Sunday, May 2, 2010

How to make a lemon merengue pie?

The weather has been really nice and warm lately and it always makes me feel like drinking lemon juice or a yummy lime cordial with a bit of Angusturo bitter.
And thinking about lime also made me want to make this pie. Something I have never made before so it doesn't look perfect but it tasted absolutely great!

Here is what you need:
a pie shape, baking beans or peas,
powdered sugar, a scale, flour, butter, eggs,
lemons, salt, sugar, a scraper for zestYou can converse the metric here.
First we make the dough:
150g flour
60g butter
50g sugar
1 egg
1 pinch of salt

Put the flour through a sieve.
Add the butter, the sugar, the salt and the egg.
Mix the dough with your hands.
Wrap it in a piece of plastic and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the filling you need:
3 lemons
3 eggs
150g powdered sugar
30g butter

Take off the zest of the lemons and squeeze out the juice.
Add the butter to a pan and let it melt on
a low fire and add the lemon juice.
Add the zest, the powdered sugar and the eggs.
Whisk permanently until the mixture is thick.
Don't let it boil or your eggs will look grumpy.
It took me about 15 minutes to whisk it so be patient.
Roll out the dough on a flowered surface.
Butter your pie shape or use baking paper.
Note: I used the wrong shape as I could not get the pie out.
Better use one which is straight on the bottom.
Place the dough in the mould.
Oops, does look like the dough wasn't rolled out well enough.
Blind bake your pie dough with beans or peas.
The oven needs to be preheated onto 160°C and put it in there for 15 minutes.
Then add the filling in the blind baked dough.
Put it in the oven for 15 more minutes on 130°C.
For the merengue you need:
3 egg whites
150g powdered sugar

Whisk the egg whites firmly and slowly add the powdered sugar.
Spread out the merengue over the pie.
Place it under the grill for minutes.
I've learned I should not make a tutorial on a first attempt as there are a few things I would do different now. I would use a different pie shape so I could at least show you a pretty pic of when the pie is placed on a plate. But, it's all gone now and it tasted delicious. :)