Mini Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe
Mini Lemon Meringue Pie Ingredients
300g Cotswold Organic Plain Flour (or conventional Cotswold Plain Flour)
150g Salted Butter (cold, cut into cubes)
½ Jar Lemon Curd (you can use
homemade here, or just buy the best you can!)
2 Egg Whites
100g Caster Sugar (don’t use golden caster sugar here)
A classic afternoon tea favourite, with a light and fluffy meringue and rich lemony filling, in perfect mini servings! Impress your teatime guests with these delicious Mini Lemon Meringue Pies today - courtesy of our pro recipe developer and inhouse baker, Sophie Carey.
- Baker: Sophie Carey
- Makes: 12-24 Mini Lemon Meringue Pies (depending on size of tin)
- Prep time: 45 minutes (plus chilling)
- Bake time: 15-18 minutes
- Flours used: Matthews Cotswold Organic Plain Flour (or conventional Matthews Cotswold Plain Flour)
Mini Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe Method:
- Weigh up your flour into a large bowl and add the butter. Using your fingertips, rub the fat into the flour to create breadcrumbs (you can do this in a food processor if preferred)
- Add cold water 1tbsp at a time and cut this in with a table knife. Alternatively, you could tip your flour and fat out onto a clean counter and add the water with your hands - this is how I like to make pastry
- Keep adding water 1tbsp at a time until you have a crumbly dough - don’t be tempted to add too much water or you’ll end up with a pastry that is too soft and is easily overworked
- Form the pastry into a round and cover with clingfilm before placing it in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and remove your pastry from the fridge (if the pastry has been in the fridge for more than 1 hour, leave it on the counter for 10 minutes before moving on to the next step)
- Roll out your pastry to about a 0.5cm thickness and use a pastry cutter or a glass to cut out your tart cases. I like to use a bun tray instead of a muffin or cupcake tray as they’re not as deep - this way you get the right proportion of pastry to jam
- Line your tin with your pastry and pop the whole thing back in the fridge for 15-20 minutes, just to firm up. This is pretty important as we aren’t going to blind bake with anything to weigh the pastry down
- Prick the bases of the tarts a few times with a fork to prevent any air bubbles from blowing up in the oven
- Bake the tarts for 15-18 minutes, or until the pastry is a pale golden colour and is baked through
- Add a teaspoon of lemon curd to each of the tarts, and smooth down a little. Place the tray back into the oven for 5 minutes to allow the lemon curd to melt into the tarts. It’s important not to bake the pastry with your lemon curd already in, as it will bubble over and will ruin the tin
- Once the lemon curd has evened out in the oven and is filling the tins nicely, take it out and leave them to cool out of the tin on a wire rack
- To make your Swiss meringue, get a pan of water on a medium heat on the hob and bring to a slow simmer. Put your egg whites and sugar in a heatproof bowl over the pan of water. The aim is to heat the mixture through to at least 70 degrees Celsius without cooking the eggs
- Use a whisk to keep the eggs and sugar moving while it heats through - if you don’t have a food thermometer, you want to heat them through until the sugar is completely dissolved, there should be no graininess. Keep heating until it’s too hot for you to keep your finger in the mixture (but be careful testing it!)
- Remove the eggs and sugar from the heat, and whisk using either a stand mixer or a handheld electric mixer for 15-20 minutes, or until it has completely cooled to room temperature. After this whisking, you should have a stiff and shiny meringue with lots of volume
- You can either pipe the meringue onto the tarts or use teaspoons to deposit it, then for an extra special touch - use a blowtorch to get a golden colour on the meringue. It does not need to be baked again as the egg white is already cooked. You can put them under a hot grill to get a golden colour if you don’t have a blowtorch.
← Older Post Newer Post →
