Lemon Meringue Pie/Tart

Salam Alaikum / Hi

ABOUT MERINGUE

Food historians tell us the precursor for meringue was an Elizabethan-era
dish called  "Snow". (aka snow eggs). What
exactly is meringue and who is credited for the discovery?


"Meringue...an airy, crisp confection of beaten egg white and sugar. The word
probably entered French from German, as did many other French words ending in
-ingue. It first appeared in print in Massailot [1691], although earlier recipes
for the same thing but without the name had been published. The name travelled
to England almost at once and first appeared in print there in 1706....It seems
to have been only in the 16th century that European cooks discovered that
beating egg whites, e.g. with a whisk of birch twigs (in the absense of any
better implement), produced an attractive foam. At first the technique was used
to make a simple, uncooked dish called snow, made from egg white and cream.
However, cooking such a foam would not have resulted in meringue, for any fat in
the mixture, as represented by the cream, prevents the egg whites from taking on
the proper texture...When true meringue made its appearance in the 17th century,
it still lacked its name and was often called "sugar puff.""

---Oxford
Companion to Food, Alan Davidson [Oxford University Press:Oxford] 1999 (p.
197)

A dear friend 'Sugar' gave me the recipe for this delicious lip smacking pie/tart the other week, without my weighing scales i had no option but to wait and it was totally worth it.

I finally set my mind to bake it this morning. After around an hour and half it was finished,  ready and waiting for when dh woke from his slumber.

Note: In future Asmaa, don't think about pastry baking when in england a heat wave is in progress!

My version became more a tart than pie, as the layers were skinnier than normal. This is in no way a fault in the original recipe but to myself by not using a 19cm flan/tart/pie tin, i used my one and only 23cm petal shaped loose based tart tin.

The on-going problem i have with baking in my pretty petal tin is the tart always sticks and never will come out in 1 piece (the tin is supposed to be non stick and i still butter it very well)  Any tips/help would be greatly appreciated.

Ingredients

Pastry

225g plain flour

25g sugar

100g butter

¼ tsp salt

1 egg

*Note this is probably Enough for two 19cm flan cases or 1 23cm tart tin with a but left over, it can be frozen.

Filling

Juice of 3 lemons

Finely grated zest of 2 lemons

3 tbsp corn flour

150ml water

75g sugar

2 egg yolks

15g butter

Meringue

2 egg whites

115g sugar

Method

1. In a food pprocessorpulse flour, sugar and butter to fine bread crumb consistency add in beaten egg and pulse until you have a dough, may need little water. Chill for at least ½ hour. Do prep work i.e. zest lemons,weigh sugars and butter etc for filling/meringue.


2. Preheat oven to 180deg C Fan/ 200deg C/400 deg F/gas 6. Roll out dough to line your chosen tin, best if quite thin but it is fragile to work with especially in the heat of the morning sun! Patch where necessary. Prick pastry and line with paper and baking beans, bake for around 12 mins and then take out paper and beans and bake for further 5 mins, maybe longer depending on how well done you like pastry.


3. Reduce oven to 130deg C/ 150deg C / 300deg F/ gas 2, For filling put lemon juice and zest in pan, mix water and corn flour together and add, slowly bring to boil and stir until thickened, remove from heat, add sugar, let cool so you don’t scramble egg then mix in egg yolks. Stir in the butter, spoon into pastry case.


4. For meringue, whisk egg whites until stiff then gradually whisk in the sugar, until thick and glossy. Spoon it over the lemon, spreading with spoon and then swirling it with a skewer / cocktail stick. Bake for 15 mins( 23cm tin) or 30-35 mins (19cm) OR until meringue is golden and crisp

Thank you sugar for the recipe.