Enjoy a delicious Lemon Meringue Pie with minimal effort. This recipe features a simple crust, a tangy lemon filling, and a cloud-like meringue topping – perfect for satisfying your sweet tooth!
Finely grated rind and juice of 2 large lemons (I used 3 small ones)
For the Swiss meringue:
3egg whites
6ozcaster (superfine) sugar
Instructions
Lightly spray with oil a 23cm (9in) round, straight-sided or fluted ceramic tart dish, about 4cm (1½ in) deep.
For the base:
Melt the butter in a medium saucepan and take off heat.
Put the biscuits into a food processor and pulse till you get a fine crumb. Add the melted butter to the biscuits, pulsing until the mixture starts clumping together.
Dump the crumbs into the dish and press evenly into the base and sides. Put into the fridge to chill for at least 20 minutes.
For the filling:
Pour the condensed milk into a bowl of an electric mixer (or simply use a hand-held beater).
Beat in the egg yolks, lemon rind and strained juice and pour the mixture over the chilled biscuit base.
For the Swiss meringue:
Add the egg whites into a medium mixing bowl. Add the sugar and whisk them together.
Bring a small amount of water to a gentle simmer in a saucepan that is large enough to accommodate your mixing bowl.
Place the bowl on top of the pan and make sure it doesn’t touch the water. Whisk the mixture constantly for 2-3 minutes until the mixture starts to get hot (it should be hot enough that you can only comfortably poke your finger into the mixture for a moment).
Remove the bowl and beat the meringue in an electric mixer using a balloon whisk (or use a hand-beater) until the meringue is glossy and holds firm peaks.
Either spoon the meringue over the surface of the filling and spread it in swirls, or pipe it over in separate blobs (I used a medium sized round tip to create the ‘kisses’).
At this point you can either bake the meringue for 15-20 minutes until golden, or you can blow torch the meringue lightly as I did (the Swiss meringue method has already cooked the egg whites so cooking it is not necessary).
To serve:
If baking, set the dessert aside for about 30 minutes to allow the filling to firm up. If not baking, you can serve straight away or store in the fridge until ready. It’s best eaten on the same day.