Day 1:
Crust:
2/3 pound of plain graham crackers
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
11 tablespoons of melted unsalted butter
combine graham crackers sugar and salt in food processor until fine
melt butter and add to running food processor slowly stopping and scraping sides as necessary. Getting mix even is tedious.
mix
Spray inside of 9.5” x 2” separating tart pan / pie tin with cooking spray
Form mix into crust in separating pie tin
bake empty crust at 350*F in toaster oven for ten minutes, allow to fully cool untouched in oven to avoid cracks while crust sets.
Custard:
2 14oz cans of sweetened condensed milk
1 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice strained (not sure how many lemons needed)
zest of two large normal three lemons (microplane kitchen rasp)
8 egg yolks (allocate at least a dozen eggs for problems with separating)
Wash your hands with dawn dish soap and HOT water or use powder free nitrile gloves and make sure everything is squeaky clean.
Use a three bowl method for separating egg yolks and whites. Be meticulous that no yolk ends up in the white you will use for meringue. Store egg whites in a ridiculously clean snaptop glass container overnight in the fridge.
Whisk yolks in stand mixer for 60 seconds (slight color change should be apparent)
Add lemon juice, condensed milk and zest
Whisk to combine (should be smooth and homogenous)
While jostling crust as little as possible add custard to crust.
Bake in crust on convection at 175-200F until filling is set an instant read thermometer should read at least 150F about 1.5-2.5 hours.
remove crust and custard base from toaster oven without putting any pressure on tart pan bottom. I slide it off toaster oven rack onto a wooden cutting board.
freeze overnight, I put it on a wooden cutting board which is itself on an aluminum sheet pan. This is also what I leave it on for day two when I dress with meringue and then brown meringue, the wooden cutting board will shield the bottom of the pie from some of the heat while you are browning the meringue later.
Day 2:
Meringue:
8 egg whites
1 1/3 cups of honey
1/2 teaspoon of cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Make sure stand mixer bowl is squeaky clean.
Fill a pot (that your stand mixer bowl won’t bottom out in when set up as a double boiler using the mixer’s bowl) with at least 1 1/2 inches of water , Place over high heat until steaming-hot, then adjust temperature to maintain a gentle simmer. Combine egg whites, honey, salt, cream of tartar, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set bowl over steaming water, stirring vigorously and scraping constantly with a whisk, until egg whites hold steady at 170°F (measure temp of liquid in motion not just next to the metal bowl), about 10 minutes. Transfer bowl to a stand mixer fitted with a (clean!) whisk attachment and whip at high speed until meringue is glossy and stiff.
Remove pie from freezer and dress pie with meringue (you should have extra meringue if things went well). Optionally use dish towels to shield sides of tart pan from heat. Bake at 300 until peaks of meringue brown. Return to fridge not freezer until ready to serve, the sooner the better.
To serve:
Get a large diameter can or something that will support the base of tart pan but not sides then carefully blast the sides of tart pan with a blowtorch while rotating support to heat all sides of side of tart pan evenly allowing the side to fall off on its own as a thin layer of fat on outside of crust melts and metal slightly expands.
Transfer pie on tart pan base to larger diameter base to allow cutting and serving.