Coconut Oil Lemon Meringue Pie
Dairy free coconut oil lemon meringue pie. A graham cracker crust filled with a coconut oil lemon curd, and topped with meringue. Light as a cloud and full of lemon flavor!
Whenever I’m out and about, I’m constantly listening in on other people’s conversations. I’m a major eavesdroppers.
I think I may have heard the best one of all.
My grocery store has a Starbucks inside of it. As I was walking past it with my grocery cart, I heard the Starbucks cashier say to the customer,
“Sorry, but you can’t buy gift cards with gift cards…if that makes sense…”
I have sooooo many questions about this.
First of all, why can’t you buy gift cards with gift cards?
And why does this lady want to buy another Starbucks gift card and pay for it with her current Starbucks gift card? You already have the gift card! Just add more money to your current gift card.
It’s seriously been a month since I overheard this, and I still think about this several times a week. I’m worried I’ll never know the answer. Someday I’ll be 100 years old sitting in my rocking chair and mumbling Why buy a gift card with a gift card? It makes no sense!
What does make sense is using coconut oil instead of butter in lemon meringue pie. It tastes better, and makes it dairy free!
This is another lemon dessert I made with all of the lemons Shawn’s co worker gave us. And like the coconut oil lemon bars I made with the first bag of lemons, this lemon meringue pie is the perfect dessert for me to make because it uses a ton of lemons and a ton of eggs. Both of which I have in abundance for free (thanks chickens!) and need to use up.
The pie crust is a graham cracker crust. I used coconut oil instead of butter, and it worked perfect. I love graham cracker lemon desserts. They go so well together.
I adjusted my usual lemon curd recipe, and substituted coconut oil for butter in that too. It is a great addition, and I actually like it way better! The subtle sweetness of the coconut oil and the lemon is delish.
It’s topped with meringue. I love how wonderfully the egg whites from my chickens’ fresh eggs whipped up. So pretty.
Coconut Oil Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
Graham Cracker Crust
- 1-1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs, from 10 graham cracker sheets
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Lemon Curd Filling
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon table salt
- 1-1/2 cups water
- 1/2 cup lemon juice from 2 to 3 lemons
- 6 large egg yolks
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest from 2 lemons
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
Meringue
- 4 large egg whites
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
Graham Cracker Crust
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees with the oven rack in the middle. Spray a 9" tart pan with non stick spray, and put it on a rimmed baking sheet to make it easier to transfer in and out of the oven.
- In a food processor, combine the graham crackers, sugar and salt. Pulse until crumbs. Add the melted coconut oil, pulse until it looks like wet sand.
- Pour the graham cracker crust into the tart pan. Spread in an even layer across the bottom and up the sides of the tart pan. Use medium pressure and a measuring spoon to press in to the tart pan.
- Bake for 15 minutes, or until golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and set aside.
- Reduce the oven temperature to 325 degrees, with the oven rack in the bottom of the oven.
Lemon Curd
- In a medium size pot over medium heat, combine the sugar, cornstarch, salt, water and lemon juice. Cook until it just starts to bubble.
- While the sugar mixture is heating up, in a small bowl combine the egg yolks and lemon zest. Whisk to combine.
- As soon as the sugar mixture just starts to bubble and turns translucent, temper the egg yolks by slowly pouring in a ladle full of the hot sugar mixture while whisking the egg yolks. Once the egg yolks are slowly heated, then add all the egg yolks to the sugar mixture. Cook until it just starts to bubble.
- Once it bubbles, turn off the heat and add in the coconut oil. Whisk until it is melted. Set aside.
Meringue
- After the lemon curd is off the heat, make the meringue.
- Combine the sugar and cream of tartar in a small bowl.
- Pour the egg whites and vanilla into the bowl of the stand mixer with a whisk attachment. Whisk the egg whites over medium speed.
- Once they start to form bubbles and get frothy, pour in the sugar/cream of tartar mixture 1 tablespoon at a time in 1 minute increments.
- Continue to whisk over medium speed until all the sugar is added and stiff peaks form.
Assembling the Lemon Meringue Pie
- Pour the warm lemon curd onto the graham cracker crust.
- Dollop the meringue on the curd, starting on the outside, working your way inside to the center. Then use a rubber spatula to smooth it in an even layer.
- Use the back of the spoon to swirl the meringue into a pretty swirly pattern, and poke the spoon in and out to give it little peaks.
- Bake the pie for 15-20 minutes, or until the top of the meringue is just starting to turn a light golden color.
- Allow the pie to cool to room temperature before slicing, about 1 hour.
- Cut into slices and serve.
More Lemon Desserts
13 Comments on “Coconut Oil Lemon Meringue Pie”
fix your recipe:
Pour the egg whites and vanilla into the bowl of the stand mixer with a whisk attachment. **Whisk the egg yolks over medium speed.
Whisk the egg WHITES over medium speed.
Ah, thanks for the catch! Glad you were able to figure it out. All fixed now!
This pie is absolute perfection. I’ve never made lemon meringue before and it turned out perfectly! One small amendment: don’t forget to make a slurry with your cornstarch! Dumping it in will cause clumping.
I highly recommend this recipe!!!
I’m so happy to hear you liked it Amber! What wonderful compliments! Thank you so much!
Thank you for sharing this recipe! This is the first time I have made a meringue so I was very nervous, but my wife wanted some for her birthday and I am allergic to dairy, so store bought wasn’t an option. I did find a dairy free graham cracker crust but the rest of the recipe I followed exactly and it is so good! I will definatly make this in the future!
I’m so happy to hear that Chandra! How nice of you to homemade this pie for your wife’s birthday! Thanks for taking the time to let me know you like my recipe! Means the world.
Oh my gosh, now I’m going to be pondering this gift card thing all day…how funny!! I LOVE lemon meringue pie, we haven’t eaten one in so long…looks delicious!!
You have me cracking up over the Starbuck’s thing. How weird is that?! I’m totally obsessing over this pie too, such a creative way to use coconut oil!
Lol! You are cracking me up Natalie! You should have asked! :)
And this pie – OMG! Yes!!
This looks lovely! And also, about the gift cards… I get it. Last Christmas I had to very carefully budget out everyone’s gifts and barely had enough to cover… And then found out I was “supposed” to get gifts for 2 other family members. Frantic… I found a gift card to Pottery Barn which had been a housewarming gift and I hadn’t used yet. I used it to purchase 2 gift cards for those 2 people. Not saying I didn’t feel totally ridiculous doing so, but I had to do what I had to do! Haha. So I can imagine scenarios where you would want to buy a gift card with a gift card. ?
You may have just solved the mystery for me Lisa! Maybe that’s what she is trying to do! Hahaha!
And side note, don’t you feel like Christmas is allllll about presents now? And we’re all basically trading the same money back and forth in the form of stuff we don’t necessarily need? I think this year we are going to do a simple Christmas. Get back to the basics.
TOTALLY AND COMPLETELY AGREE. Christmas is supposed to be about love, family, kindness… not gifts. Unless you’re a kid. ;) I have been trying to back out of gift-giving/receiving except with immediate family where it actually still means something, but some extended members get all cranky that I’m a “scrooge” and my mom pesters me to “just do it” to keep the peace. :| I LOVE YOUR IDEA of “back to the basics.” now to get the rest of the world on board… :)
Yes, please. This looks so sweet and perfect!