Ingredients (makes a nice 8″ pie):
Pie
- 1/2 to 2/3 of a pack of shortcrust pastry
- 2 level tablespoons of cornflour
- 100g of golden caster sugar
- Juice of 2 large lemons
- Juice of 1 orange
- 85g butter – cut into pieces
- 3 egg yolks and 1 whole egg
Meringue
- 4 egg whites at room temperature
- 200g of golden caster sugar
- 2 level teaspoons of cornflour
Start by rolling out the pastry on a lightly floured surface until it’s large enough to line an 8″ flan tin with a 3mm thick layer of pastry. Line the flan tin and ensure that the pastry is pressed into the flutes all the way around. Leave any excess pastry hanging over the edge as this will help prevent the pastry sinking around the edges. Prick the base of the pastry in the tin with a fork and then chill for an hour unless you’ve used pastry fresh from the fridge. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees C and blind bake (cut a disc of baking paper out, place it into the base of the pastry and cover with baking/dried beans.) the base for 15 minutes and then a further 5-8 minutes after removing the baking beans and baking paper/tin foil. Bake until pale golden. Set the pastry to one side and allow to cool. Trim off any excess pastry from around the edges now. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 160 degrees C.
While the pastry is cooking you can prepare the filling. Mix the cornflour, sugar and lemon juice in a pan. Top up the orange juice with water to make 200ml of liquid and pour this into the pan also. Heat the mixture up and stir constantly until it’s cooked and slightly thickened. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the chunks of butter. Once they’ve all melted into the mixture beat in the egg yolks and the whole egg. Return to a medium heat and stir quickly for a couple of minutes until the mixture has thickened enough to stick to the stirring spoon and ‘plop’ if allowed to drip into the pan. Remove from the heat whilst you make the meringue.
Pour the egg whites into a large bowl and whisk until soft peaks appear. Add half of the sugar a spoonful at a time whilst whisking in between. Whisk in the cornflour and then finish adding in the rest of the sugar whilst whisking in between spoonfuls.
Reheat the lemon filling for 30 seconds or so and pour into the pastry. Then take the meringue and start placing spoons of it around the edge of the meringue. If you can get the scoops to just touch the edge of the pastry it will help the meringue stay up rather than sink into the filling. Pour the rest of the meringue mixture into the middle and use a spoon or other implement to smooth the meringue off in a swirl style. Place the pie into the oven and cook for 15-20 minutes or until the meringue is crisp and slightly coloured. Remove from the oven and let it sit in the tin for upto 30 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to sit for a further 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Then you can finally take a slice of your home baked lemon meringue pie! Enjoy!
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