Lemon Meringue Pie

I have fond memories of going with my parents to visit my great aunt Jean and Nellie’s in their flat, Morley street, Langside near Battlefield south of Glasgow when I was quite small, maybe 8 or 9 years old. It must be my first foodie memory. It had that quintessential smell of a time gone by. My aunties lived in a classic Glasgow tenement flat, with a tiny kitchen at the back from which the most heavenly confectionery arrived. It was always a formal high tea that was laid out with the good white linen table cloth and napkins to match and the table was spread with all sort of wonderful things. Well that was my memory anyway. I’m sure my parents memory might vary from mine. I just remember it being like I was a kid in a candy shop not knowing what to have next.

My great aunties outlived my granny, their sister. So although the Lemon Meringue recipe is my granny’s it was my great aunt Jean that baked it. So the Lemon Meringue first appears in my grans recipe book. I have 3 beautiful hand written recipe books that they wrote. When I compared them it is obvious that they shared recipes. It seems that this recipe was borrowed from someone called M. Ritchie. Unfortunately I have no idea who M. Ritchie is in relation to my gran.

This recipe has now been baked by at least 3 generations that I know of. Starting with my great aunties and my gran, my mum and my sister in law Gillian have all baked it. Now I can add my name to the list.

So to the baking itself. If you have a sweet tooth then this is Lemon Meringue is for you. Everyone that has had it, adores it.

As you can see it is a well used recipe, but it was also needing a some detective skills to work out how fill in the gaps. The first writing in blue are my dad’s handwriting and then my mums under that. Now I’m giving it a shot. So here goes.

Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients

For the pastry

• 225g/8oz plain four
• 175g/6oz unsalted butter
• 45g/1¾oz icing sugar
• 1 large egg beaten

I use Mary Berry’s sweet pastry, I changed the temperature settings and the blind baking timings.

For the lemon filling

• 3 lemons zest and juice
• 397g/14oz condensed milk
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 3 egg yolks

For the meringue topping

• 4 egg whites
• 225g/8oz caster sugar

Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190C/355F/Gas 5. Put a baking sheet on the baking sheet to heat up.
2. First make the pastry. Measure the flour and butter into a food processor and blend together until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the icing sugar, egg and one tablespoon of water and whizz again until combined to a ball.
3. Tip the pastry onto a work surface and roll out to a 3mm thickness. Use the rolling pin to lift the pastry up and transfer it to line a 23cm/9in loose-bottomed flan tin. Be careful not to stretch the pastry as you tuck it into the corners. Cover in cling film and place in the refrigerator to chill for 30 minutes.
4. Take the pastry-lined tin out of the fridge and trim the excess pastry. Press the top edge of the pastry so that it stands slightly higher than the top of the tin.
5. Line the pastry case with parchment and fill with baking beans. Place the pastry lined flan tin onto the baking sheet in the oven. Bake for about 20 minutes then remove the beans and parchment and return to the oven for a further 8 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
7. Grate the rind of 2 lemons, add to the condensed milk in a medium sized bowl, gradually add the juice of 3 lemons. Now add the tablespoon of sugar and the egg yolks. Mix well to combine all the ingredients. Spoon into the flan case.
8. Whisk the egg whites using a hand held electric whisk until they form soft peaks then while continuously whisking gradually add the sugar a tablespoon at a time.
9. Spoon on top starting from the edges this anchors the meringue to the filled pastry case and spread the meringue to completely cover the lemon filling. Then create a swirl on the top of the meringue.
10. Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes until the filling is set and the meringue is lightly golden and crisp. Allow to cool completely before cutting or serve very slightly warm.