Food & Wine
Limoncello meringue pie
This sweet, delicious pie is made with a splash of limoncello liqueur and is a great twist on the traditional meringue pie. Try it this weekend!
Ingredients:
Pastry
- 300g plain flour
- 1 tablespoon icing sugar
- 125g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
- 1 egg yolk
- 2-3 tablespoon iced water
- Salt
Filling
- 2 tablespoon cornflour
- Juice of 1 orange, made up to 200ml with cold water
- 120g caster sugar
- Zest of 1 lemon
- 80ml lemon juice
- 3 egg yolks
- 60ml limoncello liqueur
- 65g chilled unsalted butter, cubed
Meringue
- 300g caster sugar
- 150g egg whites (roughly 4 large egg whites)
Method:
- To make the pastry, in a food processor, combine flour, icing sugar, butter and a pinch of salt until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
- Add egg yolk and iced water, and process until mixture comes together in a smooth ball.
- Enclose in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
- To make the filling, combine cornflour in a bowl with orange juice mix and stir until smooth. Place in a pan with caster sugar, lemon zest and juice, and stir over low heat for 7-8 minutes until thickened.
- Remove from heat and add egg yolks, one at a time, combining well with a wooden spoon.
- Stir in limoncello and butter, then cover surface with a piece of baking paper (to prevent a skin from forming) and cool. Lightly grease six 8cm-diameter, loose-bottomed tart pans.
- Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface until 3mm thick. Line each pan with pastry, trim edges to fit and chill for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 180˚C.
- Line tarts with baking paper and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Blind-bake for 10 minutes, then remove weights and paper and bake for another five minutes.
- Spread filling into the pastry cases.
- To make the meringue, turn the grill on.
- Place sugar into egg whites and put on top of a pan of boiling water (bain-marie).
- Keep mixing gently with a whisk until the mixture gets warm (don't let it cook, as we don't want scrambled eggs), then transfer to another bowl and using beat egg whites with electric beaters until soft peaks form and mixture is glossy and firm.
- Pipe or spoon on to tarts and grill for 5-6 minutes, until top is golden.
Written by Will Sands. First appeared on Stuff.co.nz.
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