Lemon Meringue Pie

 

Not something I make frequently enough that I don't need to remind myself of the recipe, my go-to resource for Lemon Meringue Pie has for years been Michel Roux (the elder). Which has always slightly surprised me, since LMP isn't something you'd exactly think of as 'French' - but, then, perhaps it's a reflection of the fact that his wife was australian. 

Anyway. Having decided on this for dessert this evening, I then discovered that I've already packed the relevant volume, and that the recipe is right now out of reach and probably at the bottom of a box somewhere deep in the recesses of the house in Pieve. Necessity, and the Mother of Invention, prompted a search elsewhere, and I discovered an alternative version, which is quite different from the Roux recipe, but which is very straightforward, and the result was excellent.

For One 8" pie.

Ingredients: 8" shortcrust pastry shell; 3 eggs, separated, plus 2 whole eggs; grated zest of 3 lemons, and the juice of 4 lemons; 400g sweetened condensed milk; 150 ml cream; 90g sugar.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees C, and blind bake the pastry shell - 10 minutes with the baking beans inside, and 10 minutes more after the beans have been removed

2. Meanwhile, beat the 3 egg yolks together with the 2 whole eggs; use a little of this beaten egg to brush the base of the pastry shell at the end of the 20 minute blind-baking, and return to the oven for a couple of minutes, to set the egg layer.

3. To the remaining beaten eggs, add the lemon zest and juice, the condensed milk and the cream. Mix thoroughly, and then pour into the blind-baked pastry shell (almost certainly, you'll have more mixture than the shell can hold, so pour any leftover mixture into a ramekin and put it in the oven alongside the filled shell as the latter cooks).

4. Bake the filled tart shell for about thirty minutes, until the filling is no longer liquid.

5. While the base is cooking, beat the egg whites until stiff, and gradually add the sugar as the whites stiffen. 

6. Once`the base of the pie is cooked, remove the pie from the oven, and turn the temperature up to 200 degrees C. You can just slather the meringue on top of the lemon base, but I prefer to pipe it onto the surface, in a layer of rosettes - either way, once the egg meringue has been added to the pie, return it to the oven for about ten minutes, until the meringue has decently coloured.

Let the pie stand for about an hour before serving it (or leave it for much longer, and serve it properly cold).