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Lemon pie with meringue
The lemon pie is one of my specialties, and everyone always compliment it, especially the dough, but also the balance between acid and sugar.
This dessert is done and cooked in two steps : The dough is cooked 15 minutes, the lemon cream and meringue preparation is added, then cooked another 15 min.
There are different type of dough in pastry.
This one is called "Sugar dough" and is the base for different pies, so if I post other dessert I might link to this place for that dough instead of posting it again.
Information
Difficulty: ★★☆☆☆
Needed Tools: ★★★☆☆
Wait before eating: ★★★★☆ (I recommend to wait the next day, or at least 3-4h until it cools down)
Preparation: 30-60min
Baking: 30min
Oven Temperature : Th. 6 / 180°C / 360°F
Serving temperature : Ambient temperature, or colder if you prefer to conserve it in the fridge.
Conservation : 2-3 days, maybe more, put it in the fridge if more than 1 day (semi-raw egg presence)
Recipes
Full ingredients:
Granulated sugar: 300g / 10.6oz
Flour (type45): 200g / 7oz
Butter: 130g / 4.6oz
Eggs: 4
Lemon: 3 (preferably untreated)Potato's Starch: 40g / 1.4oz (corn's starch should work, but maybe not the same amount)Salt: A pinch (No idea how much is a pinch ahah)Tools:
2 hemispherical bowls (at least one)1 rolling pin
1 pie mold (and smaller ones for exceeding dough, depends on your pie size)1 juice extractor
1 grater
1 small pan
1 wooden spoon
1 beater (for egg in snow)Steps
Sugar Dough
Flour: 200g / 7oz
Butter: 100g / 3.5oz
Ganulated Sugar: 50g / 1.75oz
1 Egg
A pinch of saltPreheat your Oven at th. 6 (180°C/360°F)
In a pot, blend together the butter, the sugar and a pinch of salt.
Add an egg and blend again
Add 200g/7oz of flour all at once and blend again to form a ball.
The dough should not be sticky, if it is (because eggs are never the same size, hygrometry etc.) you can add some flour little by little until desired consistency.
Using a rolling pin, make a thin layer of pastry of the size of your pie mold. (it should be 2-3mm thick)
Put it in a pie mold and with the back of a knife cut all the dough outside the mold.
If you have enough remaining dough, make smaller pies.
Cover the dough with Aluminum foil. It should stick to it. if you have smaller mold ready, put it on top. (sometime it's said to put dry beans, but I never did that)
The foil and putting things on top has two purposes :
- Pre-cook the dough without burning or drying too much.
- Prevent the dough from swelling.
Put it in oven for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile you'll prepare the Lemon cream.
Once the first 15 minutes are completed, take it out and remove the foil.
Keep the oven powered on, it'll be used again to end the cooking (another 15min).
Lemon cream
Ganulated sugar: 150g / 5.3oz
3 (untreated) lemons
3 egg's yolk
Butter: 30g / 1oz
2 soup's spoon of waterWhile the dough is in the oven, you'll start working on the cream, unless you prefer to make it before the dough, up to you.
In a juice extractor bowl, grate one of the lemon skin, then extract the juice of all 3 lemons. (should be around 20cl / 6floz?)
Add a small glass of water (130 cl / 44floz?). You should have around 150cl / 50floz of lemon juice+water in total
In the glass, dilute 40g / 1.4oz of Potato's starch with some water (about half the small glass).
Break the eggs and separate the white from the yolk.
Put the yolk in the pan, and the white in a clean bowl and set aside. (If you only have one and use the one where you did the dough, be sure to wash it clean and dry it first).
In the pan, add the sugar and 2 soup's spoon of water.
Put the pan over small heat source and always stir for 2-3 minutes with a wooden spoon.
The preparation should be homogeneous and the sugar melted. You shouldn't feel any grain of sugar when you stir.
Add the lemon juice (skin+lemon+water), and continue to stir.
When it's hot, add the liquid Starch while stirring. With the heat, it'll solidify quite fast.
When you see the bottom of the pan while stirring, the preparation is done.
Remove from the heat, and melt 30g / 1oz of butter in it.
(French) Meringue
sugar: 100g / 3.5oz
3 egg's white
saltTake back your bowl of eggs, put a pinch of salt in it and whisk up the Eggs in snow. it should be stiffly.
Add the sugar powder, and continue whisking up until it becomes slick, shiny.
I've heard that to prevent the meringue from losing thickness and keeping it solid, you can add acidity. I tried adding few drops of lemon juice on the first step, while its still growing, I'm not sure it made a difference.
I think acid (lemon, or tartar cream) shouldn't be needed here, I usually manage to maintain the meringue properly without it. Just be sure to whisk the white long enough to make them very solid.
Up to you to try the differences, with either: nothing, 2-3 lemon drops, or tartar powder (no idea how much).
Final step
Put the cream in your pie.
Cover the cream with the meringue. Hint: make the meringue properly sticking to the dough to prevent it from shrinking.
you can make some nice effect on it if you want (I like to make spikes with the back of the spoon)
Put in oven for another 15 minutes.
Wait for it to cool down before eating.
The cream is still a little liquid due to the heat, it'll solidify a little more while cooling down.
I recommend to prepare the day before, while you wait all the night it'll form little caramel's droplet and people will wonder how you made them !
Detailed steps with pictures
In a pot, blend together the butter, the sugar and a pinch of salt.
Add an egg and blend again. Note that I'm doing everything by hand, no blending robot.
Yeah, it will look weird, like you failed... ;D
Add 200g/7oz of flour all at once and blend to form a ball. If it's sticky, add more flour until it's not.
The dough shouldn't be sticky, and easy to manipulate.
Using a rolling pin, make a thin layer of pastry of the size of your pie mold. (it should be 2-3mm thick)
Put it in a pie mold and with the back of a knife cut all the dough outside the mold.
If you have enough remaining dough, make smaller pies. then put aluminum foil on the dough. Put more so it's everywhere, not like the picture 
if you have small mold like in the picture, put them on the middle of the big one.
Put on oven for 15 minutes, then get it out and remove the foil
Grate one of the lemon's skin
Press the lemon to extract the juice
Ready to start, you need a pan and a bowl. Oh, and, yeahhhh, eggs have this color in France I know they are white in Italy and USA.
Separate the Yolk (in the pan) and white (in the bowl)
Add the sugar in the pan, along with 2 soup's spoon of water, then stir everything over a small heat source.
Stir until it's homogeneous without feeling any grain of sugar when stirring.
it should become light yellow creamy colored, then add the Lemon's skin+juice+water
Stir until it's hot again
Meanwhile, prepare the Starch
dilute with half the small glass of water
and put it into the pan. Always stir !
with the heat effect it'll start solidifying. When you see the bottom of the pan, the preparation should be ready. or when you see big bubbles forming.
remove from heat source, add and blend the butter.
In your bowl, add a pinch of salt (supposedly helps in making eggs in snow)
it should be solid, if you put the bowl upside down it shouldn't fall (beware if does haha).
Add the sugar and melt it... Until it's shiny 
Put the cream on the pie
Put the meringue on the cream
Make nice form if you want, I like to make spikes by taping on it with the back of a spoon
And voila ... (well, not the best looking one, I uploaded another final picture below )The cream is still a little liquid due to the heat, it'll solidify a little more while cooling down.
Wait for the cream to cool down and become less liquid before serving.
Oh, And here is a pie where you can see the caramel's pearl that everyone will wonder how you made them
Explain that you spent all night putting them one by one... like I do
(they appear by themselves if you wait long enough, that's why I recommend to bake few hours before serving)
Last edited by Cyan,
