South African Style Lemon Meringue Pie Food

LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400°F.
• Line refrigerated pie crust with wax paper and fill with dried beans or pie weights; bake shell in middle of oven 10 minutes; remove paper and weights and bake shell until golden, about 12 minutes longer; cool.
• Lower oven temperature to 350°F.
• For filling: In a medium saucepan, whisk together sugar, cornstarch and salt and gradually whisk in water and milk, whisking until cornstarch is dissolved; in a bowl whisk together egg yolks; cook milk mixture over medium heat, whisking, until it comes to a boil; gradually whisk about 1 cup milk mixture into yolks and whisk yolk mixture back into milk mixture remaining in saucepan; simmer, whisking, 3 minutes; remove pan from heat and whisk in butter, lemon juice and zest until butter is melted; press plastic wrap directly onto surface of custard.
• For meringue: Beat egg whites with cream of tartar and a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks; beat in sugar in a slow stream, beating, until meringue just holds stiff peaks.
• Pour lemon custard into shell and spread meringue on top, covering filling completely and sealing it to pastry; draw meringue up into peaks and bake pie in middle of oven until meringue is golden, about 15 minutes; cool completely before serving.

LEMON MERINGUE PIE - AUSSIE STYLE

Steps:

• Note: I like this pie tart, if you are not that way inclined the rind of 1 lemon is just as good.
• Pastry: Combine all cry ingredients into a food processor, whiz for a couple of seconds.
• Cube butter and add to the processor, process until it resembles breadcrumbs.
• Add water; I usually add 1/2 cup of water (the moister the pastry the better the result).
• Process until it is a ball of pastry.
• Wrap in Glad Wrap and put in the fridge for 1 hour.
• Grease a 20cm pie dish. I usually rub with butter then dust with flour.
• Roll out pastry. You may find that half the quantity will suffice depending on how thick you like it.
• The pastry will rise slightly.
• The remainder can be frozen.
• Line the greased pie dish bake for 15 minutes in oven set at 180°C.
• LEMON FILLING: into a saucepan put the sugar and cornflour, stir until combined.
• Add water, lemon juice and lemon rind.
• Cook until the liquid has thickened and is translucent.
• Remove from the heat.
• Stir in lightly beaten egg yolks until fully combined.
• Stir in butter until fully combined.
• {our the lemon filling into the already semi cook pastry.
• MERINGUE: Beat egg whites until stiff, so that when you pull the beaters out it stands up, so to speak.
• Start to beat in the sugar a bit at a time, making sure that all the sugar is dissolved before adding the next amount. The mixture should be nice and stiff and have a glossy look to it.
• Add the lemon juice/white vinegar, cornflour and cream of tartar.
• Beat in until combined.
• Take a really large serving spoon and place spoonfuls on top of the lemon filling.
• Go around the pie doing this and a scoop for the middle.
• The oven should be preheated to 150°C, which I think is about 300°F.
• Bake for about 40 minutes.
• The secret is to turn the oven off, open the door slightly and let the pie cool in the oven.
• Hope that all makes sense.

SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE LEMON MERINGUE PIE

Steps:

• Crush the digestive biscuits (putting them in a freezer bag and attacking them with a rolling pin works well).
• Melt the butter and add it to the crumbs. The mix should pack well.
• Pack it down to less than 1cm thick in the base of either a large tin or dish, or in cupcake or muffin cases in a muffin or cupcake tin.
• Preheat the oven to 150 degrees Celsius
• Separate the eggs.
• Beat the yolks with the juice of the 3 lemons and the zest of one of the lemons, until white and frothy.
• Add the can of condensed milk and beat until fully integrated and "gloopy".
• Spoon a layer of lemon mix atop the biscuit base(s).
• Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form, then slowly add caster sugar. When ready, the meringue should be at the firm peak stage and lovely and glossy.
• Spoon meringue over the lemon mixture.
• Bake for 15 mins at 150 degrees C or until the meringue is gold on top.