After my first ever taste of lemon meringue pie at Christmas time, made by shadowdraic's Mother, I was completely hooked. However, being hooked upon a substance, in many cases, does not mean that one can make it as I'm sure many will agree. The pastry bit went rather well: I bought it at Tesco. It seemed a bit shallow, (the depth of the pie case, not the act of buying it at Tesco) but all the lemon bit (which came out perfect) fitted into it.
Now we come to the meringue. I have been able to eat eggs for 3 years now. I am very good at fried eggs, and I can make scrambled eggs, and lovely fluffy omelettes. BUT. I have never made meringue before, and this is the bit where I wished a) that I had asked a trusty Delia book about it, b) that I had checked the use-by date on the eggs prior to beginning, and c) that I had an electric whisk. Seperating the eggs went well, considering. I swear there was no yolk in the white. The whites and sugar were beaten and beaten with a fork but to no avail. The whitish, sugary egg-soup which resulted was poured, hopelessly, onto the perfect lemon filling and baked. See pictures. Next time..... I'm asking my Mum to make the meringue!
Fresh eggs, electric whisk, digital weighing machine, baking beans, parchment, and a proper pie tin are all on the shopping list marked "urgent".
Here is the recipe, in case anyone is brave enough to have a go:
100g shortcrust pastry, baked blind for 12 minutes in a pie tin. Or just buy one.
For the filling:
50g cornflour
225g Castor sugar
half a pint of water
the rind and juice of 2 lemons
2 egg yolks.
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
100g castor sugar.
Measure the sugar for the filling and the cornflour into a saucepan. Crush all lumps out of the cornflour. Gradually stir in the water. Add the lemon rind and bring to the boil, stirring all the time until thickened and translucent. In other words, there will be particularly bizarre and sudden change in texture, and it should then look like lemon curd. Cook for 1 minute. Take off the heat, and stir in first the strained lemon juice then the 2 egg yolks and mix well. Pour into the pastry case.
To make the meringue:
The recipe says to whisk the egg whites until thick and fluffy and then fold in half the sugar, whisk again, and fold in the rest of the suger. All I can say is: do not do whatever I did. The eggs must be extremely fresh, I now think, and the kitchen utensils grease free. Even a little smudge of grease will ruin it, I've heard. Search me if thats true or not. Follow Delia's instructions, or something. Make it fluffy, and make it light, ok? Spread it over the top of the pie.
For fluffy sticky meringue, bake in a ferocious oven for ten minutes until browned all over.
For crispy dry meringue, bake in a slow oven for 30 minutes or until crispy.
Let me know how it goes.
4 comments:
To make a meringue, there are a few tips that are absolutely crucial. Firstly, no yolk, as you know. A second point which is not often written down is that the bowl and whisk and anything that the white is in contact with must be COMPLETELY dry. If it is at all wet, then the white will not form a meringue.
The oven is also important. If your oven leaks it will not work - you need the heat to stay constant (and low). I could never make meringues successfully in my old oven because it had a leaky door, even though I got the mix perfect. I can (sometimes) make them successfully in our new oven - new in the sense of different, not brand new, unfortunately. It's electric and the other one was gas... I don't know if that makes a difference.
Thanks! wet, that may have been it. The oven here is alright, nice and hot and it cooks things fine, I just need a bit more practice!
No, gas oven is fine. I think the fork was your downfall. It would take you until the next millenium to whisk egg whites with a fork! Proper whisk, or even better, electric whisk. If they won't whisk up then put in a pinch of bicarbonate of soda. It helps, but it does make the meringue taste a bit funny. And everything should be clean, dry and grease free. I wash everything before I start. And don't separate the eggs with your hands - you will get grease off your hands into the whites.
I can't believe I have just visited your blog for the first time, and am giving you meringue tips! Please excuse my rudeness.
And next week, the perfect souffle....
Wow fab! Thanks for good advice. I always appreciate top tips. I blog about cooking a lot, but usually its successful! :)
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