Lemon Meringue Pie on drugs... that's right... it's High!

It's been a while since I've done any noteworthy cooking. Well, that's not to say that we haven't eaten well, only that the less time I could spend in the kitchen the better. You see, it's summertime in Pasadena and the living ain't easy... 100 degrees F plus for a week (that's 38 degrees C plus in Aussie language). That in itself would be terrible. Unfortunately the fact is that the kitchen is on the sunny side of our apartment building and it also contains our hot water system. Oh, and if that isn't bad enough our range has a pilot light that burns so powerfully it heats the oven enough to allow me to dry meringue. That tends to add up to 120 degrees F in our tiny kitchen. It feels like the surface of the sun would be cooler!

So, with all this in mind I realised that the only way I could produce pastry would be to run the air conditioner all night, with my granite pastry board sitting right in front of the a.c. to get it really cool. Having had cooking dreams all night, I awoke early to find the apartment a mild 78 degrees (26C), a temperature more akin to proofing bread than making delicate, buttery pastry. Still it was the coolest start to the day that we've had for a while so I just got down to it.

You may be asking yourself why on earth I would even bother to try to make pastry under these conditions. It was Labor Day and I'd been told that it was considered a 'White Trash' holiday so with that in mind I figured a typically Southern dessert might be the way to go. I've never made a Lemon Meringue Pie before, and I knew that if it failed dismally I could always blame it on the heat! Thus the Lemon Meringue Pie Stars had aligned and this was the one I made. I prefer a tender crumb when eating Lemon Meringue Pie so chose to make an all-butter pastry, however if you like it flakier feel free to replace half the butter with vegetable shortening. Also, I've created an Italian meringue for the top of this pie which, while a little more complicated, creates a more stable meringue (as the egg is cooked in hot sugar syrup) and is safer for the pregnant friend who would be helping to consume it.

Oh So High Lemon Meringue Pie

Ingredients

Pastry
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
113g cold, unsalted butter cut into 1cm pieces
1/4 cup ice cold water


Lemon Filling
1 ¼ cups sugar
1 cup lemon juice (from 6 lemons)
½ cup water
¼ cup cornstarch
¼ tsp table salt
8 large egg yolks
(reserve 4 whites for meringue)
2 tbsp grated lemon zest
3 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into pieces and softened

Meringue
½ cup water
1 cup sugar
4 large egg whites
pinch table salt
½ tsp cream of tartar
½ tsp vanilla extract

Method

Pastry
Put the flour, sugar and salt into your food processor and pulse to combine. Sprinkle the butter over the flour mix and pulse 6-7 times to cut in well. Remove the lid and fluff up the mix making sure you lift it up from the bottom of the bowl. Sprinkle half the water over the flour/butter mix. Pulse 5-6 times until mixture looks crumbly. Fluff the pastry and sprinkle on the remaining water. Pulse 5-6 times more until the pastry starts to form clumps. Dump the contents into a large bowl.

Test some dough by squeezing it between you fingers. If it feels a little dry drizzle a teaspoon of ice water over the dough and work it in with your fingers. Pack the dough into a ball, knead it once or twice and then flatten it into a 2cm thick disk. Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight.

As butter pastry tends to harden when refrigerated, leave it for 10 minutes to soften before rolling. Lightly flour a smooth surface and roll out dough until it is 12-inches in diameter, about 1/2 cm thick (1/8 inch). Working around circumference of pan, press dough carefully into pan corners by gently lifting dough edges with one hand while pressing around pan bottom with other hand . Trim edge to 1/2-inch beyond pan lip. Tuck this rim of dough underneath itself so that folded edge is about 1/4-inch beyond pan lip; flute dough in your own fashion. Refrigerate pie shell for 40 minutes and then freeze for 20 minutes.

Place oven rack in the middle of the oven and heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line the pie crust with foil and, using 1 cup of dried beans, bake the pie crust for 17 minutes. Remove beans and foil and continue to bake for another 15 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Remove from oven and cool completely on a wire rack.

Lemon Filling
Whisk sugar, lemon juice, water, cornstarch, and salt together in large nonreactive saucepan until cornstarch is dissolved. Bring to simmer over medium heat, whisking occasionally, until mixture becomes translucent and begins to thicken, about 5 minutes (see picture to right). Whisk in yolks until combined. Stir in zest and butter. Bring to simmer and stir constantly until mixture is thick enough to coat back of spoon, about 2 minutes. Strain through fine-mesh strainer into pie shell and scrape filling off underside of strainer. Place plastic wrap directly on surface of filling and refrigerate until set and well chilled, at least 2 hours and up to 1 day.

Meringue
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine water and sugar in small saucepan. Bring to vigorous boil over medium-high heat. Once syrup comes to rolling boil, cook 4 minutes (mixture will become slightly thickened and syrupy). Remove from heat and set aside while beating whites.

With electric mixer, beat whites in large bowl at medium-low speed until frothy, about 1 minute. Add salt and cream of tartar and beat, gradually increasing speed to medium-high, until whites hold soft peaks, about 2 minutes. With mixer running, slowly pour hot syrup into whites (avoid pouring syrup onto whisk or it will splash). Add vanilla and beat until meringue has cooled and becomes very thick and shiny, 5 to 9 minutes.

Using rubber spatula, mound meringue over filling, making sure meringue touches edges of crust (this stops it from pulling away from the crust when heated). Use a spatula to create peaks all over meringue. Bake until peaks turn golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature.

Serves 8-10

Oh, and apologies for the lack of photos at the meringue stage. I kinda got distracted with the whole cooking thing!