Having the luxury of time today, I made a lemon meringue pie using chef extraordinaire, Gordon Ramsay’s recipe. After a balcony BBQ dinner, we say around basking in the glory of a soft, tangy, light lemon meringue pie…
“There’s no word to describe how good it was”, said diner number three.
If you want a pie that has amazingly short, crumbly pastry, a lemon filling that is complex and rich and not the canary coloured goo of commercial pies, and a meringue that is fluffy and dense all at once, this is the recipe to follow.
Ingredients
- Pastry – 125g unsalted butter, softened to room temp
- 90g caster sugar
- 1 large egg
- 250g plain flour
- Lemon filling – juice of 2 lemons
- 175g caster sugar
- 6 large egg yolks
- 250ml double cream
- Meringue -175g caster sugar
- 4 large egg whites
Directions
- Place the butter and sugar in a food processor and whiz until just combined. Add the egg and whiz for a further 30 seconds. Add flour and whiz until the dough comes together. Do not over-process or else the dough will become tough. Add a tablespoon of cold water if the dough is dry. Knead on a floured surface and shape into a flat disc. Wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes before using.
- Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a $1 coin and use to line a 20cm tart tin with removable base. Press the pastry well into the edges and leave a little excess overhanging the edge. Chill for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 190˚C and blind bake the pastry shell (lined with foil and using baking beans or rice) for 15-20 minutes until the edges are lightly golden. Remove the foil and bake for a further five minutes until the base is cooked. Allow to cool then trim the pastry to be level with the rim. Reduce the oven temperature to 140˚C.
- Whisk together all the ingredients for the filling, making sure you do not aerate the mixture too much. Pour the filling into the shell and bake for about 30 minutes, just until the filling looks lightly set. Turn off the oven and leave the tart inside to cool slowly. It will continue to set as it cools. Take the tart out of the oven only when it has completely cooled (this could take a few hours or even overnight).
- For best results, make the meringue 10-15 minutes before you are ready to serve. Preheat the grill to the highest setting. Toss the sugar in a pan over low heat. You don’t want to melt the sugar, just heat it until it’s warm to the touch (the warmth of the sugar helps to stabilize the egg whites). Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks in a grease-free bowl. Gradually beat in the warm sugar, a little at a time, and continue beating until the egg whites return to firm peaks. When all the sugar has been incorporated, the meringue should have tripled in volume and will be firm and glossy.
- Spread the meringue over the tart and grill for 2-3 minutes until browned around the edges. Alternatively, run a blowtorch over the meringue until nicely caramelised.
