Triple Citrus Meringue Pie is the Good Plate’s celebration of Pi Day – but you don’t have to wait for March 14th to make this. Enjoy this easy to make, citrusy pie any day.
Welcome to the Good Plates Kitchen! Today, we’re celebrating Pi Day in the most delicious way possible—with pie, of course! Since Pi (π) represents the mathematical constant related to the circumference of a circle, what better way to honor it than with a round, zesty Triple Citrus Meringue Pie? This pie brings together grapefruit, lime, and lemon for a perfectly balanced burst of citrus flavor, all nestled in a buttery graham cracker crust and topped with a fluffy, golden meringue.
What Makes this Pie Different
This pie uses sweetened condensed milk instead of cornstarch to make the filling. If you want a lovely, creamy filling, use this filling. If you want a jiggly pie, then use cornstarch. Frankly, I don’t like pies that move.
The Ingredients That Make This Pie Special
- Grapefruit, Lime and Lemon: These citrus flavors create a beautiful balance of sweet, tart, and tangy. We even use True Lime, a crystallized lime that’s great for concentrated citrus flavor without adding extra juice.
- Sweetened Condensed Milk: Instead of cornstarch, we use sweetened condensed milk for a rich, creamy filling.
- Egg Yolks and Whites: The yolks give our filling structure, while the whites whip into a perfect meringue topping.
- Graham Cracker Crust: A mix of graham crackers, sugar, lemon zest, and butter creates a crunchy, flavorful base.
Making the Graham Cracker Crust
A *food processor is a lifesaver for this step! Simply pulse graham crackers, sugar, and lemon zest together, then slowly add melted butter until the mixture holds together. Press it into a pie plate, ensuring the crust is even. A measuring cup works well to flatten and compact the mixture. Bake at 350°F (176 °C) for 15-20 minutes, then let it cool while preparing the filling. Keep the oven on as you will be baking the pie shortly.
Preparing the Meringue
To make clean up easier, start with the meringue instead of the filling.
Meringue success starts with a perfectly clean bowl—no oil or grease allowed! Beat three egg whites in a *mixer using the whisk attachment, gradually adding sugar until stiff peaks form. Alternately, you can use a hand mixer if you don’t have a stand mixer. Reserve some of this to pipe the Pi (π) symbol on top of the pie!
The Zesty Citrus Filling
Use a *lemon squeezer to get the most juice out of your citrus.
In a mixing bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, egg yolks, and a blend of grapefruit, lemon juice, and a touch of lime. Mix until fully incorporated and pour into the cooled crust.
Assembling & Baking
Spread the meringue over the citrus filling, making sure to push it all the way to the edges to seal in the filling. Using a piping bag, add the Pi (π) symbol and “3.14” for a fun and festive touch! Bake at 350°F (176 °C) for 20-30 minutes until the meringue is golden brown. Let the pie cool completely in the refrigerator before slicing.
Enjoy & Celebrate!
This Triple Citrus Meringue Pie is the perfect way to honor Pi Day with a delicious homemade treat. The tangy citrus, creamy filling, and toasted meringue come together in every bite for a celebration-worthy dessert. Slice in and enjoy—Happy Pi Day! Serve it with our Rose Lemonade.
Triple Citrus Meringue Pie Recipe
Email Me the Recipe
Three Citrus Meringue Pie for Pi Day
Equipment
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Ingredients
~~ — Crust — ~~
- 7 ounce Graham crackers, crushed
- ¼ cup Butter, melted
- 2 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 teaspoon Lemon rind, Penzey’s preferred
~~ — Meringue — ~~
- 3 Egg white
- ¼ cup Sugar
~~ — Filling — ~~
- ¼ cup Grapefruit juice, fresh
- 2 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 2 teaspoon True Lime
- 12 ounce Sweetened Condensed Milk
- 3 Egg yolk
Instructions
- Mise en Place
Make the Crust
- 7 ounce Graham crackers, 1/4 cup Butter, 2 tablespoon Sugar, 1 teaspoon Lemon rindCrush the crackers in the food processor. Add the lemon rind and butter and process until the crust comes together.
- Put the crumbs in the bottom of the pie plate and use your hands to compact the crust.
- Bake the crust at 325 °F (163 °C) for about 10 minutes. Let the crust cool before using it.
Make the Meringue
- 3 Egg white, 1/4 cup SugarPut the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer. Start beating on 4 and add half the sugar. Continue beating until the egg whites start turning white then add the rest of the sugar and put the mixer on 10 and beat until stiff peaks form. If you are going to use the same bowl for the filling, remove the meringue to another bowl and set aside.
Make the Filling
- 1/4 cup Grapefruit juice, 2 tablespoon Lemon juice, 2 teaspoon True Lime, 12 ounce Sweetened Condensed Milk, 3 Egg yolkPut the condensed milk, egg yolks and juices in the bowl of the stand mixer and beat on low until it is completely mixed.
- When the crust is cool enough to touch, pour the filling into the crust.
- Put the meringue on top of the filling and spread it out using a offset spatula. Make sure you bring the meringue all the way to the pie’s edges.
- If you wish, you can pipe the meringue on, or you can write the Pi symbol on top.
- Bake the pie in a 325 °F (163 °C) oven for 20 minutes or until the meringue has started to brown.
- Remove the pie from the oven. If you baked the pie in a glass pie dish, let the pie cool for about 30 minutes before putting it in the refrigerator.
- The pie must cool in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours before serving. Enjoy and Happy Pi Day!
Video
Nutrition
Triple Citrus Meringue Pie Video Transcript
Transcript
Good afternoon and welcome
to the Good Plates Kitchen.
Well, today is guess
what? Today is pi day.
It’s called pi day
because pi, the numerical
number pi, is having to do
with the circumference of a
we are making a
triple for 3 for pi day.
We’re making a triple citrus meringue
pi and here we have grapefruit.
Here we have grapefruit lime.
This is true lime. This stuff is
absolutely amazing. It’s actually
crystallized lime and
it’s great for things where
you don’t want a lot
of juice. Like you’ve got
if you’re making a sauce
or something and you
need to have juice in
it this is a great choice
without breaking the
juice. Okay and then we
have in here is a lemon and
just for fun we have lemon peel.
I’m not making this with cornstarch because
I don’t particularly care for cornstarch
so I am making this with
sweetened condensed milk.
Okay you can use any brand.
This happens to be Eagle brand.
You can use any
brand you want and
we have three eggs that
are going to be going into
the filling and the
crust itself is going to be
butter and graham
crackers. We’re going to get
set up and we’ll be
back. Okay we’re back.
Let me introduce
you to my little friend.
This is a food processor
and it is really wonderful for
making things like
graham cracker crust.
So we’re going to put the s-blade. There’s
s-blade, put the s-blade inside.
Like this. Okay and then I’m going to start
breaking up some of these graham crackers.
We’re going to
process them first.
One of the nice things about
this machine is that even though
the crackers can make a lot of
noise the motor on this does not.
Okay so here we
go and I’m going to
add a quarter of a cup
of sugar and just to make
things more fun I’m going
to add some lemon peel
to give it some extra
flavor. and then the last thing
I’m going to add is melted
butter. and all the ingredient
amounts are on the website.
okay, I’m going to put it on
pulse. actually I’m going to
reduce the speed also to four.
Just pulse it like that.
and you need more
butter. so you never
know for sure exactly. so
you have to kind of
play with it. and more.
That’s about a quarter
of a cup of melted butter.
Okay, I’m going to get the plate
set up. and I’ll show you how
to make the actual crust. the
graham crackers have been taken out
of the food processor. and they’re
now in the pipe plate. and what
you want to do is spread them
around. so you have a nice crust.
Like that. try to make it as even as
possible. and to help make it even.
You can use a measuring cup.
One of these kind
of measuring cups.
You’re doing a really good job
of making things nice and flat.
And you go all the way out to the edge.
You like that.
This is one of the reasons why
it’s a good thing to have a dog.
And then you can go like that.
See it’s kept me off. it’s okay.
Sure it’s really compacted.
Around on the side with your hand.
And press so that it
gets nice and compacted.
If some of it falls over the edge,
that’s okay. you can clean it up later.
Okay, there we go.
Now this is going to go into a 350 oven.
And it will be ready at that
point in about 15-20 minutes.
And then we can continue with filling.
Okay, time to make the meringue.
As you know, when you’re
making the meringue,
your bowl must be absolutely
free of any type of oil at all.
Therefore, it’s easier to
make the meringue now.
So I’m going to have to wash one bowl.
So here are three egg whites.
Two, three.
And this is my friend Natasha.
Okay, that’s her started.
Start her off kind of slow.
Bring her up to three
You see bubbles are already starting
And then add sugar.
A little bit of the time.
Don’t want to overwhelm it.
up the speed.
There we go.
And you want to beat this
until stiff peaks form.
No, look it’s coming along nicely now.
Now that’s happening.
I’m going to take the
crust out of the oven.
Beautiful.
Nice and beautiful.
You can see.
It’s also a good idea.
With your mixer.
Never to go from 10
to zero at one time.
Because I can hurt the motor.
So you have beautiful that is.
And we’ll go like that.
And then you can really see
how it’s holding the shape.
Beautiful.
It’s just coming along.
All right.
Some of this we’re going to reserve.
Because it is pie game.
We need to write pie on there.
So I have a glass here.
This is a star tip.
And I just put it in the glass.
This is easier to have to fill.
You can put it like that.
And then you fill this up.
We don’t need much.
I’m just going to put a little bit.
That should be enough.
And we’ll set that as,
that should be enough.
And we have this switch left over.
That’s going to go on top of the pie.
And clean up.
Why does this lift
us? I don’t know.
It’s fine.
It’s fine.
It’s just because lights in there.
Right? okay.
Time for Natasha to come back to work.
This is Natasha.
My mixer is Natasha.
And I have a special blade.
Special whipper.
If you don’t have one of
these, I highly recommend them.
Because they can scrape the
sides and they do a really good job.
We don’t really need
to use the mixer for this.
But I figure it’s one bowl, one bowl.
Okay.
So in shoe here goes D.
So we can get in smoke.
It’s very thick.
And make sure that you get all of it.
Because you want all the goodness.
Okay.
And that’s in there.
And then we’re going to add egg yolks.
These are from the eggs that we had.
Three egg whites.
So these are the three egg yolks.
Two, three.
I’m sure you can get all
the goodness in there also.
Scrape it down.
And finally
this is Alexis stop.
This is the grapefruit
juice and lemon.
And I’m adding a few
shakes of wine to that.
You don’t need very much.
That’s about maybe a quarter of a teaspoon.
And now we’re going to add that.
Two.
Our bowl.
And left up.
And mix.
On stir.
You can, of course, do
this in a regular bowl.
And you just want to stir it
until it’s sterling
incorporated.
All the egg
is mixed in there.
Okay.
Because there’s our pie
shell that came out of the oven.
And I’m going to pour
this filling into the pie.
I have my meringue.
And I’m going to put that on there.
Try to get it
out as much out to
the edges as possible.
Try to have no holes.
There we go.
Add all the air out
of the piping bag.
Bring the meringue down.
There we go.
And like that.
That’s the pie symbol.
I’m going to put a
three on here also.
One and a dad.
One
four four okay.
This pie is going
to go into the oven.
And
it’ll go in there for about 20 or 30
minutes until it’s nicely browned.
They later is in stubborn brown.
And then we’ll take it out.
And then it has to
cool in the refrigerator.
Until it’s very cold.
Because the coldness will set
it and we’ll set the filling.
We’ll see you in a little while.
