Lemon Meringue Pie – How to make Keto Lemon Pie!
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Hey there! Low carb ingredients have changed tremendously sine I wrote the recipe for the Keto Lemon Meringue Pie. So, I’ve updated it on April 4th 2021 and made it a lot simpler and a whole lot tastier (thanks to allulose).
This recipe includes more steps than the recipes that I usually post but it’s going to be worth every ounce of effort that you put into it.
🥘Ingredients:
Pie Crust
- 1/2 Cup Almond Flour
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
- 2 Tbsp Allulose
- Two tsp’s Psyllium Husk powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup Butter (salted) cubed & VERY cold
Pie Filling
- 1 Cup Allulose
I have not tested other sweeteners in this version of lemon pie.
- 5 Eggs
- 1 Cup Lemon Juice Fresh is best. I used four lemons.
- 2-3 tbsp Lemon Zest I zested all four lemons and used what I had. This is a “to taste” type of ingredient.
- 1 tsp ground cardamom optional
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp Butter cut in small pieces
* Meringue
- 4 Egg Whites
- 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 1/8-1/4 cup low carb sweetener *to taste (Allulose is superior to any other low carb sweetener when baking).
👨🏿🍳How to make the Lemon Pie:
Pie Crust
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Blend all of the pie crust ingredients together in a food processor until it’s the consistency of crumbs. It will look dry and this is normal. The butter should be COLD.
- Press into a pie plate, poke holes in the bottom with a fork and bake for 10-14 minutes. IMPORTANT: Let the crust cool completely before you fill it.
Keto Lemon Pie Filling
- Whisk lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs and allulose in a cold medium sized sauce pan. Forget what you know about tempering eggs. Start whisking and slowly heat on medium/low heat until the mix gets thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Don’t stop whisking and make sure your getting around the edge of the pot too.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in butter. Once melted stir in vanilla, and salt. If the curd didn’t thicken enough to your liking, simply return to heat and cook a bit longer, stirring constantly (don’t stop), until it thickens enough to coat the spoon. It will thicken a bit in the fridge too.
- Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed. Let the filling cool for about 15 minutes before filling the pie or it will dissolve the nut based crust.
- If you are adding the meringue, move onto the next step.
- If you will be topping your pie with whipped cream, leave the pie in the fridge until cold and you are ready to serve.
- Let the pie filling cool for at least 15 minutes at room temp or put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to speed this up. * This is important.
If you don’t let the filling cool a bit, it will dissolve your delicate nut pie crust.
Meringue
- Whip the egg whites, cream of tartar and sweetener until stiff peaks form but do not over beat. I use a Kitchen aid for this step but a hand mixer will do the trick.
- Pour the egg white mix onto the top of the pie and spread out, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Make sure the edges are sealed.
- Bake @ 350F for 30 minutes or until it’s lightly golden brown and beautiful. Cool in the fridge until cold. About 3 hours (ish).
🍽️Equipment you’ll need to make the pie recipe:
I love these nested bowls for storage and the fact that they have lids makes them so convenient.
You can always use a hand mixer if you don’t have a Kitchen-aid. But they are soooo nice.
A ceramic pie plate is a MUST for low carb baking. The metal pans will scorch the delicate nut flours and derail your pie.
📋Tips & FAQ’s:
- Make sure your butter is cold when making the pie crust.
This is a must for any pie crust, Keto or not. Leave it in the fridge until you are ready to cut it up and toss it in the food processor.
I actually use a Ninja blender. I have a food processor but its huge and a pain to clean.
The blender comes with different sized “pitchers” for making a variety of whatever it is you are making. Every part of my blender besides the motor is dishwasher safe so…it wins every time.
Plus, it was very inexpensive (another win).
- Pulse the ingredients until they are pea sized.
Don’t blend up the crust until its “uniform”. You want some pieces of butter in there making your crust flaky and light.
- Press the dough into the pie pan.
I used my knuckles and then the bottom of a glass to sort of even it out.
Press in pie crusts are one of my favorite perks of making Keto pie crusts…no more rolling out the dough. It’s never been one of my strengths.
Bake the crust and let it cool while you are making the pie filling.
It should be cool by the time you finish.
Pouring the filling into a hot pie crust will make it soggy and you’ll end up eating your pie with a spoon.
- Lemon zest is important to deepen the flavor of the filling.
The recipe lists 2-3 tablespoons of zest. I zested all four lemons and used however much I had because I love the sourness that it adds.
It’s a “to taste” type of ingredient.
- Ground cardamom is optional.
But you should use it if you have it. I can’t describe the flavor except for citrusy, and herbal.
Cardamom builds the pie’s flavor in complexity and whoever is lucky enough to share it with you will be left wondering what the secret ingredient is.
- What to do if you don’t have psyllium husk powder…
Buy some...just kidding.
But not really, buy some for future use because it blows xanthan gum out of the water.
I like psyllium husk powder because of the fiber and the texture. But, I know not everyone keeps it on hand. And, it’s not always readily available at a grocery store (yet).
You can use 2 teaspoons of arrowroot powder if necessary. (Even my grocery store in the sticks has it).
I really cant speak to how much xanthan gum to use because I don’t use it anymore. But, I bet it would work…I just cant help with the exchange rate.
Since I discovered how much easier psyllium husk powder works, tastes and the amazing health benefits it has…I have been using it exclusively in my baked goods as of late.
Tips if you will be making the meringue…
I really like my Lemon Pie with whipped cream.
I have never been a huge fan of meringue but people like it. It keeps well in the fridge and travels well (Whipped cream DOES NOT).
And, it looks beautiful so I included meringue in this recipe and even put it on BOTH of my Lemon Pies.
Why did I make two pies?
Because I “over beat” the meringue on the first pie.
I beat the egg whites until they were foamy like a bowl full of dish washing liquid.
This is what happened….
Do you see that hollowed out dome of crunchy meringue like stuff?
Yep. It looked beautiful on the outside but I was pretty disappointed with the final product.
We still ate it…but a crunchy and super-sweet topping was not what I was going for.
It was okay because it was then that I realized it needed more thickener…and I was able to warn you about over beating the eggs.
(I have never had this happen before)
- This recipe calls for stiff peaks for the meringue…not foam.
It should look something like this.
- Just plop the egg whites on top of the filling and spread to the outside.
There is no graceful way to do this. If you have never made meringue, don’t worry.
You’ll get the hang of spreading it out pretty quickly.
Which is good because you don’t want to dilly-dally too much at this point. Don’t let the meringue deflate too much before you seal it up and get this baby in the oven.
- The peaks of the meringue should be a light golden brown.
Bake for 30-35 minutes or until browned and the meringue doesn’t jiggle when you wiggle the pie pan.
If you like the Keto lemon Pie you might like these too:
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Strawberry Lemonade Tart
- Lemon Tartlets
- Low Carb Lemon Squares
- Lemon Poppy Seed Shortbread Cookies
- Orange Poppy Seed Madeleine’s
- Key Lime Cheesecake Bites
That’s it for the Keto Lemon Pie…
I hope you enjoy your lemon pie and please let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or super awesome additions!
Cheers!
Brandy
More Low Carb Recipes to Love:
Keto Lemon Meringue Pie
Equipment
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 1/2 Cup Almond Flour
- 1/2 Cup Coconut Flour
- 2 Tbsp Allulose
- 2 tsp Psyllium Husk powder
- 2 large eggs
- 1/2 cup Butter (salted) cubed & VERY cold
Pie Filling
- 1 Cup Allulose
- 5 Eggs
- 1 Cup Lemon Juice Fresh is best. I used four lemons.
- 2-3 tbsp Lemon Zest I zested all four lemons and used what I had. This is a “to taste” type of ingredient.
- 1 tsp ground cardamom optional
- pinch salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 4 tbsp Butter cut in small pieces
* Meringue
- 4 Egg Whites
- 1/2 tsp Cream of Tartar
- 1/8-1/4 cup low carb sweetener *to taste (see notes in post)
Instructions
Pie Crust
- Preheat oven to 350F
- Blend all of the pie crust ingredients together in a food processor until it's the consistency of crumbs. It will look dry and this is normal. The butter should be COLD.
- Press into a pie plate, poke holes in the bottom with a fork and bake for 10-14 minutes. IMPORTANT: Let the crust cool completely before you fill it.
Filling
- Whisk lemon juice, lemon zest, eggs and allulose in a cold medium sized sauce pan. Forget what you know about tempering eggs. Start whisking and slowly heat on medium/low heat until the mix gets thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Don't stop whisking and make sure your getting around the edge of the pot too.
- Remove pan from heat and stir in butter. Once melted, stir in vanilla, and salt. If the curd didn’t thicken enough to your liking, simply return to heat and cook a bit longer, stirring constantly (don't stop), until it thickens enough to coat the spoon. Taste for sweetness and adjust if needed.
- Let cool for 15 minutes BEFORE YOU POUR IT into your pie crust.If you are adding the meringue, move onto the next step once you pour the filling into the crust.If you will be topping your pie with whipped cream, leave the pie in the fridge until cold and you are ready to serve.
Meringue
- Let the pie filling cool for at least 15 minute or until it's room temp before pouring into the crust or put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to speed this up. ( I know I already said this but it's important).Please see tips in the post if you want to know why this is important.
- Whip the egg whites, cream of tartar and sweetener until stiff peaks form but do not over beat. *see tips in post
I use a Kitchen aid for this step but a hand mixer will do the trick. - Pour the egg white mix onto the top of the pie and spread out, taking care not to deflate the meringue. Make sure the edges are sealed.
- Bake @ 350F for 30 minutes or until it’s lightly golden brown and beautiful. Cool in the fridge until cold. About 3 hours (ish).
Notes
Nutrition
The nutritional information for the Keto Lemon Pie is provided as a courtesy so that you can figure out your personal daily macros in a flash!
I am really careful about my calculations but since I am an actual person…please feel free to make your own calculations if anything ever looks off on this website or ANY website.
Thanks!
Brandy
Hey Holly, I would say this recipe is more tart than sweet. You could always add more sweetener if you wanted though. Cheers!
Hello Brandy, Is this pie on the tart side or more sweet? I know everyone’s taste is different but we are newer to keto so still weaning off coconut sugar and honey as sweeteners. We like it to be a bit sweeter than most die-hard keto people.
Also, what would you say the main difference between this recipe and your lemon squares would be? We can’t figure out which one to make. Your recipes never fail me 😋
Thank you so much!
Thanks for this recipe, it was delicious and actually easier to make than my non keto past efforts!
I have to be dairy free, worked great with non-dairy butter (I like Miyoko’s the best).
I also didn’t need a whole pie, so I split the recipe between three 5.5 inch ceramic mini pie plates so I could freeze two for later. The meringue cooks A LOT faster though, so if doing the same start checking them after 10-15 minutes.
Hi Jeanne, Thanks for commenting! The recipe was just recently changed and that bit of text in the post was missed in editing. The new recipe is so tasty and much easier. Sorry for any confusion. It’s been corrected and I hope you enjoy your pie.
Haven’t made it yet as I’m confused by the recipe for the filling… ingredients are for 5 eggs, instructions say whisk ‘eggs, yolk’…I take it eggs mean the 5 eggs but yolk? Where does that come from? No singular yolk is in your list of ingredients..
I made this for Christmas eve dinner and it thickened up nicely! I cant wait to try it!
True..you have to seal it before baking. Good luck with your pie!
I am excited to try this recipe! Thank you! And FYI, you have to spread the meringue all the way because if you don’t it will shrink and not cover your whole pie 😉
Greeting Sarah!The weight would be .25oz or about 7.08 grams. May your pie be delicious! Cheers!
Hi just wondering the weight in grams of the gelatine for the lemon curd, I’m in Australia and I but unflavoured gelatine in a 250g tub. Not sachets.
Hi Tyia! Yes, not runny. It will continue to thicken as it cools but it should be a custard like consistency before it is poured into the crust.
I’m not sure what thickened means.. How thick? Like cold jello? Or less congealed but not runny? Tyia
Hi Carol! I don’t use lupin flour in pastry because of the bitter taste. If you try it out I would love to hear what you think. It’s very similar to chickpea flour in it’s nutritional compounds and texture and I am not a huge fan but I am always looking for new products so if anyone out there has any input, I would love to hear it.
I don’t know where to query you on an different subject. So, have you looked into lupin flour pastry yet? I watched a video and it looks promising, just wondering how flaky it is?
Hi LaKendra! Wow!! I am so glad you liked it but I wonder why it took so long to thicken…that seems like a long time. I would have been singing the Nemo song in my head too lol. Mine usually takes about ten minutes to thicken but I’m glad you stuck it out and made the pie. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Cheers!
I too was wondering how long until the filling thickened I just kept stirring (like nemo) probably about 25 minutes and it finally thickened…did the same with the Meringue that was about 8 minutes I didn’t want to over do it and it possibly could have gone another minute. But I sampled the filling before it went into the oven to make sure it wasn’t a complete flop and it taste amazing!! It’s baking now and I can’t wait to dig in! Thank you!
I was just opening this page this morning because I am making this for the third time and saw Estelle’s comment. Mine did not come out great the first time. In fact it was the first time I ever made a pie…ever. But now I think I have it down. The only change I made is adding more lemon zest. You have to stir the lemon filling for a long time and get it thick in the pan.
Estelle. So sorry that it didn’t work out for you. It is really good. But, it does take some experience (like any lemon meringue pie). If you read the instructions it says that it will thicken in the pan. It will further “set” in the fridge but you have to thicken it in the pan or it will stay soupy forever. I will clarify further in the instructions so that this won’t happen to anyone else. Hopefully you will see this reply and you can further thicken your curd in the pan.
I wasted so much money on this. You never explained when the filling would be ready. Does it thicken in the fridge or should it be thickened in the saucepan. Instructions for filling lacking. It is in the fridge but it’s like soup.