Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •23cm loose-bottomed tart tin
• •Heavy-bottomed saucepan
• •Electric whisk or stand mixer
• •Microplane or fine grater
• •Baking beans or dried pulses
• •Rolling pin

Instructions

1. 1

   Make the pastry

   Tip the flour, icing sugar, and salt into a bowl. Add the cubed butter and rub it in with cold fingertips until the mixture looks like coarse breadcrumbs with a few larger flecks of butter still showing. Those flecks are friends. Add the egg yolk and a tablespoon of water, mix with a knife, and add a touch more water only if you need it. The dough should just come together, no more. Press into a flat disc, wrap, and chill for at least thirty minutes.

   Cold hands, cold butter, cold water. Pastry hates warmth. If your kitchen is hot, run your wrists under the tap for a minute before you start.
2. 2

   Line the tin and blind bake

   Set the oven to 180C/160C fan. Roll the chilled pastry on a lightly floured surface to about the thickness of a pound coin. Lift it gently into a 23cm loose-bottomed tart tin, easing it into the corners without stretching. Trim the edges, leaving a slight overhang for shrinkage. Prick the base, line with parchment, and fill with baking beans. Bake for fifteen minutes, then lift out the beans and parchment and bake for another ten until the base looks dry and pale gold. Trim the overhang with a sharp knife while it is still warm.

3. 3

   Make the lemon curd

   Zest the lemons first, then juice them. You want around 150ml of juice. In a heavy saucepan, whisk together the sugar and cornflour off the heat. Pour in the cold water slowly, whisking, then the lemon juice and zest. Set over a medium heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon. It will look thin and cloudy for a while, then suddenly thicken and turn glossy. That's the moment. Cook for one more minute, no longer.

   Trust your nose and your eyes. The curd is ready when it coats the back of the spoon and a finger drawn through leaves a clean line.
4. 4

   Enrich the curd

   Take the pan off the heat. Beat in the butter, then the egg yolks one at a time, whisking each in fully before the next. The curd should turn deeper yellow and even glossier. Pour it straight into the warm pastry case and smooth the top. Let it sit while you make the meringue. It needs to be warm when the meringue goes on, so the two cook together as one.

5. 5

   Whip the meringue

   Whisk the egg whites in a spotlessly clean bowl until they hold soft peaks. Start adding the sugar a tablespoon at a time, whisking well between each addition. Keep going until all the sugar is in and the meringue is thick, glossy, and stands up in stiff peaks. Rub a little between your fingers. If you can feel grains of sugar, keep whisking. It should be smooth and silky. Whisk in the cornflour and vinegar at the very end.

   The cornflour and vinegar are the secret to a meringue that stays soft and marshmallowy inside with a crisp shell on top. Don't skip them.
6. 6

   Top and bake

   Spoon the meringue over the warm lemon curd, starting at the edges and working in. The meringue must touch the pastry all the way around or it will shrink and weep. Use the back of a spoon to pull up peaks and swirls across the top. Bake for fifteen to twenty minutes until the peaks have turned deep gold and the meringue feels set when you touch it lightly. Let the pie cool to room temperature before slicing. A warm pie weeps. A cooled pie cuts clean.

Chef Tips

• •Unwaxed lemons matter here because you're using the zest. The wax on supermarket lemons is there to make them shiny on the shelf, not to make your pudding taste of anything. Find the unwaxed sort or scrub the wax off with hot water and a brush.
• •The curd and the meringue should meet warm. Pour the curd into the pastry case, make the meringue immediately, and get it on top while the curd is still hot. This is what stops the dreaded weeping layer between the two when you cut into it later.
• •A pie like this is best on the day it's made, eaten a few hours after baking when the meringue still has its crisp shell and the curd has set just enough to hold a slice. It will keep overnight in a cool place, but the meringue softens. Not ruined, just different.
• •Don't be precious with the meringue peaks. Pull them up generously with the back of a spoon. The taller the peaks, the more deeply they bronze in the oven, and that's where the visual drama lives.

Advance Preparation

• •The pastry can be made up to two days ahead and kept wrapped in the fridge, or frozen for up to a month. Bring it back to a workable temperature before rolling.
• •The blind-baked pastry case can be made the morning of, kept at room temperature under a clean cloth.
• •The curd and meringue should be made on the day, ideally within a few hours of serving. This isn't a pudding to make the night before.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 200g)