Beauteous Lemon Meringue Pie

Start with my mother, Ruthee’s, SHORTCRUST PASTRY.

1 ¼ cups flour

¼ tsp salt

125g (1/4 block) butter

1 T icing sugar

Mix in a food processor to fine crumbs and press into a baking paper lined cake tin. (I use a 20cm tin with removable bottom).  Be careful to not get thick corners.  Squeezy squeezy that pastry up the sides of the tin in a rough rustic French style crust.

Bake at 180°C for 15 mins

The Lemon Filling

1 tin condensed milk

3 egg yolks

Beat these at low speed until creamy.

Add ½ cup lemon juice and the zest of one lemon and beat gently to mix.

Pour the mixture into the baked tart shell and return to the oven for 8 – 12 mins at 180°C.

The Meringue

4 egg whites

½ tsp cream of tartar (I didn’t use this but should give your meringue more stability)

½ c castor sugar

In a super super clean dry bowl, beat your egg whites.  When they start to become quite foamy, slowly slowly add the castor sugar to the thickening whites while beating constantly til you have firm peaks.  (Mine weren’t as firm as I would like but I persisted and got a good cloud of meringue). Spoon the meringue onto the warm lemon mixture and return to the oven for a further 8 minutes or until the meringue is golden.

Remove from the oven.  Allow to cool. The put in the fridge for a good while before serving.