Chloe Holt wanted to carry on a family tradition of enjoying lemon meringue pie by learning to make it herself. The Eudora Times Pie Off presented the perfect opportunity to master the craft.
“It’s something I love very much – is this pie. My family loves this pie. My mom loves this pie. So it kind of was important to me that I learned how to make it and that I did good,” Holt said.
Holt’s pie won the competition with the most community votes on Thursday night. Culinary students from the high school brought their best pies to Zeb’s to showdown against their classmates.
Holt’s recipe pushed her to try something more challenging to become a better baker, as it’s a more difficult pie with a lot of steps, she said.
She practiced twice before creating the final product for the event to make sure it was just right. She had other chefs try it, along with other high school staff to make sure she made the proper changes between each batch, she said. Because of the strong lemon flavors, people have a lot of different preferences and it was hard to get a solid agreement on how it should be, she said.
Being the winner came as a complete shock, she said because she didn’t think everyone would like how strong the flavors were. For a first-time meringue maker, she said it was great to see the whole thing come together and get to torch it to make it pretty.
“I was very shocked by that. There were 10 pies total there, so I thought one of the other nine pies would be way better, because they all looked incredible, and I was very shocked. I’m very happy,” she said.
Holt learned along the way she couldn’t use anything metal with this type of recipe because it would turn the meringue silver-y and leave a metallic flavor.
Holt is a senior, and plans to carry culinary into her future, although she hasn’t decided on what she’s doing after graduation.
Ashlyn Bellmyer’s family recipe for apple pie took second place.
The all butter homemade crust is what makes it special, she said, and the lattice crust gives it a wow factor. The fresh apple filling is just an added bonus. Once her grandma started making it, it became a family tradition.
“The latticework was pretty difficult,” she said. “Besides that, it was pretty much a very simple pie to make.”
Bellmyer isn’t new to pies. She has a small business called Ashlyn’s Creamery. She makes all kinds of baked goods, including cookies, cakes, rolls and more. She started the business about four years ago, she said.
Bellmyer is a senior, and plans to pursue culinary school at Johnson County Community College after graduation.
Juniors Cole Baumgartner and Jack Crawshaw collaborated on making a tangy key lime pie.
The pie, which won them third place, was unlike the other pies they’ve made in the past.
The whole project was a learning experience, Baumgartner said. The first time they made the pie, they didn’t whip the egg whites. The pie turned out too liquidy, so upon their second run-through on Thursday, they were able to get the consistency just right.
“Five hours ago, we made the pie again but this time we whipped the egg whites and then folded them into it to make it nice and frothy so, when it cooked, it was solid and not liquidy,” Baumgartner said.
“It was good. Juicing the limes was the best part,” Crawshaw said.
Overall, the two agreed it was easier than they expected, especially with a graham cracker crust rather than a traditional one.
Below is the recipe for Holt’s award-winning pie. The other nine recipes are available here.
Lemon Meringue Pie with Marcona Shortbread Crust
Crust
1/2 cup marcona almonds
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 1/3 cups water
4 tsp. lemon zest plus 2/3 cup fresh lemon juice
4 large egg yolks
2 T. unsalted butter
Meringue
4 large egg whites
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup water
Directions
Preheat oven to 400°F. Place almonds in a food processor; pulse until finely chopped, about six times. Add flour, powdered sugar, and salt; pulse twice to combine. Add butter; pulse until small, moist clumps form, about 13 to 16 times (dough will be crumbly but it will hold together when pressed between fingers; you don’t want the dough to form a ball, but you also don’t want lots of dry flour).
Transfer dough to a 9-inch pie pan lightly coated with cooking spray. Pat dough into bottom and up sides of pie pan; pierce bottom of dough with a fork. Place in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove dough from the freezer and line with parchment paper and pie weights or dried beans.
Bake until lightly browned, 15 to 18 minutes. Carefully remove parchment paper and pie weights. Bake until evenly browned, about 5 minutes. Place on a wire rack to let cool.
Whisk together granulated sugar, cornstarch, and salt in a large, heavy saucepan. Whisk in 1 1/3 cups water and lemon juice. Cook over medium, stirring almost constantly, until bubbly and thick, about 6 minutes.
Place egg yolks in a medium bowl. Add about 1/4 of hot lemon juice mixture to egg yolks, whisking constantly. Gradually add remaining hot lemon juice mixture, whisking constantly. Pour mixture back into pan and cook over medium, whisking constantly until bubbly, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat.
Stir in lemon zest. Add butter; stir until butter melts. Place the saucepan into an ice bath in a large bowl. Let cool to room temperature, whisking occasionally, for about 8 minutes. Spoon mixture into cooled crust. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until set for about 1 hour.
Place egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Add cream of tartar, vanilla, and salt. Beat on medium speed just until soft peaks form.
Combine granulated sugar and 1/4 cup water in a small, heavy saucepan; stir just to moisten the sugar. Bring to a boil; cook, without stirring, until a candy thermometer registers 250°F, about 6 minutes. With a stand mixer running on medium-low speed, slowly pour hot sugar syrup down the side of the bowl into an egg white mixture. Increase speed to medium, and gradually increase up to high. Beat until stiff peaks form.
Spoon meringue over pie. Lightly brown meringue under a broiler or with a kitchen torch, if desired.
Reach reporter Sara Maloney at [email protected]
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