Soooo….
That whole in a jar thing. I’m kind of obsessed. Yes, yes I am. Since the limeade in a jar experiment, I’ve had lemon meringue stuck in my head. But not just any lemon meringue – pink lemonade meringue. And in a jar, of course.
Oddly, I’ve never made lemon meringue at home. I’ve made it at the bakery, but that isn’t really scratch. And I debated on the crust. I polled people on facebook about their preference of crust: pastry or graham cracker. There were plenty that chose sides, with pastry edging out graham cracker by just a bit. I ended up going with the graham cracker crust for ease, but I think pre-baking a pastry crust would be NOM.
So I pulled out my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, looked up lemon meringue, and started tweaking from there.
The hardest part was getting it pink. lemon meringue has egg yolks in it, which caused my filling to turn orange. Definitely not princess-y, and definitely not pink. I finally settled on adding maraschino cherry juice to get the pink color, and it didn’t change the taste at all.
So….the recipe…
Princess Pies
- 1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
- 6 tbsp butter, melted
- 3 tbsp = 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup pink lemonade concentrate
- 2 oz maraschino cherry juice
- 3 tbsp flour
- 3 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 3 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp butter
Meringue
- 3 tbsp meringue powder
- 3 tbsp + 2 tsp sugar
- 1/4 ice water
Preheat oven to 350°F. In a medium bowl, combine graham cracker crumbs, 3 tbsp sugar, and melted butter. Divide evenly between 8 (8 oz) canning jars. Press down firmly. Bake on a cookie sheet for 6 minutes. Remove from oven and cool.
Combine remaining sugar, flour, cornstarch, and 1 1/2 cups water in a medium saucepan. Over medium-high heat, cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat and stir for two minutes more. Remove from heat.
In a medium bowl, beat egg yolks until creamy. Slowly stir approximately a cup of the hot filling into the egg yolks. Place filling and egg yolks back into the pan. Cook over medium heat for an additional two minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in butter. Add lemonade gradually, mixing well. Divide filling evenly between each canning jar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine meringue powder, 3 tbsp + 1 tsp sugar, and ice water. Whip at high speed for 5 minutes. Gradually add the rest of the sugar and continue whipping meringue until it is stiff and dry.
Spread meringue evenly over hot filling. Place jars under the broiler for 3-5 minutes, or until meringue starts to turn golden.
Remove from oven, cool completely, and chill in refrigerator for at least an hour. Enjoy!
These are pretty. And a lot of work. If you want a not so labor-intensive version, you can tweak Kristan’s (from Confessions of a Cookbook Queen) recipe for Cherry Limeade Pies. Instead of limeade, use pink lemonade. Add 2 oz of cherry juice to the lemonade mixture, and follow the remaining instructions. Do not mix cherry into the whipping cream (unless you really want to). See – easier. 
But different, too. One is not better than the other.
