefoot in cool, green grass.
The sharp lemon filling meets fluffy, creamy meringue and the crust does perfectly in its background position.
It's like Don't Stop Believing by Journey: it's timeless, and should be introduced to everyone at least once as part of their initiation into the human experience.
To those who take one look and run: you poor, unfortunate souls have no idea what you're missing.
This recipe is from a cookbook I received for my birthday, titled "Me, Myself, and Pie." It's full of recipes for every event you could possibly need, with simple directions. and beautiful photos.
It's aesthetic as all get out. I mean, look at that piece of pie.
Using the classic Lemon Meringue filling from the books, I used my own crust recipe, and topped the whole thing with a swiss meringue from Zoe Bakes (check her out on Instagram if you want to see some beautiful cakes and baking tutorials).
Now for a disclaimer: meringue is not impossible, but meringue can be very complicated if you're new to baking. I watched it made once, failed the first time I tried (it was grainy, flat, and overcooked), but by the time I made it to this pie, I had a much better idea of what I was doing both wrong and right.
Baking is an art, and the thing about art is that first drafts exist. There are even projects that get tossed out. First drafts might be less noticeable in a laptop trash folder, but they are rejects, accidents, and mess-ups nonetheless. If you saw this post and thought, "I could never make that," just know that not too long ago, so did I.
Here I am, a few batches of meringue later, smarter, happier (because I have pie, duh), with a feeling of accomplishment that doesn't come from getting it right the first time.
Look at baking like that.
Look at life in the same way.
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