Lemon meringue pie
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Makes: 12-16 portions
 
Ingredients
Pastry
  • 120 gr butter
  • 80 gr icing sugar
  • 25 gr ground almonds
  • 200 gr white flour
  • 1 egg
  • 2 gr salt
Lemon curd
  • 300 ml lemon juice
  • 6 lemons
  • 225 gr white sugar
  • 6 eggs
  • 75 gr butter
  • 14 gr gelatine
Italian meringue
  • 4 egg whites
  • 50 gr white sugar
  • 70 gr water
  • 250 gr white sugar
Instructions
Pastry
  1. Dice the cold butter. Put in a food processor with some of the flour. Pulse until it resembles coarse sand. Mix with the remaining flour, icing sugar, ground almonds, salt and egg.
  2. Knead briefly until the dough is smooth, wrap in cling film and allow to cool and rest at least 30 min the fridge.
  3. Butter the loose-bottomed flan tin. Roll out the pastry and line the tin. Allow to cool and rest at least 30 min the fridge when you preheat the oven to 180 °C. Line the pastry with baking paper and a weight and blind bake for 20 min or until the pastry is golden brown and fully cooked. Allow to cool to room temperate on a wire rack.
Lemon curd filling
  1. Zest the lemons. Soak the gelatine in ample cold water. Press the lemons and measure the amount of juice needed. Warm the lemon juice, lemon zest and white sugar until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. In a bowl, whisk the eggs. Pour in some of the warm lemon juice and whisk again until smooth. Pour this back in the pan with the remaining lemon juice.
  3. Bring the lemon curd gently up to 85°C stirring continuously without boiling the lemon curd until the lemon curd thickens. Remove from the heat and add the diced butter. Allow the butter to melt in the lemon curd. Squeeze out the water from the gelatine and allow to dissolve in the still warm lemon curd. Pour in the baked pastry and store in the fridge until needed.
Italian meringue
  1. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks, adding the sugar gradually at the end until soft peaks form.
  2. Boil the water and the larger amount of sugar until 121°C. With the mixer running, pour the hot sugar syrup in a thin stream over the egg whites.
  3. Beat until the egg whites are stiff and glossy and back at room temperature.
  4. Pipe or spoon the Italian meringue on top of the lemon curd filling and toast with a kitchen torch.
Stuff to know
This quantity will fill a 26 cm loose-bottomed flan tin.
Whipping a hot sugar syrup into foamy egg whites makes them safe to eat without additional baking.
Don´t allow the lemon curd to boil or get above 85°C to avoid curdling the eggs.
Add cranberries or melted white chocolate to the lemon curd.
Substitute lemon juice with juice from orange juice
Recipe by Jeroen Valkenier Recipes at https://jpvalkenier.com/lemon-meringue-pie/