Best-Ever Lemon Meringue Pie

"Southern Living Magazine" gets full credit for this pie
Delicious!

And.....is it the best ever!!  I got this recipe from Southern Living Magazine years ago, and it looked so incredibly delicious I decided to try my luck (even though I am not that crazy about lemon meringue or, shall I say "wasn't" until trying this recipe).  The dread in making this pie is the meringue.  No worries!  If you have a fabulous mixer like the heavy duty KitchenAid (with stand) or comparable, the meringue whips up like a heavenly cloud!  Your Grandfather Clark once told me that nobody could make lemon meringue like his grandmother.  He admitted this pie was right up there with his grandmother's!  It is, indeed, a "slice of Heaven" -- when a mountain-high wedge of this lands on your dessert plate at the end of a meal, life is good!

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 egg yolks
1 3/4 cups water
1/2 cup lemon juice
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 heaping teaspoon grated lemon rind
1 baked 9-inch pastry shell

Directions:
Combine first three ingredients in a heavy duty saucepan (sugar, cornstarch, salt) -- mix together and set aside.

In a bowl, combine the egg yolks, water, and lemon juice; stir into sugar mixture above.

Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and boils.  Remove from heat and stir in butter and lemon rind.  Spoon into pre-baked pastry shell -- it's ok to pour hot mixture in shell.  Pie goes back into oven later to brown meringue anyway.

Spread meringue over hot filling.

Bake 325 degrees for 25 to 28 minutes.

Ingredients for meringue:
*4 to 6 egg whites (I usually use around 4)
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
Okay -- here's where the monster of electric mixers do their thing!  Using the wire attachment (used for whipping cream, meringue, etc.) -- beat the egg whites and cream of tartar at high speed just until foamy.

Gradually add sugar only one tablespoon at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves (2 to 4 minutes).  Add 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, beating only until you no longer see the vanilla.

Enjoy! 

*If you have leftover meringue -- lightly grease a cookie sheet or using a sheet of parchment paper, drop little mounds of meringue and bake in 325 oven until brown -- delicious to eat just like that!