When life gives you lemons, make Lemon Meringue Pie!

If you have been reading my blog for a few months now, you will realise how obsessed I am about the weather. I check the weather forecast each morning before I choose my outfit. Today, it has been a grey and wet day. My outfit - comfy trackies, t-shirt and an old college jumper.

This is perfect weather to be home and it's a good excuse not to go running. I've also been in a lot of pain since early Friday morning but I won't go into that right now. If you read the MeMe on 7 Random Things about Me back in July, you would know that I am allergic to pain medication. So, I have been suffering not-so-silently. Poor Quikong had to tolerate my grumpiness and hourly reports of the degree of pain I was experiencing. He's been so patient so I thought I should bake a nice treat for him. He loves lemon meringue pie (not with curd but regular lemon filling). If a pie can be referred to as happy, I would say that this is a happy pie due to the bright cheerful colours and the refreshing flavours. Perfect pain medication for me, don't you think?

I haven't made this pie for ages. My favourite lemon meringue pie recipe is in a cookbook which I left in Singapore, so this is from memory. Quiking just finished a slice and he said that it was "Very Good!". A man of few words. :-) So I guess this recipe is good enough for me to share with other bakers. The only problem I encountered was due to the my newly acquired 35 x 13 cm loose base rectangular tart pan. Due to it being quite a shallow tart pan, when I baked the pie with the filling and meringue, it over-flowed a little. When I've used a normal round flan tin in the past, I didn't have this problem because it was deep enough to hold the filling. This recipe makes one big and one mini pie.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Sweet Short Crust Pastry:
2 cups plain unbleached flour
2 tbsp ground almonds (almond meal)
155g butter
60g caster sugar
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
ice water

Lemon Filling:
½ cup cornflour
1 cup caster sugar
¾ cup lemon juice
1¼ cup water
finely grated lemon rind from 3 medium lemons
3 egg yolks
40g butter

Meringue:
4 egg whites
½ cup + 1 tbpn caster sugar

METHOD

Pastry:
- Process flour, ground almonds, butter and sugar in a food processor till it resembles fine crumbs. Drizzle egg yolks and rind over the mixture and add enough iced water to form a soft dough. Remove dough and knead lightly. Form a round disc, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

- Roll out the pastry in between two plastic wraps or a lightly floured surface, large enough to fit a rectangular tart tin (or 9-inch flan tin) . Carefuly lift pastry into the tin without stretching the pastry. Press pastry into the flutted sides. Prick the base and sides witha fork. Chill for 30 minutes. This prevents shrikage of the pastry when baked. Pastry can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

- Line pastry with a sheet of non-stick baking paper and fill tin with baking weights or dried beans/rice. Bake in a preheated oven (180 degrees C) for 20 mins. Remove the weights and paper and bake the pastry case for a further 20 mins, or until it is light golden in colour. Cool to room temperature.

Lemon Filling:
- In a saucepan, combine cornflour with water and stir till cornflour dissolves. Add sugar and lemon juice.

- Over medium-high heat, stir the mixture with a wooden spoon till it thickens. Remove from heat and briskly stir in the egg yolks, rind and butter. Cool to room temperature.

Meringue:
- Whisk egg whites till it looks foamy.

- Add sugar gradually and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Assembling the pie:
Pour lemon filling into the pastry. Using a spatula and starting at the edges and working inwards, arrange the meringue over the filling. Bake for 20-30 mins. Cool before serving.