Cooking is an absolute school holidays and weekend favourite for us. A reward in our house is that you can write a supermarket list and have the kitchen to your self for a half day. This week that scored us a delicious lemon meringue pie. Part made up of ingredients that we had on hand, plus a chat with Grandma on the phone to establish if it was possible with no beaters or food processor and to confirm the method…..here is Taylah’s creation.
*suitable for any 10 yo+ who knows their way around a kithcen, or any kids with a parents help
What you’ll need for the pastry:
1 1/2 cups plain flour
2 T icing sugar
130g salted butter (*or unsalted with a crack of salt, obvs)
2 1/2 T icey cold water
What you’ll need for the filling:
1/3 cup cornflour
1/2 cup water
1 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cups caster sugar
60g chopped butter
4 seperated eggs (you will need both the white and the yolks)
Let’s get cooking:
Sift the flour and icing sugar and rub in the butter, like you are making scones, until it resembles bread crumbs.
Add the ice cold water and stir until a dough forms. Use hands to bring it all together and then roll it out between two pieces of baking paper until it is about 5mm thick and will line a 23cm pie dish.
Trim excess pastry. Cover pastry with baking paper and refridgerate for half and hour or so to rest. [Urmmmm….can some one pop me in the fridge for a 30 min rest?]
Preheat oven to 185oC. Fill the lined dish with pastry weights, dried beans, lentils or rice and bake for 15 mins. Remove the weights and paper and bake an extra 15-20 mins until crisp and starting to tan. Set aside in dish to cool completely.
To make the delish lemon filling pop the cornflour, water, lemon juice, and half of the sugar in to a saucepan. stir over medium heat for 3-5 mins until mixture boils and goes thick. Continue to cook and stir an extra minute and then remove from heat. Quickly whisk in butter and egg yolks. [You dont want the yolks to cook – no one wants omeltte in their dessert.] Transfer to a bowl covered with plastic wrap and cool in fridge 3 hours or until fully cool.
Preheat oven to 190oC. Use an electric beater to beat egg whites in a VERY CLEAN VERY DRY bowl until soft peaks form. We acturally did this by hand with a whisk. I don’t reccommend it, but it does work perfecty with a lot of effort – so we roped every one in the family in for a FAST whisk. Gradually add the remaining sugar and keep beating until the mixture is thick and glossy and holds a peak.
Spread the cooled lemon filling into the base. Spoon the meringue mixture over the lemon filling and use the back of a spoon or fork to make peaks. Bake in the oven for 5 mins or until you get a nice light gold on the meringue. Set aside to cool completely.
Slice and serve – can be kept in refridgerator for a couple of days, but we like to eat it so as the meringue doesn’t weep.
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