Happy Happy Lemon Cake

I can't believe we haven't posted since May.   My life has gotten so crazy, and this is supposed to be a quiet season.  Oh well.  Can't say what Sarah's excuse is.  She came to visit us recently, and while we did bake a key lime pie, it got eaten so fast I didn't even get a picture.  I assume Sarah will chime in with a cupcake review at some point.

Anyway, enough excuses and on to this amazing lemon cake.  This is a cake that I made at the end of May for a co-worker's birthday.  Like most cakes from BAKED, it had about a zillion steps but it was so worth it.  Every single part of the cake was amazing and when they came together it was awesome.  One of the best lemon cakes I have ever had, let alone baked.  I did not have three 8-inch pans, as the recipe calls for, so I used two nine inch pans and cut the layers in half for four layers and it was great.

I highly recommend this cake, but only make it if you have time (you can make it over two days or so).  You will be rewarded for your hard work with total deliciousness.  You can find the recipe here.

Spring Sprang, and This Is What I Made

Monday was the first day of spring here in New York (in my very scientific definition, it's the first day that you could comfortably go outside without a coat). Don't worry, it's now back to 43 degrees and rainy, but for two and a half whole days, it was glorious. And how convenient - Monday was also the Oxford University Press bake sale to raise money for the wonderful organization New York Cares! I signed up to bring cake, and decided to make mini-bundts because a) they're adorable and b) they're easy to transport. Because they were going to be sold for money, I was very careful to grease and flour the mini-bundt pans so that the cakes would come out whole, which they so rarely do. But guess what? Every one of them did! I was inordinately proud.

Enough of the bragging, Rosenthal, tell us about the recipe! I miniaturized the excellent lemon lavender bundt recipe from Williams-Sonoma. And now I need to share the following exchange that my friend Joe Rim, who is a public school teacher in Philadelphia, had with one of his students:

Joe: I need to get a really good pot.
Student: WHAT?
Joe: Yeah maybe I'll go to Williams-Sonoma after school.
Student:...yo Rim, get me some, too.
Joe: No my dealer's name is not William Sonoma.

Anyway, this recipe tastes like spring. If I celebrated Easter, I would totally make it for Easter. The lavender flavor is so subtle and interesting, and the flowers are small enough that they don't interfere with the texture. Plus, I don't know if this was the glaze or the residual flour from the well-greased bundt pan, but the exterior had a nice l'il crunch to it. Plus, it smells great. So assuming spring ever comes back (fingers crossed!), I hope to be making it again soon. You can find the recipe here.

French Lemon Cream Tart

This is a Dorie Greenspan classic that we have made many times and it is hard to believe it has never made it onto this blog.  Dorie calls this the Most Extraordinary French Lemon Cream Tart and she is right -- and not just because there is an extraordinary amount of butter in this tart.  You really don't want to know how much.

On account of the butter, this is not a tart that you might make on a whim for a regular night, but for a special occasion and for someone who loves lemon, this is definitely something I would turn to.  I made this for a lemon-lover in my office for her birthday and it was a big hit.  The filling is not a curd, it is most definitely a cream, like you would find in a chocolate cream pie, but lemon flavored.  It is delicious, soft and silky and much lighter than you might imagine given the ingredients.  Make this for a special lemon occasion.  You can find the recipe here, on Dorie Greenspan's website.

MSC Club July Bonus: Red, White and Blue Cupcakes

This month's bonus assignment for the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club was to do 4th of July cupcakes, either just like the ones in the cookbook or inspired by them.  I decided to go the "inspired" route and create red, white and blue cupcakes.  The beauty of these cupcakes is that on the outside they look normal, but on the inside...red, white and blue surprise!


I know these look complicated, but they are actually pretty easy to make.  I made one recipe of Dorie's Perfect Party Cake (sorry Martha) and then divided it into three bowls.  I tinted one bowl red, one bowl blue and left the other one white.  You really need a white cake as a base, not yellow.  Then you spoon in some of the red batter, until the bottom is covered.  Then, put some white batter right on top of that and some blue batter after that.  It should form concentric circles, not layers.  Then, bake away and frost as you wish.  These baked for 20 minutes, but you should keep checking on them to make sure they don't burn.  I got 19 cupcakes out of a recipe for a 2 layer cake.  


I used cream cheese frosting and colored sugar to decorate these, but you could use berries, food coloring, flags or whatever you would like.  I think they look very cute and very patriotic.  Happy 4th of July!

Golden Lemon Cake for Nikhita

I find myself staring into the maw of my second semester of senior year, and you know what that means - time to find a job. If you were going to ask me very politely what I'm thinking about doing, you may very politely shut your mouth. It's not a nice question to ask a senior in college. I went to a career fair in October and it was the most dispiriting hour of my life. I even invented a drinking game. Take a shot every time someone asks you if you're a software engineer and then his face falls when you say you aren't. By the end of it, you'll be drunk enough to go the career fair and not come out of it believing that you're never, never going to be employed. Apparently, at the February career fair there's more variety, but only companies with massive hiring needs know that they have the funding to recruit at places like Brown at the beginning of the year, so the only people there are Web- or tech-related companies like Amazon or Facebook, do-gooders like Teach for America or the Peace Corp, and financial sector firms.

Which brings us to cake. I mean duh. My friend Nikhita recently received a job offer from not one but two financial firms, and in the end she picked the Big Bad Goldman Sachs. Exciting stuff! I promised that we would bake a congratulatory cake in exchange for my being her trophy wife and lounging around her apartment baking all day, since she'll never be in said apartment when she's working 27-hour days. Her parameters were that it not be chocolate and not be too complicated. Nikhita is a fantastic cook, inventive and intuitive, but she has no confidence in her baking ability. We decided on a simple Martha Stewart lemon cake recipe with whipped frosting, which I had originally picked out because it was golden, like the vast amounts of money Nikhita will soon be making.

I don't think we could have made a more perfect choice. This cake was a dream in every way. It was so easy to make, not to mention forgiving - I accidentally added an additional egg yolk and it didn't mess things up at all! It baked to a perfect even hue and not only came out of the pan whole, but remained whole when I placed one layer on top of the other. As avid readers of this blog know, that NEVER happens to me, so major points for the cake. The whipped frosting looked lovely, although I'm more of a buttercream kind of gal. But most importantly, a) it tasted amazing, fluffy and delicately flavored and b) it gave Nikhita the confidence to believe that she too can bake delicious treats. She said that she would try this recipe, which was always one of her favorites when we were in Cambridge together. We'll let you know how it goes!

The proud baker with her creation

You can find the recipe here. (We didn't make the candied lemons.) This is definitely going to become one of my go-to cakes.

Ginger(bread) Cookies

I went hiking with a friend on Sunday to enjoy the spring-like weather in mid-November. On the way back, we drove by a Dunkin' Donuts which was advertising its new line of gingerbread products. Suddenly, an idea was in my mind-- I knew I needed to make gingerbread cookies. We stopped in Barnes and Noble on the way home and I found myself drawn to the cookbooks, hunting for the perfect recipe.

However, I wasn't sure I was interested in the whole cookie cutter endeavor, although I may try that at a later date. Instead, I wanted the gingerbread flavor in a softer cookie that was slightly lower maintenance. I found these cookies here and chose them because they looked soft yet delicious. I love the consistency of these cookies, but I think I would add more ginger next time because they didn't quite have the kick I was looking for.

Also, the recipe called for the cookies to be rolled in sugar before they were baked, but I had seen a recipe for a lemon glaze for gingerbread in the book store and I found that I really liked that idea, so I went hunting again and came up with this icing recipe. I really like the lemon and ginger combination. The only issue was that the icing was pretty runny, so I think I would either add less liquid or more sugar next time. Overall, though, I definitely recommend these cookies, and this comdo.

Happy National Bundt Day x2!

Double post day!  It is Martha Stewart Cupcake posting day for November and National Bundt Day!  The cupcake post will be up soon.

Mary, the woman behind The Food Librarian, one of the blogs I read regularly, is celebrating National Bundt Day by making 30 Bundts in 30 Days. Today is National Bundt Day and I want to help her celebrate! Mary has an exceptional dedication to the bundt. This is actually the second time she has made 30 bundts in 30 days and hers are always so beautiful. Her photography is wonderful too. We have never met, but she seems like such a sweet, kind person from the way she writes. You should check out her blog.

Instead of 30 bundts, I made 2. One is actually one that I got from Mary's blog -- The Blueberry Lemon Bundt. This cake was amazing. Other than adding a glaze of powdered sugar and lemon juice, I left it as written and it got rave reviews. I made it for my first education committee meeting this year and I think it helped the meeting run really smoothly. I always know I can turn to Mary, the queen of bundts, when I need something fantastic. The recipe can be found here.

The other bundt I made is from the always fabulous Dorie Greenspan. So glad that two fabulous women could provide me with recipes for two fantastic bundts. This cake doesn't look like much, but it is delicious! It is the Brown Sugar Bundt Cake from Baking from My Home to Yours. Inside the cake there are pears and raisins (which I skipped). I used farmer's market pears and their flavor really complimented the brown sugar and gave something special to the cake. Dorie says this cake is best the day after it is made, so I made it on Thursday night for Shabbat dinner on Friday. I also made it parve, and it was still delicious which, in my mind, is the sign of a great cake. You can find the recipe here.

Happy National Bundt Day and Congratulations to Mary!

Summer is Finally Here...In Fall!

So, those of you living in Southern California right now know that we are experiencing a heat wave.  It is the hottest it has been since we moved here in the beginning of June.  Who knew that summer came in late September...and on Sukkot no less?  Sukkot always seems to bring extreme weather, either hot, cold or rain.  Somehow, when we have to eat outside and we are supposed to dwell in little huts, we are reminded that we don't control everything, especially the weather.  

When the temperature creeps up (or in this case jumps...it was in the 70s a couple of days ago and it is going to be 97 tomorrow!), nothing is better than ice cream.  In this case, it is a duo of ice creams...lemon ice cream and strawberry frozen yogurt.  Both these frozen treats were born out of fruit and/or dairy products that were about to go bad.  I am glad I was able to save them with this yummy product.

Both of these are from David Lebovitz, guru of all things frozen.  The only thing I would say about both these recipes but especially about the strawberry, is to make sure you have really good, flavorful fruit, because that is all the flavor of both these desserts.  We had yummy farmer's market strawberries, so it turned out well.  As for the lemon, it had a nice tart and creamy flavor, different from the expected lemon sorbet.

The strawberry frozen yogurt can be found here.

The lemon ice cream can be found here.

MSC August: Triple Citrus Cupcakes

Welcome to the August edition of the Martha Stewart Cupcake Club, featuring Triple Citrus Cupcakes.  Marthe, of Culinary Delights, chose these cupcakes, which seem just the thing for hot weather (not that we are having any in LA these days, but in theory).  They were tart, with a delicious glaze and you really tasted the orange, lemon and lime.

These cupcakes are a snap to make, especially if you have a micro-plane zester.  As we all know, Sarah loves zesting, so these are perfect cupcakes for her, and anyone else who enjoys that activity.  The one change I made to this recipe was to rub together the sugar and the zest before creaming them into the butter (a trick learned from Dorie Greenspan), which I think added to the flavor.

These had a really good citrus flavor.  I found them to be more like muffins than cupcakes, especially without the glaze, so I think you could be justified in eating them for breakfast.  I made the glaze with less sugar than Martha suggests and they were really tart with the glaze on, but in a good way.  I made lime flavored glaze, but you could make lemon or orange and I think it would be delicious.  I would definitely make these again and may try grapefruit too!

Thanks Marthe for the great pick.  You can find the recipe in Martha Stewart Cupcakes or here.

Happy Birthday to Husband

Friday was my husband's birthday.  As readers of this blog know, he is not a chocolate person.  Not even a little.  So when I asked him what he wanted for his birthday, I knew what he wasn't going to say.  He is a big lover of all things lemon and berry, but he left it up to me to figure out exactly what it would look like.

I have made Dorie's French Yogurt cake a number of times and I thought it would make a good base for the birthday cake.  It is super simple to make and has a nice, but not overpowering lemon flavor.  To make the lemon flavor really pop, I decided to make one of my favorite recipes -- Dorie's Most Extraordinary Lemon Cream.  Now, there are those out there in blog land who claim that this lemon cream has too much butter.  There is a lot -- I will agree with that -- but it is AMAZING.  I would not eat it every day (if you did, you would have a serious heart problem), but for a special treat, it is really delicious.  

I made half the recipe for the lemon cream, which turned out to be not quite enough to cover the whole cake, but it came out with a nice rustic look.  I sliced the cake into three layers and put a layer of lemon cream and a layer of sliced raspberries between each one.  I then decorated the top with whole raspberries, which looked nice but made it difficult to cut.

This cake got rave reviews.  You can make all the parts a day in advance, but I would assemble it a couple of hours before serving.  You should make this for the non-chocolate eater in your life!

You can find the recipe for French Yogurt Cake here (I didn't do the glaze)

You can find the recipe for Lemon Cream here (I halved it)

All you need is a pint of fresh raspberries (or strawberries or blueberries) and you are ready to go.

MSC: Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

This month, for The Martha Stewart Cupcake Club, we made Lemon Meringue Cupcakes on page 142 of Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.  This cupcake was chosen by Megan from My Baking Adventures.  Check out her blog -- she has some beautiful photos.

This was my favorite recipe from the book so far.  The cupcakes were light and fluffy (unlike many of the other ones I have made) and the lemon flavor is amazing!  As a bonus, these were a lot less work than I thought they would be, given that they had three parts.

First, they involved Sarah's favorite baking activity -- zesting a lemon.  It did not involve combining the sugar and the zest, but you can't have everything.  Second, these cupcakes involved buttermilk.  I love the flavor that buttermilk adds to baked goods -- it makes them so moist and it gives them a nice tang, which goes well with the lemon.   

The second component was the lemon curd.  It was very good and very lemony (although Dorie's lemon cream is still my favorite and would be awesome on these cupakes).  I didn't strain it at the end, and although it was a little lumpy, you didn't notice it in the cupcakes and I don't think I would take that extra step of dirtying up my strainer.

The third component was seven minute frosting.  Regular readers of this blog know that I destroyed my seven minute frosting on the coconut cupcakes, but this time it worked (it helped that I didn't add any extra liquid).  I followed the directions and it came out exactly right.  I thought it was perfect with these cupcakes.  I think actual meringue might have been to hard (crunchy) with the texture of the cupcakes.  I don't have a torch, so I didn't brown the frosting and it still tasted great.

Even though Martha said to serve these immediately, I ate one the next day and it was still good and fresh tasting.  Mmmm...you should make these if you enjoy lemon and lemon meringue.  Great pick Megan!

Baking with Dorie!

So, as those of you who read this blog — hell, as those of you who have come within hearing range of me in the last month — know, I was signed up to take a master class with Dorie Greenspan at Dalton. This was pretty much the most exciting thing to happen to me, ever. Dorie is the hero of the Baking Sisters! She even has her own tag on our blog!

The inimitable Dorie Greenspan, as photographed by a highly imitable photographer (me, not that you would really want to imitate my carefully studied "blurry" technique)

In the newly renovated Dalton cafeteria, I was paired with a lovely woman named Linda, who is incidentally a Brown alum. I think that I was the more experienced baker, which made me relieved — I had thought that everyone was going to be an expert! But we made a good team.

We baked the French Yogurt Cake from page 224 of Baking from My Home to Yours. We were quite spoiled; the ingredients were all measured out for us, and the lemons were all pre-zested. Actually, to be honest, zesting is one of my favorite things to do, but luckily I was not deprived of my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE step — namely, rubbing the zest and sugar! According to Linda, who studied science, we were "infusing" the sugar with the citrus' oils. Hmmm, I will take it from her.

The cake was simple but yum. When I went home, I made a regular lemon pound cake glaze for it (just lemon juice and confectioner's sugar), even though she suggests a marmalade glaze. We didn't have an marmalade, but I thought it tasted good anyway. I prefer a prominent lemon flavor, and I think the glaze added to it. The cake seems very versatile; you could have it for breakfast, brunch, dessert, whatever, you can top it with all sorts of glazes, you can serve it with fruit. It's a good recipe to have around.

Our cakes before they went into the oven

My cake after it came out of the oven

Dorie also made Tarte Noir. There was neither time nor equipment for the whole class to make it, but that's okay with me since I've made it about a million times. Everyone seemed really impressed that making something so elegant-looking and delicious could be so easy.

I learned a lot of things at the class. Here are some of them:

1) All this time, I had been folding incorrectly. I always thought folding just meant gently scooping the batter up with a spatula and then sort of dragging it through. Turns out you are supposed to turn the bowl a quarter of the way each time, and scrape the batter from the sides.

2) If you are making pie dough in a mixer (as opposed to a food processor), you should add the ingredients in opposite order. This is especially useful advice for me, since I currently don't have a food processor in my possession at school, though I'll probably get one for next year.

Dorie telling us about a chef who makes cookies with one hand literally behind his back. She used this anecdote as an illustration of the importance of adding ingredients in the right order. Also, to demonstrate the inferiority of American butter. Long story.

3) To make pie dough come together, blend it with the heel of your hand. This is some technique that has a French name, but don't ask me what it is because I wasn't taking notes.

4) To make dull ganache shiny again, use a hairdryer! Dorie had made miniature tarte noirs (tartes noir?) for the whole class, and they were DELICIOUS, but when they came out of the fridge the ganache was dull. So...


And voila! Shiny and ready for whipped cream!


This was such a wonderful experience for me. I wish that Rebecca could have been there to share it with me, but I know she was there in spirit! Dorie Greenspan is such a warm, friendly and genuine person. She didn't even seem put off by all my geeky fan-girling, and patiently signed my cookbook as well as labels for Rebecca and my friend Allison to paste into their copies. Plus, best of all, she has been to this blog! So, Dorie, if you are reading this now, it was wonderful to meet you! Thank you for many delicious memories!

Me with Dorie- eyes open

Me with Dorie- eyes closed

French Yogurt Cake Recipe

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds (or, if you'd prefer, omit the almonds and use another 1/2 cup all-purpose flour)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
Grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup plain yogurt
3 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup flavorless oil, such canola or safflower

For the Glaze:
1/2 cup lemon marmalade, strained
1 teaspoon water

Getting Ready:
Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Generously butter an 8 1/2-x-4 1/2-inch loaf pan and place the pan on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, ground almonds, if you're using them, baking powder and salt.

Put the sugar and zest in a medium bowl and, with your fingertips, rub the zest into the sugar until the sugar is moist and aromatic. Add the yogurt, eggs and vanilla and whisking vigorously until the mixture is very well blended. Still whisking, add the dry ingredients, then switch to a large rubber spatula and fold in the oil. You'll have a thick, smooth batter with a slight sheen. Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the cake begins to come away from the sides of the pan; it should be golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the center will come out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for 5 minutes, then run a blunt knife between the cake and the sides of the pan. Unmold, and cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

To Make the Glaze:
Put the marmalade in a small saucepan or in a microwave-safe bowl, stir in the teaspoon of the water and heat until the jelly is hot and liquefied. Using a pastry brush, gently brush the cake with the glaze.

Not Your Grandmother's Lemon Chiffon Cake...or is it?

Baking coverage of our family reunion continues this evening with this INCREDIBLE lemon chiffon cake. Having decided that I would be making one rich chocolate dessert, I needed to find a light, non-chocolate dessert to complement it. This was easier than it sounds, thanks to the amazing blog 17 and Baking. It is by a girl who is 17, and yes, she bakes. And takes beautiful photographs. She makes me feel very under-accomplished, sort of like Michael Phelps does.

In any case, this ended up being my grandmother's birthday cake- hence, the extraordinarily wit-less title of this post. I really like baking with lemon, but I had recently been burned by a lemon pound cake that went all wrong, so I hadn't used any in over two months. Luckily, this cake was well worth the venture. It was unbelievably light, delicious, and simple to make to boot. I was in the minority, but I liked it even better than the chocolate cake (though they went well together, tanks to the citrus in the chocolate cake.) Plus, it allowed me to zest lemons, one of my favorite activities. I'm definitely going to make it again, and maybe I'll try some of the variations she mentions at the bottom of the page. Here's the recipe; this one is a definite recommend!

Lemon Chiffon Cake
Makes one 7″ cake
From Martha Stewart Living

3/4 cup cake flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sugar, divided
3 large eggs, separated, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp grated lemon zest (about 4 lemons)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup water
1/4 tsp cream of tartar

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

In a medium bowl sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, and 3/4 cup sugar. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the three egg yolks, oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, vanilla, and water. Stir in the dry ingredients.

In an electric mixer, beat the three egg whites on medium speed until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and beat on high until soft peaks form, 1-2 minutes. Gradually add the tablespoon of sugar, beating on high for about 3 minutes until stiff peaks form.

Stir 1/3 of the egg white mixture into the batter, then use a rubber spatula to gently fold the remaining 2/3 into the batter. Pour into an ungreased 7″ tube pan and smooth the top with the spatula. Bake 45 minutes or until a skewer poked into the cake comes out clean and the top is golden.

Cool the cake upside down by inverting the pan onto a bottle. Let cool to room temperature, at least 2 hours, before running a knife between cake and pan and inverting onto a plate. Dust with powdered sugar and serve. You can also split the layers horizontally and fill with lemon curd, or pour a glaze over the cake. It’s also delicious with fresh fruit or ice cream.

Adventures with the Ice Cream Maker: Lemon Sherbert (and cookie sandwhich)

So, we are doing well with our ice cream maker. We have made some yummy ice creams, but this one was so good, we had to blog about it. It is Lemon Sherbet from David Lebovitz's Perfect Scoop. Delicious on a hot summer night -- very lemony and refreshing. You can find the recipe here:

Lemon Sherbet
- makes about 1 quart (1 liter) -

Ingredients
3 cups (750 ml) whole milk

3/4 cup (150 g) sugar

1 lemon, preferably unsprayed

6 tablespoons (90 ml) freshly squeezed lemon juice (from 2 to 3 lemons)

Procedure
1. In a medium, nonreactive saucepan, mix 1 cup (250 ml) of the milk with the sugar. Grate the zest of the lemon directly into the saucepan. Heat, stirring frequently, until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat and add the remaining 2 cups (500 ml) milk, then chill thoroughly in the refrigerator.

2. Stir the lemon juice into the milk mixture. If it curdles a bit, whisk it vigorously to make it smooth again. Freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

But wait, there's more...

Then, one night, we had a brilliant idea...to pair this lemon sherbet with Dorie's molasses cookies (which Sarah promises to blog about soon). Delicious combo -- the sweet, tart lemon and the spicy ginger were a perfect pair. Seriously, you should make this!

Lemon Meringue Shabbos

So we had halibut this Shabbos, which was nice because it meant we could make a dessert without the onerous constrains of pareveosity. However, there was the onerous constraint of Rebecca's freak husband, who hates chocolate, of the fact that we couldn't have cake because we had just eaten an entire strawberry shortcake at Baby Simon's first birthday party (more on that later), and of Sarah, who decided that she really really wanted to make meringues. So dessert could possibly be dairy, have meringue and not be chocolate or a cake? Why, lemon meringue pie, of course!

This pie comes courtesy of Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts, which seems to be out of print, but if you are a novice baker (or even if you aren't) it's a really great book, because she gives incredibly detailed instructions for every recipe, and it also has a lot of tips and tricks to make anyone handier around the kitchen.

Despite all this hand-holding, I still managed to mess up the crust. It just wasn't coming together properly, and that combined with the lack of pie weights made for a very...interesting crust. So the next time I make this pie, I will probably use a different recipe. However, I would like you all to know that as of today, the Baking Sisters are proud owners of pie weights! And silicone mats! Hooray for Zabars!

As for the actual pie, it came out quite well, though everyone else seemed to like it better than I did. I think that's because I prefer a thinner, harder layer of meringue (this one was quite voluminous), but that's easy to fix based on your preference. I thought the sweetness of the meringue was not too sweet and the tartness of the lemon filling was not too tart, and that they balanced out really well. Also, on a superficial note, this pie is really pretty; even if like me you aren't particularly adept at making meringue all swirly and professional-looking, this is a crowd-pleaser that elicits oohs and aahs when you bring it out. Just be sure to store it in a safe place without any wind before you serve it (we used the bottom oven, because the top oven was still hot from the baking). Since the book is out of print, here is the lemon meringue recipe, from page 164:

Filling
1 9-inch baked pie shell
Finely grated rind of 3 lemons
1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice
4 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringues)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1.5 cups sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1.5 cups warm tap water
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature, cut into pieces

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the rind and juice and set aside. Place the yolks in a small mixing bowl and set aside.
Place the cornstarch, sugar and salt in a heavy 2-quart saucepan and stir to mix. Gradually add the water, stirring with a rubber spatula until smooth. Place over medium heat and stir gently and constantly until the mixture comes to a low boil. Boil gently, stirring with the rubber spatula, for 1.5 minutes. (Blogger's note: Don't be alarmed if your mixture looks like particularly gloopy rubber cement at this point. That's supposed to happen.) Add the butter and stir briefly to melt.
Remove from the heat. Add a few large spoonfuls of the hot cornstarch mixture to the yolks, stirring well to mix thoroughly. Then pour the yolk mixture into the cornstarch mixture, stirring gently. Also stir in the lemon rind and juice.
Return to moderate heat and stir gently until the mixture comes to a boil again. Boil, stirring gently, for 1 minute. Immediately pour the hot mixture into the pie crust and begin to make the meringue. (The filling should not be completely cool when you cover it with the meringue.)

Meringue
4 egg whites
Pinch of salt
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Place the whites, salt and cream of tartar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat at high speed until the whites hold a soft point when the beaters are raised. Reduce the speed to moderate and gradually add the sugar, adding 2 tablespoons at a time and beating about 20 seconds between additions. Then increase the speed to high again and beat only until the mixture holds a firm point when the beaters are raised — it should be stiff but do not overbeat.
It is essential that the meringue touch the crust all around the plate or the meringue will shrink away from the crust when it is baked, so use two spoons to pick up gobs of meringue and seal the crust all around. Then gradually place the rest of the meringue over the center, and smooth and swirl as you like. (Blogger's note: I tried to make mine all swirly but in retrospect I think it would have looked even nicer if I had just left the meringue the way it was. The two-spoons methods leaves very attractive-looking peaks that needn't be messed with.)
Bake the pie immediately but only until the meringue is lightly colored on the peaks — it will take 7 to 9 minutes.
This pie can be refrigerated, or not, but the filling becomes firmer when refirgerated.