If you don’t like lemon meringue pie then I’m afraid we can’t be friends.
OK. I’m sorry. That was uncalled for.
I am sure you are perfectly nice. I will probably forgive you in time for not loving lemon meringue pie as much as I do.
It’s just that I am a little obsessed with anything lemon. I love lemon in cocktails, desserts, dinners, heck I even like to decorate with them!
This obsession may or may not be hereditary, or at the very least ingrained in my DNA. Papa Sweet is a fiend for the classic lemon meringue pie and his eyes lit up when I said I would be baking one for his birthday ‘cake’.
I wanted to make my lemon meringue pies with a bit of a twist and make these as mini versions. I think these are nice for sharing in a group and also, mini just makes me happy.
You make mini lemon meringue pies in much the same way as the classic pie. They just turn out cuter.
My recipe calls for blind-baking using pie weights. If you don’t have ceramic pie weights, you can easily used a dried bean or rice.
While the pie shells are cooling, you can make the lemon curd.
Oh sure, you could buy lemon curd, but that would be cheating.
Seriously, nothing beats zingy, zesty home made lemon curd.
The slightly cooled lemon curd is then spooned into the pie shells.
You could leave these as simple lemon tarts, perhaps decorating with chocolate drizzle like a classic french citron tart.
Meringue is then piped onto the roughened surface of lemon tart with a star-tip piping bag.
You could use a teaspoon to heap on some of the meringue, but I prefer the pretty swirl.
The lemon meringue pies are then gently cooked to crisp and slightly colour the meringue. You have to keep a watchful eye on the oven so these little guys don’t get too brown.
This recipe is part of the March Sweet Adventures Blog Hop.
Lemon meringue pie
Makes 24
Shortcrust pastry (Slightly adapted from Margaret Fulton’s Christmas)
2 cups plain flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
185g unsalted butter, chopped into fine pieces
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 egg yolks only
3-4 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Lemon curd
1 cup caster sugar
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 tablespoon lemon zest
Meringue
1 1/2 egg whites
1/4 cup caster sugar
1. Lightly grease 2 x 12 patty pan tray (or use the same pans twice). Preheat oven to 200 degrees fan forced.
2. Make the pastry by mixing the flour and baking powder in a large bowl. Rub in the butter using your fingertrips until it looks like breadcrumbs, and there are no big lumps of butter. Add egg yolks, lemon juice and zest, until it comes together in a crumbly dough.
3. Turn out onto floured mat and slightly kneed, until it looks like a nice, smooth dough. Wrap in plastic and store in the fridge in two portions for 30 minutes.
4. After 30 minutes, roll out dough onto floured mat until it is 1/2 cm thick. Using a round cutter, slightly larger than your pan, cut shapes and then gently press into holes.
5. Fill pastry holes with baking paper and pie weights or rice. Bake for 10-12 minutes, then remove baking paper and pie weights and cook for a further 3-5 minutes.
6. Cool pie shells and, if necessary, repeat process to make the 12 other shells.
7. While cooling, make the lemon curd by lightly beating the sugar and egg yolks in a saucepan. Slowly add lemon juice while stirring.
8. Cook over a really low heat for 10-15 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Add butter and lemon zest and stir to mix well.
9. Allow to cool slightly, then spoon into the pastry shells using a tablespoon. Allow to cool until set. You can store in fridge when cool.
10. To make meringue, beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Slowly add sugar until dissolved and stronger peaks form.
11. Roughen surface of lemon curd with a fork, then pipe or spoon meringue onto pies.
12. Grill or bake the lemon meringue pies for 2 minutes, or until slightly brown.
