Lemon Meringue Pie

Buttery pastry, creamy, tangy lemony filling and cloud-like meringue topping… tart and sweet, a real show-stopper!

Level: Easy

Serves: 8

Prep: 30 minutes + 1hour chilling time

Cook: 1hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Dough:

250 g flour

125g butter (chilled)

½ tbsp Yeast

¼ tsp baking powder

50ml milk

50g natural yogurt

1 egg

¼ tsp salt

Lemon Filling:

5 egg yolks

6 tbsp corn starch

100g sugar

¼ tsp salt

1 ½ cup water

½ cup lemon juice

1 tbsp lemon zest

30g butter

Meringue topping:

1 tbsp corn-starch

1/3 cup cold water

5 egg whites

125g sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Preparation:

Sieve the flour in a bowl, cube the butter and work it in until resembles crumbs. Add yeast, baking powder, milk, yogurt, egg and salt. Work it into a ball. Cover it and put it into the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven (175 degrees Celsius) and butter a pie pan.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough (about 8cm larger than your pie dish) and lay it onto the pie dish. Flute the edges with your thumb and forefingers (optional). Pierce the bottom everywhere with a fork, put a foil on top of the dough and fill the filling with pie weights or with dry beans. Bake for 20 minutes, then remove the weight and the foil and bake for another 15 minutes.

Turn down the oven to 160 degrees Celsius.

Whisk the egg yolks and put it aside.

In a saucepan add the corn starch, sugar, salt and water. Heat on medium heat (stir constantly) until the mixture thickens. Remove from the heat. Whisk 1 tbsp corn-starch mixture into the beaten eggs (to temper the eggs) at a time until you whisked in slowly half the corn-starch mixture. Then add the egg yolk mixture to the rest of the corn-starch paste, put it back on medium heat and bring it to the boil. (Stir constantly!) Cook it for about 3 minutes. Turn off the oven and stir in the lemon juice, lemon zest and the butter. Pour it over the prebaked pie crust.

For the meringue, in a saucepan, mix together the corn-starch and the water, heat on medium heat until mixture bubbles and thickens. Set aside. In a cup mix sugar, cream of tartar and set aside. In a large mixing bowl start beating in egg whites with a hand mixer until frothy. Then gradually start adding the sugar mixture and add the vanilla extract. Beat until it forms soft peaks. A spoonful at a time add the corn-starch paste and beat the meringue until formed stiff peaks. Don’t over-beat it! Starting from around the edges with a spatula lay the meringue on top of the lemon filling. Make sure the meringue is touching the crust!

Use the back of a spoon to form peaks all over the top. Bake for 20 minutes. Let it cool completely before serving. Enjoy!