Lemon Meringue Pie

This week's dessert was made on Saturday as Friday Pizza night was rescheduled. This meant that I could spend slightly more time making dessert this week. However having said that, I still think it falls under the quick and easy heading... now that I've made it once that is; I've made all your mistakes for you so you won't have to!

Ingredients:
3tbs cornflour
1 1/4 cups sugar plus 6tbs sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbs lemon rind
3 eggs -separated
1 1/2 cups boiling water
1 x 23cm Shortcrust Pastry Shell (baked)

Step 1: The Pastry
So, tip number one: buy a ready made pastry shell. I decided to make one out of frozen pastry sheets thinking this would be fairly easy. I'm not saying it was hard, but it added at least 40min on to the overall prep/cooking time. Next time, I'm just buying one.

I cut, joined, and baked the pastry sheets to make a tart shell. I was worried about it sticking to the pie dish I have, but as the above pics show, the pastry came away from the sides in the cooking process so nothing to worry about there. I doubt I'm the only one who does this, but I have rice set aside for pastry cooking because when you fill the pastry with rice to stop it rising, the rice becomes way to dry to ever use again in food. Also, for the shortcrust pastry newbies out there, don't panic when the pastry puffs up - it will deflate!

Set the pastry aside to cool. (Go away or awhile).

Step 2: The Filling
Combine cornflour, 1 1/4 cups sugar, lemon juice and lemon rind in a saucepan. Beat egg yolks until thick and fluffy and then add into the saucepan. Gradually add boiling water. It will look something like this...

The recipe says to "Heat to simmering over very gentle heat, stirring constantly until thickened"... Our stove top goes from 1-6 so I figured "very gentle" means 1, maybe 2. So I start on 1... 5min later doesn't seem to be doing anything. Put it up to 2... 5 min later still nothing. Put it up to 3... 10min later I get fed up and put it up to 4, where it actually starts to thicken and simmer. "Very Gentle" it says. Ha. I'd say low and then medium heat (if not just medium heat to begin with). Unlike the 25-30min I spent at the stove top constantly stirring, I'd say this step should take a maximum of 10min.

Once it thickens, let it simmer for 3 or so minutes. Pour into pastry shell and leave it to cool. (Go away for awhile again)

Step 3: The Meringue
Preheat oven to 190degrees Celcius (fan forced). Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry and  gradually add remaining sugar. Spread over the cooled pie, making sure to touch all the edges of the pastry shell. Bake for 5min or until meringue is very pale brown.

Cool and serve with whipped cream.


So although I had a total prep and cooking time of over 2hrs, if done right, this could very well be a quick and easy dessert. Buying a pastry shell saves at least 30min. If you don't follow the 'very gentle' guidelines of the actual recipe, filling only takes 10-15min, and you could put it in the fridge to help it cool quicker. Then all you need is the meringue which again only takes 10mins. Eeeasy. What takes up the most time is the 'cooling off period', but that's what they invented fridges for! (Well it could have been one of the reasons anyway...)

BONUS DESSERT!

Because I made the round pastry shell out of square sheets, I had some left over. I usually make little jam rolls with leftover pastries, but this time I decided to try using Nutella. Spread the Nutella (or jam) over the pastry, roll it up and then bake it. You can't get much easier than that people.

I admit the Nutella isn't as great as the jam rolls, but its not bad for the amount of effort you put into it!