Lemon Meringue Pie Cheesecake

Know what tastes delicious?

Lemon meringue pie.

Know what else tastes delicious?

Cheesecake.

Know what happens when you combine these two desserts into one super mega fantastic creation?

Most. Delicious. Dessert. Evah.

Don't believe me? Make it... you'll see...

Oh.

You'll see.

Lemon Meringue Pie Cheesecake

Ingredients

Crust

1/3 of our Never Fail Pie Crust recipe (HERE)

or your favorite single pie crust recipe

Cheesecake

4 X8oz bricks Philadelphia Cream Cheese, room temp

1 1/4 cup sugar

6 eggs

1 vanilla bean (scraped and pod discarded)

juice of 1 large lemon (approx 1/4 cup)

zest of 1 large lemon

1 cup Greek yogurt, plain

Lemon Curd

1 cup sugar

5 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)

juice of 6 lemons (approx 1 cup)

zest of 1 lemon

1/2 cup butter, cubed

Meringue

5 egg whites

1/4 tsp cream of tartar

1/3 cup sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly spray a 10 inch springform pan with cooking spray, set aside.

Roll out pie crust and place in bottom of springform pan. Pie crust should go up the sides about an inch or so. (You can also crumble in the dough and press in the crust using your fingers if this works better for you.) 

Set aside.

Prepare cheesecake - In a large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese on low, scraping sides often, until smooth. Add in eggs, one at a time, scraping sides as necessary. 

Stir in the vanilla bean seeds, lemon juice/zest, and Greek yogurt by hand. 

Pour over crust into pan.

Bake at 350 for approx 45 mins to an hour, turn off oven and let cheesecake sit in oven until cool. 

Prepare lemon curd - In a saucepan, whisk together sugar, eggs, and lemon juice/zest over medium heat. Whisk constantly until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat and whisk in butter until smooth. 

Refrigerate until thickened and cool.

Spread cooled lemon curd onto the cooled cheesecake. **NOTE - you may not use all the lemon curd. Use just enough to fill the slight "dip" in the center of the cheesecake. ** 

Prepare meringue - Preheat oven to 350.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar until foamy. Add sugar about a tablespoon at a time, continuing to beat at the highest speed.

Meringue is ready when egg whites form stiff peaks. Spread meringue on top of cheesecake - being careful not to touch sides of pan with the meringue.

Bake in 350 oven until meringue is golden brown - about 15 minutes or so. Keep an eye on it!

Let cheesecake cool completely and then chill in fridge for at least 4 hours (up to overnight).

Run a knife around the edge of the cheesecake to loosen it from the springform pan. Remove the sides of the pan and serve. 

*cue angels singing*

A few notes - If you want to save some time you can use a store bought crust and use store bought lemon curd/lemon pie filling. 

This dessert does take a little prep. I made the cheesecake the day before and then the lemon curd and meringue the next day and it worked great. Totally worth the extra effort!

I find my homemade lemon curd is a little bit runnier than store bought but it still works just dandy for this recipe! I also don't use all the meringue the recipe makes as it would be piled a mile high BUT feel free to pile it on if you enjoy meringue! 

If you don't have vanilla beans feel free to use vanilla extract.

We had this as one of our Thanksgiving desserts but it would work well for Easter or Christmas too! it makes a HUGE cheesecake so there is lots to go around. 

 

Be sure to stop by these fab sites for tons of fun links - Ms. enPlace, The Chicken Chick, Carole's Chatter