'Lemon Meringue Pie' recipe

Ingredients

Meringue

60ml water
30g glucose
300gcaster sugar
160g egg white

Pastry

200g vanilla short crust pastry sheet

Sorbet Yoghurt

2 vanilla beans
250gcaster sugar
80gglucose
250ml water
400g yoghurt
100ml thickened cream

Lemon Curd

175ml lime, juice
120gwhole eggs
105g egg yolk
110g caster sugar
60gthickened cream
20gcorn flour
110g unsalted butter

Method

Place water, glucose and sugar in a small saucepan and over a medium to high heat, bring to the boil. Boil the sugar mixture up to 118°C, test this using a sugar thermometer.

Using an electric mixer, with a whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. While continuously beating, slowly pour in the hot sugar mixture, down the side of the bowl, in a steady stream. Whip until cold and set aside until needed.

For the pastry, preheat the oven to 160°C. Place pastry sheet onto a 30cmx40cm paper lined baking tray and bake at 160°for 15 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven, and slide pastry onto a wire rack to cool. Once cool, break pastry into large pieces, place in a food processor to and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

For the sorbet, split the vanilla beans in half length ways, scraping out the seeds with a small sharp knife. Add this to a medium saucepan, along with the sugar, glucose and water. Bring mixture to the boil, remove from heat and allow to cool, strain through a sieve. Add the yogurt and cream to the sugar mixture, stirring to combine. Allow to cool completely, pour into an ice cream machine and churn, according to the manufacturer’s instructions until smooth and set. Freeze until required.

In a large clean dry bowl combine lime juice, eggs, yolks, sugar, cream and corn flour. Transfer into a medium saucepan over a medium heat and cook out, mixing constantly, until mixture thickens and just begins to boil. Remove saucepan from the heat and add butter in small batches, whisking thoroughly until curd is smooth and shiny.
Transfer the curd into a clean bowl to cool in the fridge. Once cooled, spoon lemon curd into a piping bag with a 2cm plain round nozzle, ready for plating.

To assemble, in the centre of each plate, smear a heaped tablespoon of meringue. Either preheat the oven on grill or use a small brulee torch, to give the meringue a golden crust, be careful, as this will happen quickly. Add a small pile of pastry crumbs to one side of the meringue, topping it with a scoop of sorbet. On the other side, take the piping bag and pipe 2 tablespoons of curd. Serve immediately.

Bon Appétit