Lemon Meringue Pie
I love this Pie, its a classic! It does take time to make but you will love it and its a real show stopper at the dinner table!
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
Pastry
10oz white flour
5 oz butter (soft, room temperature, best kept out of the fridge over night)
pinch of salt
1 egg yolk (keep white aside for meringue)
2 tablespoons cold water approx.
Lemon Curd
100g (2oz/) butter
200g (3 1/2oz) castor sugar
finely grated rind and juice of 3 good lemons
3 eggs and 1 egg yolk (keep white aside for meringue)
Meringue
4 egg whites, preferably free-range
200g castor sugar
You will need a 12 inch round tin preferably with a pop-up base
Method
- Heat the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6.
- First, make the pastry.
- Sieve the flour with the salt, cut the butter into cubes and put into a food processor. Keep an eye on it as it mixes quickly. When the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs, stop. You can do this by hand by rubbing the butter cubes with your fingertips into the flour. It takes longer but has the same result.
- Whisk the egg yolk and add the water. Add in half to food processor and mix well. (Again you can do this by hand, kneading together as you add in liquid) Add another bit of liquid. Do this bit by bit as you don’t want it to get soggy, sometimes you don’t need all the liquid. Once the pastry forms a ball in the processor it’s done.
- Take it out flatten it slightly. Cover in parchment paper and put in the fridge for 30 min to 1 hour.
- Take out of fridge roll out well. Keep checking that you have rolled enough to roll into the tin and that it also comes up the sides.
- Line the tin and chill again for 15-20 minutes, line with paper and fill with dried beans.
- Bake blind for 30 minutes. The pastry case must be almost fully cooked. Remove paper and beans, paint with a little lightly beaten egg and put back into the oven for minutes approx.
- Meanwhile, make the lemon curd. On a very low heat melt the butter, add castor sugar, lemon juice and rind and then stir in well-beaten eggs and yolk. Stir carefully over a gentle heat until the mixture coats the back of a spoon. Draw off the heat and pour into a bowl (it will thicken as it cools.) Leave cool. Fill the pastry case with the lemon curd mixture.
- To make the meringue – whisk the egg whites in a perfectly clean dry bowl, until they begin to get fluffy, then add the castor sugar and continue to whisk until they form stiff peaks. Once it is finished you need to use this immediately so it does not lose volume. Either pipe or spread over the cold lemon curd with a spoon.
- Put in the oven and bake for 15-18 min until the meringue is crisp and golden in colour.
- Let the pie sit in the tin for 30 mins, then remove and leave for at least another 30 mins-1 hr before slicing.
- Serve warm or cold.
Note: do not whip the egg whites and make the meringue until you are ready to use otherwise if it sits around it will lose volume. If the meringue is not piped immediately it will split.
