Lemon meringue pie recipe

Hello everyone! Hope your all ok? Today I'm going to share with you a delicious recipe for lemon meringue pie....yummy!! This recipe has 3 elements:- short crust pastry, lemon curd filling and a fluffy meringue topping! So let's get started, you will need:- 

For the pastry

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup really cold butter

1-4tbsp ice cold water

For the lemon curd

1 1/2 cup water 

1/4 cup cornflour

1 cup granulated sugar

Zest and juice of 2 lemons

4 egg yolks 

1.5 tbsp butter

For the meringue

4 egg whites

5tbsp granulated sugar

Pastry

Put flour in a bowl and mix in butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs

Slowly add in water a tbsp at a time, the less you use the better.....once you can bring the mix together with your hands it's done! 

Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least 15 minutes, pre heat oven to gas mark 4

Take out and roll out to a couple cm thick, it may break and crumble a lot but just keep working with it

Place into a greased pie dish, if it tears, simply take another piece and press it into place, use your hands to even it out

Prick several times with a fork, place foil or parchament paper into the pastry case and fill with baking beans or dried rice, bake for 10 mins

Remove the foil and baking beans and bake for a further 15 mins or until slightly golden 

Lemon curd

In a bowl beat the egg yolks

In a saucepan mix together water, sugar, cornflour, lemon zest and lemon juice and bring to a gentle boil whisking the whole time so no lumps form, it will thicken

When its come to the boil mix in the butter then take 2 cup fulls of the hot mixture and slowly add it to the egg yolks again whisking the whole time (this is known as tempering, we are introducing the eggs to the heat, if we put the egg yolks straight into the hot mixture they would scramble.....were making lemon curd here people not breakfast;)) 

Add the egg mixture into the saucepan and cook for a further 1 minute, the mixture will thicken slightly, enough to coat the back of a spoon

Take off the heat and put it to one side

Meringue

Place egg whites into a clean bowl (preferably metal) and beat until frothy

Once frothy slowly add in sugar and continue to beat until stiff peaks have formed, if you can tip the bowl upside down and the mixture does not fall out its done:)

To put it all together 

Pre heat oven to has mark 4 and fill the pie case with lemon mixture and spread evenly, top with the meringue and bake for around 15 minutes or until the meringue is golden! Leave to set at room temperature for 3 hours before cutting (i know i know.... Its tempting but we have to wait or we will have a sloppy mess)

And you are done....dig in and enjoy!!

Hope you enjoyed this recipe, make sure you follow me on bloglovin to see many more:- http://www.bloglovin.com/beautybakesandcakes

Twitter:-@BeautyandBakes 

Happy baking

Xxx

Coconut cream pie

Hello everyone hope your all well? Today I'm going to share a very easy and delicious recipe for coconut cream pie! You will need:-

For the pastry 

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup butter (cold)

Ice cold water (few tbsp)

Pinch of salt

For the filling 

2 cups milk 

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cornflour

1 whole egg

2 egg yolks 

2tsp vanilla extract

2tbsp butter

1 1/2 cups shredded coconut

For the topping

Any cream that you like, i like dream topping so i used 2 packets of that you also want about 3tbsp of shredded coconut which we will toast for decorating.

1) preheat your oven to gas mark 4

2) to make the pastry, combine the flour and salt, add in your really cold butter and mix either with your hands or a food processor until the mix resembles breadcrumbs

3) add in 2 tbsp ice cold water and mix just until the mixture comes together, the less water you use the better, just add a little at a time, the mix may look crumbly but if you can bring it together with your hands you don't need any more water! You may need to add in more water or you may not need as much so do this step slowly

4) once the mix has come together, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 15 minutes

5) take out the fridge and roll out onto a lighly floured surface to about 1/4 inch thick, this is short crust pastry and it is very crumbly which makes it so nice, it may be hard to roll at first because its so crumbly but keep working with it, it will come together 

6) place the pastry into a greased pie dish, if it tears just stick some more pastry over the tear and press it down to even out, crimp the sides however you like and prick the base with a fork

7) line the inside of the pastry with foil and fill with baking beans, dried peas or rice and blind bake in the oven for 10 mins, take out and remove the foil and baking beans and bake for a further 15 minutes until lightly golden, turn off the oven and set aside! 

8) now for the filling, place your milk and sugar into a saucepan (leave 2tbsp of the sugar behind) and bring to a gentle boil

9) while the milk is heating up, mix together your egg, egg yolks, 2tbsp sugar and cornflour until you have a lump free mixture

10) once the milk comes to a boil, slowly (very slowly) add the milk mixture into the egg mixture stirring consistently...this method is know as tempering, we are slowly introducing the eggs to the heat, if we put the eggs straight into the boiling mix they would scramble

11) put the whole mixture back into the saucepan put it back onto the heat and bring to a boil, do not stop stirring otherwise you will scramble your eggs, mix consistently, mixture will suddenly become thick thats when it is done (thick enough to coat the back of a spoon), remove from the heat, stir in the butter and vanilla extract until butter has melted

12) pass the custard through a sieve, add your coconut and then place the mixture in a bowl and cover with cling film (place the cling film directly onto the custard to stop a skin forming) and place in the fridge. 

13) place some coconut in a dry pan and heat on medium heat stirring occasionally until the coconut turns golden 

14) make your desired cream, I'm using dream topping as none of my family like whipped cream

15) place the cooled coconut custard into the pie shell and top with your desired cream, i piped mine on using a star tip! sprinkle with the toated coconut and enjoy:) 

Hope you all enjoyed this recipe, if you have any requests please let me know:)

Happy baking

Xxx

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S'mores

Hello everyone! Hope your all well? Sorry ive been a bit MIA lately....had so much uni work to do & now i have broke up for a few months I'm going to be baking loads of yummy things & i will be uploading a lot more regularly :) so today I'm going to show you my delicious recipe for s'mores! Disclaimer...this is by no means the correct way, just my way, using biscuit, Nutella and marshmallows! So let's get started you will need:-

For the biscuit:-

200g butter

100g sugar

350g plain flour plus extra for dusting 

Method

1) preheat the oven to gas mark 6

2) cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

3) mix in the flour 

4) turn out onto a floured surface, roll to 1/4 inch thick and cut out circle shapes

5) place on a greased baking tray and bake for 12-15 mins, take out and leave to cool

Once cooled, spread Nutella onto half of the biscuits

Place a marshmallow onto the others

Place onto a high shelf into a high oven (gas mark 7) for about a minute or until the marshmallows begin to melt it might only take a few seconds so keep your eye on them!

Take out of the oven and sandwhich the two biscuits together and your done:)

Of course you don't have to use Nutella you could use any chocolate spread or melted chocolate....if you don't want to bake the biscuits use any shop bought biscuit (but homemade is always better;))  

Hope you all enjoyed this recipe!

Follow me on twitter:- @BeautyandBakes 

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http://www.bloglovin.com/beautybakesandcakes

Happy baking 

Xxx