Lemon Meringue Pie
In this podcast we take a closer look at the amazing lemon meringue pie, from it’s first roots in France through to the pie we know and love today. Listen through the link below.
Fab Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients:
Pastry:
250g all purpose (plain) flour
50g caster sugar
75g salted butter
50g vegetable shortening
1 egg yolk, or 3 tbsp water to bind
Curd:
Juice of 4 lemons
Rind of 2 lemons
150 g of sugar
1/2 cup water
6 egg yolks
3 tbsp cornflour
Meringue:
6 egg whites
210g caster sugar
2 tsp cornflour
Method
Pre-heat oven to 160 C fan
Pastry:
1) Mix flour , and sugar, with butter and shortening using a pastry blender or fork, until you achieve a crumb texture and the fat is well incorporated into the flour.
2) Add the egg yolk or water to the “crumbs” , and form pastry mix into a ball.
3) Wrap in cling film, and place in the refrigerator while you make your pie filling.
Filling:
1) With heat off, place lemon juice and water in a medium sized pot and add cornflour.
2) Turn a medium heat on, and whisk constantly, until mixture thickens.
3) Turn heat off
4) In a bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar.
5) Pour half of lemon juice /cornflour mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly.
6) Pour the contents of the bowl back into the pot, and place over a low heat for a further 2-3 minutes, whisking constantly.
Pastry cont’d.:
1) Roll out pastry and place in 9” pie pan.
2)Trim edges, and fill crust with with baking beads.
3) Bake crust for 25 minutes.
4) Remove baking beads.
5) Fill pie crust with filling, and bake for 10 minutes.
Make the meringue while the filling is setting in the oven
Meringue:
1) Whisk the egg whites until they form stiff white peaks, roughly 6 minutes with a hand whisk.
2) Once you’ve achieved “stiff peaks”, pour in sugar and cornflour, and whisk on low speed.
3) Whisk for a further 2 minutes on high once all sugar has been added.
4) Take pie out of oven and spoon or pipe meringue over the top of curd.
5) Return completed pie to oven, and bake on 160C for a further 15 minutes.
6) Turn oven down to 140C, and bake for a further 20minutes.
7) Remove from oven, let cool for an hour, and dive in with your biggest fork:)
