Lemon Meringue Pie (Bolivian style)

By yella • October 27, 2010 • 6 Comments

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Author Notes: This is the lemon meringue pie/ tart my mother has been baking for years in Bolivia. In Bolivia we usually have it at tea time, but it is a fantastic dessert that is always a sure hit and extremely easy to make! I get requests to make this very often. You can use Meyer lemons but as those do not exist in Bolivia, that is not what I usually use. - yella

Serves 8-12

2 14oz cans of sweet condensed milk
4 eggs (whites and yolks separated)
1/2 cup lemon juice (note: do not use lime juice)
1/2 cup white sugar
1 unbaked pie crust
1 pinch lemon zest

Preheat oven to 350 F. In two small bowls, separate the egg whites from the yolks. Make sure there are no traces of yolk or egg shells in the egg whites.
In a medium bowl, mix the condensed milk and the 4 egg yolks. With the help of a hand mixer, slowly mix in the lemon juice until combined thoroughly. Pour this mixture on the pie crust and bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.
As the pie cooks, prepare the meringue. In a medium bowl, beat the egg whites with a hand mixer until they become white and fluffy but you can still see some bubbles and a spongy texture. At that point slowly add in the sugar making sure the meringue is rising and becoming smoother. The way to check that meringue is ready is by turning off the hand mixer and lifting it slightly up from the mixture - if little peaks form and stay on your meringue, its done!
Remove the pie from the oven, and pour the meringue on top of filling mixture. Form little peaks with a fork on the meringue and sprinkle a pinch of lemon zest on top. Put the pie back in the oven. The pie is finished when the peaks have browned (~ 12 min but maybe less).