Lemon meringue pie

[misskatja]

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' comments
chrissa - 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.html

Good luck don't give up it is beautiful

[Halex]

Thank you for this,  have been thinking about a lemon meringue pie for a while. I have 2 egg whites in  the fridge ready to go.

Did you  take a photo?

Halex

[misskatja]

I did take photos, but they aren't great: here's the best of a dodgy lot:



Also, Steph Berg's meringue tutorial is here: http://www.stephberg.com/?p=2074

{edited to fix bad img URL)

[Halex]

Thank you for the link. Will be making this in the school holidays

[cookie1]

It's MIL birthday on Saturday and I think this would be a lovely sweets.

[chrissa]

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.

[misskatja]

So glad you liked it I can't claim any credit for the pastry - it's all the EDC, just with a little sugar in it.

[chrissa]

The filling recipe in my EDC book is much different to yours, yours has a little more butter but about a third of the sugar and a couple of other little differences.  I made the one out of that EDC last year but it was way too sweet. Your version is soooooo much better. Thanks again

[Deeau]

I think the crunchyness of the meringue is to do with the amount of sugar in it.... I thought you added lots of sugar for hard meringue and less for soft?
I have been expermenting with my meringue, it has been my only dissapointing part of my whole TM experience, so far I have found that speed 4 is just too fast for my room temp eggs? If I start at speed 2 then not go too much more than 3 to 3.5 I end up with nice glossy meringue, at speed 4 I tend to end up with a more course foam like texture, have had 3 perfect meringues in a row so feel I might be on the right track, before that it was very hit and miss as to whether it was a success or not.
PS for me speed has more to do with success that a vinegar clean bowl!

[Wonder]

i find it much quicker and easier with a better result to use the kitchenaid for the egg whites, it saves all the time ensuring the bowl is clean and dry and I can make them while cooking the lemon.

[cookie1]

I'm afraid I do the same Wonder. I know I won't have a failure that way.

[Wonder]

i used my kitchenaid for the first time in a while on the weekend while cooking a lot of biscuits and found in most cases it was quicker than the TMX. I've been trying to use my TMX for everything and forgot how easy the kitchen aid is. So much easier to get scrape the mixture without the blades in the way. I still love my TMX but think I will be reverting to the kitchenaid a little more in future.

[chrissa]

I've not had a problem with meringue in the TMX and I don't really take that much care with the bowl being super clean. I do whiz it quite stiff before I start adding sugar and I do add it about a tablespoon at a time, so nice and slowly. I've found that the grainy feel to meringue is because sugar has been added too fast and hasn't dissolved.

[cookie1]

It has been noted that meringue is quite difficult to make in the TMX and if anyone is making this recipe and has not done meringue in the TMX before, it may be a good idea to do it another way. eg in a mixer.

[Wiz (not)]

My meringue failed.  It was a flat screed across the top.  I used to make lemon meringue pie with no difficulty at all years ago.  Some feedback on what I might have done wrong with the meringue part would be helpful.  I used my second bowl so there is no issue at all about it being completely dry etc.  Too much beating?  Not enough? Any help would be welcome.