Mother's Day Lemon Meringue Pie

Happy Mother's Day (in most parts of the world)! And spring has finally arrived in London, so decided that a suitable pudding would be fruity as chocolate is probably too heavy?!? 

Lemon Meringue Pie is a shortcrust pastry base, a layer of lemon curd and then a thick layer of meringue on top of that. It has a lot of stages but if you ignore the vast quantity of bowls you need it is relatively easy. You can buy these but they are often very very very sweet so if you make it yourself you tend to get more of a balance between sour lemon and sweet meringue.

Ingredients

For pastry: 

150g plain flour

50g caster sugar

90g butter

1 egg yolk

a little whole milk

For curd:

25g cornflour

200ml water

zest and juice of 3 lemons

100g caster sugar

2 egg yolks

40g butter

For meringue:

4 egg whites

200g caster sugar

Enough ingredients or...?

Method

1. Make the pastry: mix the flour, sugar and butter in a bowl so that it forms a crumb like consistency. Add the egg yolk and just enough milk to make the crumbs stick together in lumps. Then bring the pastry together, refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

2. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. 

3. Roll out the pastry and bake blind in a greased 23cm tin. Baking blind is when you cover the pastry in foil and then put baking beans (or raw pasta or rice) on to the top. This keeps the pastry in shape.

4. Cook for 15 mins. Remove the beans and then cook for 10 mins until the pastry is golden brown. Then leave to cool.

5. Meanwhile make the curd. Mix the cornflour with a third of the water in a bowl.

6. Bring the remaining water to the boil, then add lemon zest and sugar. Once dissolved, pour in cornflour solution and mix until smooth. 

7. Remove from the heat and then stir in butter, then lemon juice and finally egg yolks. If there are lumps it may be useful to strain it in a sieve but it doesn't really matter. 

8. Pour the lemon curd onto the cooled pastry and leave to chill until the curd firms up. This will stop the meringue layer from mixing with the curd. 

9. If you have turned the oven off, preheat the oven to 170 degrees Celsius. 

10. Whisk the four egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Then, at a tablespoon at a time, add the sugar, whisking after each addition until smooth and glossy. 

11. Spoon the meringue onto the lemon curd layer (if you want to be neat you can pipe the meringue but I don't think it is necessary) and bake for around 20 mins or until the meringue is golden and crispy on the top. 

12. Leave to cool and then eat.