My all time favorite dessert is lemon meringue pie and thought...hmmmm can I make that in the Instant Pot? And out came this recipe for Instant Pot Lemon Meringue Cheesecake! My grandma used to make at for every single holiday. She used to use a recipe that came on the back of a corn starch container from probably 50 years ago (at least!). It was always such a treat to have lemon meringue pie and boy did I look forward to it. I made my first lemon meringue pie probably 15 years ago.
I searched and searched for a recipe on the back of a cornstarch container and could not find one! Luckily, I came across one that was very similar to my grandma's version. There's something so wonderfully refreshing about the combination of the tart lemony goodness mixed with the creamy meringue topping. It's so good!
A couple of years ago I went to one of my favorite cheesecake restaurants and was pleasantly surprised to find that they started making cheesecake with lemon and meringue topping. The meringue was even browned on the top! OMG! Could this be true? Could there be a pairing of two of the best desserts? Say it isn't so!! It was true and let me tell you, I was hooked after the first bite.
I thought I would give it a shot and I'm so glad to say that it came out just as good as I had imagined it would! The creaminess of the cheesecake mixed with the tartness of the lemon curd topping was everything that I had dreamt it would be!
Fun fact for you....When I was a kid I went to Baker's Square with my dad and the guy next to us ordered a lemon MERINQUE pie. The person at the counter wasn't sure what that was so the man just kept saying MERINQUE, MERINQUE. To this day, that memory still makes me laugh.
Tips for making Lemon Meringue Cheesecake:
1.Leave cream cheese, butter and eggs on the counter so that they are room temperature when you begin to make your cheesecake. If you use cold ingredients, your cheesecake will be lumpy.
2.Mix your ingredients in a blender and not a mixer. I have always used a mixer and found that regardless of the temperature of the ingredients, I ended up with lumps. Through trial and error, I have found that it is much, much, much easier to combine the ingredients in a blender.
3.Buy yourself some vanilla bean paste. It's like vanilla extract but so much better! It's a glorious combination of vanilla beans and vanilla extract. It's the consistency of maple syrup and has all of the flavor and appearance (those little black dots) as you get when you use vanilla beans but without the steep price of buying vanilla beans. I try to use it for everything because I just love it so much! And no, I'm not sponsored by any vanilla bean paste companies. I just really LOVE vanilla bean paste!
Looking for more Instant Pot recipes? Check out some of our favorites!
- Instant Pot Carrot Cake Cheesecake
- Homemade Marshmallow Fluff
- Instant Pot Vanilla Bean Cheesecake with Sour Cream Topping
- Instant Pot Lemon Meringue Cheesecake
- Instant Pot Red Velvet Cheesecake
How to make Lemon Meringue Cheesecake:
Make the crust:
- Combine all crust ingredients in a blender and blend until mixture becomes the consistency of damp sand
- Pour crust ingredients into a 7 inch springform pan. Be sure to pat down the crust using a spatula or spoonula. The crust should cover the entire bottom of the pan and about an inch of the side of the pan.
Make the cheesecake filling:
- Clean out your blender. You're going to use it again. 🙂
- Combine all cheesecake filling ingredients in a blender and blend just until fully combined. Do not over mix. The more you mix the cheesecake filling, the more add that will get added. The more air, the fluffier the cheesecake will be. I was looking for a denser cheesecake so I made sure to only blend until combined. If you have added too much air to the cheesecake, tap the filled pan on the counter to eliminate some of the extra air.
Bake the cheesecake:
- Place trivet into pressure cooker along with 2 cups of water.
- Place springform pan into your pressure cooker sling. I use the OXO Good Grips Sling and it works perfectly. If you don't have a sling, you can make one by folding strips of foil and cradling your pan in and out of the pressure cooker.
- Gently place sling into pressure cooker onto of trivet.
- Close pressure cooker lid and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.
- Once timer beeps, let pressure natural release for 25 minutes.
- Release remaining steam and open lid.
- Gently remove sling and cheesecake from pressure cooker.
- Using a knife, gently relate cheesecake from edge of pan. You just want to make sure that it doesn't stick once it's cooled.
- Cool on counter for about an hour and then place in refrigerator. Cool cheesecake for at least 2 hours.
Make lemon curd:
- While you can do the lemon and meringue step in the pressure cooker, I found that it's quicker and easier to just do it on the stove while the cheesecake is cooking and cooling.
- Combine all lemon curd ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat on the stove. Be sure to set aside the egg whites as you will use them for the meringue.
- Stir continuously until the lemon curd thickens to a pudding like consistency- abut 170 degrees if measured by a thermometer. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with a whisk constantly. The lemon curd should take about 10 minutes to thicken. Once thickened to the proper consistency, remove from the heat.
- There are 2 options for this next step.
- Place lemon curd in the refrigerator to cool completely.
- Pour hot lemon curd on top of cooled cheesecake. I prefer to chill the lemon curd completely and then pour on the chilled cheesecake. I envisioned a melty mess when I thought of pouring the lemon curd on while it was still hot. But, the pros would be that the lemon curd would incorporate into the cheesecake a little bit more.
Make the meringue topping:
- Combine meringue ingredients in a stand mixer bowl. Using the whisk attachment, whisk ingredients together on high until stiff peaks form. This should take about 5 minutes.
Assemble Lemon Meringue Cheesecake:
- Pour lemon curd on top of cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove cheesecake from springform pan.
- Using a piping bag and tip, pipe meringue liberally on top of lemon curd topping. If you don't have a piping bag, you can spread meringue on top with a spatula or a knife.
- Brown the meringue with a kitchen torch or in your oven's broiler. If you broil, be sure to watch it. It should only take a couple of minutes. You want the peaks to turn a golden brown.
- It's time to enjoy your wonderful, beautiful, lemon meringue cheesecake!!
Ingredients:
Crust:
- 5.5 ounce vanilla wafers-half bag
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter- melted
- Pinch of salt
Cheesecake Filling:
- 24 ounce cream cheese- room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla-I highly recommend using vanilla bean paste!
- 3 eggs
Lemon Topping:
- 8 egg yolks
- Juice and zest of 2 lemons
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup sugar
Meringue Topping:
- 4 egg whites
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon corn starch
- ½ teaspoon vanilla-I highly recommend using vanilla bean paste!
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Lemon Meringue Cheesecake-Instant Pot Recipe
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Ingredients
Crust:
- 5.5 ounce vanilla wafers-half bag
- ¼ cup white sugar
- ¼ brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons butter- melted
- Pinch of salt
Cheesecake Filling:
- 24 ounce cream cheese- room temperature
- ¾ cup sugar
- Zest of one lemon
- 1 tablespoon vanilla-I highly recommend using vanilla bean paste!
- 3 eggs
Lemon Topping:
- 8 egg yolks
- Juice and zest of 2 lemons
- 4 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup sugar
Meringue Topping:
- 4 egg whites
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ teaspoon corn starch
- ½ teaspoon vanilla-I highly recommend using vanilla bean paste!
Instructions
Make the crust:
- Combine all crust ingredients in a blender and blend until mixture becomes the consistency of damp sand
- Pour crust ingredients into a 7 inch springform pan. Be sure to pat down the crust using a spatula or spoonula. The crust should cover the entire bottom of the pan and about an inch of the side of the pan.
Make the cheesecake filling:
- Clean out your blender. You're going to use it again. 🙂
- Combine all cheesecake filling ingredients in a blenderand blend just until fully combined. Do not over mix. The more you mix the cheesecake filling, the more add that will get added. The more air, the fluffier the cheesecake will be. I was looking for a denser cheesecake so I made sure to only blend until combined. If you have added too much air to the cheesecake, tap the filled pan on the counter to eliminate some of the extra air.
Bake the cheesecake:
- Place trivet into pressure cooker along with 2 cups of water.
- Gently place slinginto pressure cooker onto of trivet.
- Close pressure cooker lid and cook on high pressure for 40 minutes.
- Once timer beeps, let pressure natural release for 25 minutes.
- Release remaining steam and open lid.
- Gently remove sling and cheesecake from pressure cooker.
- Using a knife, gently relate cheesecake from edge of pan. You just want to make sure that it doesn't stick once it's cooled.
- Cool on counter for about an hour and then place in refrigerator. Cool cheesecake for at least 2 hours.
Make lemon curd:
- While you can do the lemon and meringue step in the pressure cooker, I found that it's quicker and easier to just do it on the stove while the cheesecake is cooking and cooling.
- Combine all lemon curd ingredients in a sauce pan over medium heat on the stove. Be sure to set aside the egg whites as you will use them for the meringue.
- Stir continuously until the lemon curd thickens to a pudding like consistency- abut 170 degrees if measured by a thermometer. Be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan with a whisk constantly. The lemon curd should take about 10 minutes to thicken. Once thickened to the proper consistency, remove from the heat.
- There are 2 options for this next step. A) Place lemon curd in the refrigerator to cool completely. B)Pour hot lemon curd on top of cooled cheesecake. I prefer to chill the lemon curd completely and then pour on the chilled cheesecake. I envisioned a melty mess when I thought of pouring the lemon curd on while it was still hot. But, the pros would be that the lemon curd would incorporate into the cheesecake a little bit more.
Make the meringue topping:
Assemble Lemon Meringue Cheesecake:
- Pour lemon curd on top of cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
- Remove cheesecake from springform pan.
- Using a piping bag and tip, pipe meringue liberally on top of lemon curd topping. If you don't have a piping bag, you can spread meringue on top with a spatula or a knife.
- Brown the meringue with a kitchen torchor in your oven's broiler. If you broil, be sure to watch it. It should only take a couple of minutes. You want the peaks to turn a golden brown.
- It's time to enjoy your wonderful, beautiful, lemon meringue cheesecake!!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only.
Alice K
Amazing cheesecake, was a huge hit. Thank you!
TheTastyTravelers
Hi Alice- I'm so glad you liked it! Lemon meringue is my all-time favorite!!
c.l. langtry
The recipe instructions do NOT match the ingredients! It's described as Lemon Meringue Cheesecake but the topping in the recipe card is for sour cream. There is no mention of lemon curd or meringue.
TheTastyTravelers
Oh no! It looks like the recipe card that was attached to the recipe was for the sour cream cheesecake. I've updated it so that the lemon meringue recipe card is attached. I apologize for the inconvenience. Thanks for pointing that out!