Lemon meringue pie

Recipe

• Shortcrust pie shell: Easy all butter flaky pie crust - Inspired taste

• Lemon curd and meringue:Grandma's lemon meringue pie - Allrecipes

How it turned out

Mostly great. I always struggle with pie crusts. I think I compare them to bread dough, and get defeated when they are very crumbly. But I trusted the process, saw it through to the end, and it turned out to be super flaky and buttery.

The dough just out of the fridge. "There's no way this will roll without falling apart - right?!"

The lemon filling came out beautifully! Wouldn't change a thing there.

The meringue was a dud the first time. After 20 mins of trying to whip it into stiff peaks, it just wouldn't thicken. So I decided to cut my losses and re-whip 4 fresh egg whites. In 5 minutes, I had perfect meringue.

The failed attempt on the right. The successful meringue on the left.

What I learned

Shortcrust

Cold butter + grater. Making sure the butter was super cold (like frozen) allowed me to grate it, which distributed the chunks of butter evenly throughout the flour mixture.

A little water goes a long way. The recipe called for 4-8 tablespoons of cold water. That's it. After 4 tablespoons it was still falling apart. I couldn't imagine how just 4 more would make it all hold together. But sure enough, I just needed 3 more to form it into a disc. When it comes to pie crust, trust the process.

Lemon filling

Pay attention to your temperatures and stir like hell. It's absolutely critical to temper the eggs with hot liquid before pouring them into the boiling mixture. And when you do pour it in, do so slowly and don't stop stirring until fully incorporated! Yes, your arm will get tired. But don't skip or rush this process or you'll end up with scrambled eggs instead of a nice smooth curd.

Meringue

Egg yolk is the devil. As I was separating the eggs, one of the yolks fell into the eggs whites. I managed to scoop it out, leaving behind a thin streak of yolk. No big deal, right? Wrong. I later learned that any fat, even the tiniest bit of yolk, will hinder the whipping process. After whipping for 20 minutes to no avail, I realized I would need to start again. Sure enough, when I tried with fresh eggs (no yolk traces this time) it stiffened into beautiful stiff peaks in 5 minutes.