It was a very dear friend's birthday party today, so I decided to make a lemon meringue pie. I took 3 separate recipes, adjusted 2 of them, put them together and got a very tasty result.
Lemon meringue pie:Serves 12:Shortcrust pastry (EDC recipe with sugar, no salt)
200g plain flour
110g butter/margarine
2tbs sugar or vanilla sugar
2 tbs very cold water.
Lemon curd (based on the EDC recipe but so much better)
Zest and juice of 1 large lemon or 2 small lemons
80g butter
110g sugar
4 egg yolks (keep whites aside at room temp)
Meringue: I cannot claim any credit for this, it is all Steph Berg's work!
4 egg whites
Pinch of cream of tartar
200g raw or white sugar
Preparation:Start with the pastry:Place flour, sugar and butt in TMX, mix on speed 5 only enough to produce a mixture with the consistency of breadcrumbs, no more.
Add cold water, give it a quick mix with the spatula to spread the water throughout then lock lid in place and knead on interval speed for 10-20secs. Do not over work!
Remove from TMX, knead lightly by hand if it looks a little patchy, then mold into a disc shape, wrap with glad wrap and refrigerate until firm. Wash and dry the bowl and blades.
While that chills, make the lemon curd: Place the lemon zest in the bowl, chop finely on 9 for 20 seconds. Scrape down, add sugar. Blitz on 9 for another 10 seconds, scrape down.
Add chopped butter, lemon juice and egg yolks, chop for a few seconds on 5. Add butterfly and cook on 80C for 7 minutes on speed 3. The curd will start to thicken towards the end. It needs to be thick enough to coat the back of a metal spoon, and for this recipe, it should be a really thick and gluggy. If it needs to cook longer to thicken more, continue for as long as necessary to thicken it but you shouldn't really be to unless you have the juiciest lemons ever
Back to the pastry:By now the pastry should be firmer - unwrap, roll out for your preferred pan/tin, trim, and bake blind at 200C for 10-12 mins. How tall your crust needs to be depends on the size of your pan, etc, but for me in a 22cm springform pan, i made my crust about 1inch tall and it was perfect. Once cookoked, remove from oven, carefully take out the pastry weights and lining and let it sit.
Time for the meringue:
Preheat your oven to 150C.
Pulverize your sugar - speed 9 for however long suits your type of sugar. Remove sugar into a separate bowl and clean and dry the TMX bowl like your life depends on it. For meringue to succeed, the bowl must be absolutely clean with no oils or anything contaminating the surface.
Add your room-temperature egg whites and a pinch of tartar. Add the butterfly and whip on 50C speed 4 for 5 mins. The whites will start to thicken after the 2-3 minute mark. Watch them carefully and do not overbeat them!
Next add the sugar very slowly while beating the thickened whites: 50C, speed 2 (no faster) for up to 4 minutes. Steph's method for slowly adding the sugar is fantastic: dump a spoonful of sugar on the lip of the TMX lid and then scrape a bit in at a time while the butterfly is at work. It will take 2-4 minutes to add all the sugar this way. Once done, open the lid and admire the glossiest meringue you've ever seen
Put it all together:Take your crust still in the tin, add the lemon curd so that it comes to within a few mm of the top. Don't overfill or you'll have a shocking mess to clean up. Smooth the curd out a little with the back of a spoon.
Scoop your meringue generously over the top, shaping as you wish. Into the oven for 30minutes or so but I'll be honest and confess that this part of the recipe needs work still.
Mine came out like a classic crunchy meringue which fractured when it was cut. I was hoping for a softer glossier (read: more cafe-style) result. If you try it with some kind of variation that gives a fabulous result, let me know what you did and I'm every keen to improve my finished product.
However, fragmented as the top may have been once cut, the result was a fantastically lemony tart.
Apologies for all the errors - I'm working on an iPad which isn't my preferred method of posting!
Members' commentschrissa - Thank you so much for this recipe. DH loves lemon meringue pie but it's either too tangy or too sweet plus he doesn't like pastry much so I used to make it in individual bowls without pastry. But tonight I made your version and he said it was the best he ever had !!! I was a little worried as the pastry didn't come together at all after adding the water but it ended up fine. The pastry just melted I your mouth. I made 4 individual pies so I have 2 left over for tomorrow.
berringamababe - I just love this recipe!!!! I doubled the filling and for the meringue I add 2 extra egg whites (no extra sugar) and beat them much longer until very thick. Thank you I am addicted and already have been asked twice by friends for the recipe.
suzanne - I've been meaning to put the mini lemon meringue recipe I used on. Will try soon just trying to get 5 minutes to do it but this is the pastry I used yesterday
1 cup of plain flour
1TBS caster sugar
40grams butter
1 egg
1 TBS water
flour, sugar, butter 10sec speed 6
egg and water knead 10-20 secs
It doesn't come together as such but when you take out about a tablespoon worth and roll it up in your hands it comes together nicely then you push it into your mini muffin tin and cook for 12-15 minutes or until its lightly golden, it makes 12.
fertilemertile - I made this today and I was so proud of myself for the result! I've never made it before or ever eaten it for that matter. Hubby and I both liked it (kids thought it was amazeballs) but we did think it was on the sweet side. Still delicious tho! I followed the recipe absolutely exactly and was so pleased that my meringue worked out.
I made the pastry early in the day then set it aside in the fridge.
I then milled the sugar for the meringue then set it aside as I know that would spoil.
Then I made the lemon curd and set that aside while I preheated my oven and rolled out the pastry. I also cleaned and dried my bowl extremely well and pulled it apart and left it on top of the stove whole the crust was blind baking and I think the heat from the oven helped dry it out that bit further. Next time I make it I would like to reduce the sugar but I'm in sure of how this will affect the cooking process? Hubby and I don't really eat sugar so I guess we are just not used to it.
Efjay - This was the most frustrating thing I have made in my TM so far. It took about 20 min for the lemon curd to thicken & then the meringue failed as well. Second batch of meringue worked after speaking with my consultant who said to scrap the heat during the whip process. It was flat though, but worked.
berringamababe - Meringue
Efjay I use 2 extra egg whites - at room temp, no extra sugar a Tbl of cream of tarter and just beat it for a long time, I don't make any extra effort with the bowl being cleaner, dry ect. Just beat it and beat it as you can see from my photos the meringue is thick & high and great.
Filling
I also add cornflour to my curd if it every looks like isn't thickening as much as I like. I have made mini ones too, I really love the recipe.
Pastry
I use janes
http://www.cookwithjanie.com/recipes/lemontart.htmlGood luck don't give up it is beautiful
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