Give classic lemon meringue pie a modern twist by incorporating a lollipop stick.

Ingredients

• 20–25 white lollipop sticks
• 1 9-inch refrigerated pie dough, at room temperature
• 1 egg white, beaten
• 1⁄4 cup instant lemon pudding mix
• 1 cup half-and-half
• 2 egg whites, at room temperature
• 1⁄2 cup sugar (1⁄4 cup sugar for each egg white)
• 1⁄2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Zest of 1 lemon

Directions

1 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 On a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1⁄8-inch thickness.

3 Use a 2 1⁄2-inch round cookie cutter to cut dough bottoms.

4 Using the outside cups of a lightly greased mini-muffin pan or individual mini tart tins, mold the dough bottoms into cups. Brush with egg white. Poke a hole in each dough center with a stick. You will be attaching the sticks later in the process.

5 Bake for 12–14 minutes, or until slightly golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack.

6 In a small microwave-safe bowl, melt chocolate in microwave for 2 minutes stirring every 20 seconds until smooth.

7 Secure sticks to each shell using the melted chocolate as an adhesive on the inside and outside of shell, and let the chocolate dry and harden for 15 minutes.

8 Stick pops into a tall box or styrofoam base that has been prepared with small hole openings.

9 In a medium bowl, beat together pudding mix and half-and-half with an electric mixer until thickened. Spoon mixture into each pop. Don’t add too much or they will become too heavy and fall apart.

10 In a medium bowl, beat egg whites on high until soft peaks start to form. Add sugar and vanilla gradually. Continue to mix until sugar has dissolved and stiff peaks have formed. Top each pop with 1 tablespoon of meringue.

11 Using a cooling rack to hold pie pops upright, carefully place pops back in oven under the broiler and toast meringue until golden brown. Garnish with lemon zest and serve immediately. Refrigerate any leftover pops.

Makes 20-25 pie pops.

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Excerpted from Pie Pops by Marcie Ballard. Recipes Copyright © 2013 Marcie Ballard, Photography copyright © 2013 Susan Hayward. Excerpted by permission of Gibbs Smith. All rights reserved.