Lemon Meringue Pudding

This lemon meringue pudding has all the flavours of lemon meringue pie, without the fuss of making a pie! A great make-ahead dessert for Easter, Mother’s Day or Summer entertaining.

With this lemon meringue pudding, you’ll get all the flavours of lemon meringue pie, without the fuss of making a pie!

This easy lemon dessert is the perfect end to any meal and for special occasions. They can be easily dressed up by garnishing with berries, lemon slices and/or mint leaves for a pretty presentation.

Ingredients and substitutions

Lemon – you will need both lemon juice and lemon zest for this pudding, so you will need to start with real lemons. In a pinch, you could use bottled lemon juice and skip the zest, but real lemon juice will always give you the best results.

Cornstarch – aka corn flour. This is the thickening agent for the pudding. You may be able to substitute other starches, such as Arrowroot, though I haven’t tested this substitution.

Eggs – Eggs aren’t negotiable in this dessert, as you will use both the egg yolks for the pudding and the egg whites for the meringue. When it comes to separating eggs, eggs separate best when they are cold, but the egg whites whip up best when they are at room temperature.

Cream of Tartar – this is used in the meringue to stabilize the meringue. If you don’t have cream of tartar, you can substitute an acid, either lemon juice or white vinegar. Add twice as much as specified for the cream of tartar.

How to make lemon meringue pudding

This is a quick walk-through of the steps to make this recipe. Always refer to the complete instructions in the Recipe Card below when making the recipe.

Step 1: Make the lemon pudding

1. Start by running the sugar, cornstarch and lemon zest through a food processor to blend well. (If you don’t have a food processor, simply whisk the mixture together for about 1 minute in a bowl.)
2. Add the sugar mixture to a medium saucepan.
3. Add the milk and cook over medium heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture thickens. Remove from heat.
4. Add eggs to a small bowl and whisk to combine.
5. Using a ladle, add some of the hot milk mixture to the eggs, a drop at a time and stirring while adding until you have added the entire ladle-full.
6. Add the egg mixture to the milk mixture in the saucepan.
7. Return the saucepan to the heat and cook, stirring, until the mixture thickens.
8. Add lemon juice and whisk to combine.
9. Spoon pudding into baking/serving dishes.

Step 2: Make the meringue

1. Add the egg whites and cream of tartar to a clean mixer bowl.
2. Whip egg whites until soft peaks form, then slowly add the sugar.
3. Continue whipping until stiff peaks form.
4. Spoon meringue into a piping bag or a ziplock bag (which you will snip the corner off of to pipe once filled).
5. Add a big swirl of meringue on top of the warm pudding.
6. Pop pudding with meringue into the oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the meringue is set and golden.

Making ahead, storing and freezing

You will need to make these ahead in order, as the finished puddings are typically chilled before serving, so will require about 2 hours in the fridge.

Store leftovers in the refrigerator for about 2 days. The pudding keeps well, but the meringue will start to suffer after a couple of days in the fridge.

I don’t recommend freezing the puddings with the meringue on top, but the pudding itself should freeze just fine.