Week 12: Lemon Merangue Pie

OK. So here we are, it's now the 17th August and the last published entry was Thursday, 13th March. And, those of you thinking that this new year's resolution thing hasn't gone quite according to plan and may have stalled and ground to a halt would, indeed, have reason to think this. Happily, however, it hasn't 'ground to a halt' but, just taken a slight down turn, more on the blog than in reality as I've still been cooking new things, just not posting them.

So here we are, in the words of Henry Kelly it's 'catch up time'. Let's see if we can get this thing back on track. I've ten more posts to bring the blog up to date with the cooking, which takes me to 21 in total. However, on this day, 17th August, I should be on 32. 11 behind. Hmmm. Can I get to 52 by the end of the year? Well, time, as always, will be sure to tell. Enough of the data and on to the challenge: Lemon Merangue Pie.

For the pastry
125g plain flour, plus extra for rolling
½ tsp salt (optional)
25g icing sugar
75g unsalted butter, cubed
1 egg yolk
2 tsp cold water

For the lemon filling
200ml lemon juice
50ml orange juice or water
150g caster sugar
25g cornflour
3 egg yolks
25g unsalted butter

For the meringue
4 egg whites
125g caster sugar

Writing again on 13th October...

Well I'm really not doing well on this catch up business! OK, we'll have to be in haste to get the rest of these up so that it doesn't seem like a complete failure! Actual process to come It will, honestly...

Verdict:

The lemon merangue was good if rather tart. I used some bottled lemon juice as well and this really over-powered it. Leave it be. You want to taste the merangue too. Watch the pastry - you want it firm enough at the bottom but if it starts to burn at the top (round the edges), get it out!

Today's learning:

Those damn pop-out base tins are a danger and risk your planned for merangue going everywhere when you're taking the thing in and out of the oven. Simple solution is to just pop the pop-out based tin on a baking tin, helping you get the thing in and out of the oven with much greater ease.