For this cake, as for any other lemon cake, we can find a lot of versions, changing any of its three basic components. The base can be shortcrust pastry, sablé dough, puff pastry or making a simple cookie base. We can use different lemon creams for the filling, and for the meringue, although the Italian one is the most recommended due to its consistency and because the cake is not baked, we can also use a Swiss or French meringue. How do we place the meringue? Using a pastry bag with a curly nozzle for the most professional and experienced, or simply placing uniform mounds with a spoon.
We will make a lemon pie, known in Mexico as Lemon Pie, trying to stick to the most classic version, using a blind-baked sweet shortcrust base, lemon curd and a good layer of Italian meringue that at the end we will burn with a blowtorch; although we can also gratin it in the oven if we do not have this utensil.
Recipe information
- Preparation time: 1 hour and 30 minutes
- Cooking time: 30 minutes
- Total time: 3 hours
- Rations: 10
- Category: cake shop
- Type of cuisine: english
- Calories: 316 kcal per 100 g
Ingredients for the lemon and meringue pie (lemon pie) for 10 people
For the shortcrust pastry:
- 200 g sifted all-purpose flour
- 50 g granulated sugar
- 115 g very cold butter
- Egg
- 3 ml of salt
- Water
For the filling or lemon cream:
- 250 ml of cream or evaporated milk
- 250 ml lemon juice
- 125g sugar
- Zest of a lemon or lime
- 25 g cornstarch
- 20 g almond flour
- 5 egg yolks
- 75g butter
For the Italian meringue:
- 300g sugar
- 60 ml of water
- 5 egg whites until stiff
- Lemon juice
- Cream of tartar
- Salt
How to make lemon pie
We weigh and measure all the ingredients for the cake. First of all, we will make the shortcrust pastry. To do this, we will put the previously sifted flour in a container and mix it with the salt. We will add the butter cut into pieces and very cold.
We will mix it with the help of a spatula or a pasta mixer, so as not to use our hands and prevent the butter from heating up.
When we have a grainy texture, like crumbs, we will add the beaten egg, the sugar and, if it is very thick, we could add a little very cold water.
We will knead everything quickly to avoid manipulating the mixture too much and when it is compact and integrated we keep it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
While the dough rests in the refrigerator, we will prepare the lemon cream.
We will squeeze the lemons and strain the juice. We will put the evaporated milk in a saucepan so that it heats up, almost reaching the boiling point, but taking care that it does not boil.
Separately, in a bowl we will mix all the dry ingredients (cornstarch and almond flour) and the egg yolks.
We will beat everything until we have a thick cream without lumps.
Next we add the lemon juice.
When the milk is hot, we will add it, little by little and without stopping stirring, to the previous mixture so that it is integrated.
Next, we will put everything in the saucepan and bring it to the heat so that it cooks and thickens.
We will put it over low heat and, stirring constantly, we will cook for about 10 minutes. When the mixture is thick and cooked, remove it from the heat and immediately add the butter and stir so that it melts well.
Once we have the cream ready, we will cover it with a film, placing it close to the cream to prevent a crust from forming, and let it cool.
While we have made the lemon cream, the dough will have rested and we can prepare the base of the cake. We will turn on the oven at 180 ºC so that it warms up. On the work table we stretch the dough using a rolling pin, giving it the shape of our mold.
We will line the mold with our dough and trim the edges well.
Next, we will do a blind bake. We will put baking paper on top and place chickpeas or baking balls on top of it if we have it to weigh it down so that the dough does not puff up in the oven.
We will cook the base for about 20 minutes, until the edges begin to brown, always keeping in mind that times may vary from one oven to another. We will remove it and take out the chickpeas or balls. We will brush the surface of the cake with beaten egg and put it back in the oven for another 5 or 10 minutes until the surface is completely golden.
We will let it cool a little and fill the cake with the lemon cream before it is completely cold.
We will keep the cake base with the cream in the refrigerator so that it cools completely and acquires a little more consistency. Meanwhile, we will begin to prepare the Italian meringue. If we have a food processor it will be more convenient, since it will be done on its own and the Italian meringue requires a lot of mixing time. If we use a manual mixer, we must be careful not to change the direction in which we are mixing. If we change the slot rods in the mixer, be careful with the direction of rotation as it could be cut. We will add the egg whites with a pinch of salt and a little cream of tartar or two tablespoons of lemon, to give the egg whites more sustainability.
We beat them a little until they are foamy and add 50 g of sugar. While the egg whites are whipping, we prepare a syrup until it reaches a soft ball (we will reach this point when it has reached 180ºC). To do this, we put the water and the remaining sugar in a saucepan and bring it to the heat.
When the egg whites are stiff and our syrup is ready, without stopping beating, we add the syrup little by little. Once we have incorporated all the syrup into the egg whites, we must continue beating the mixture until the bowl has cooled completely.
The egg whites will cook little by little and will acquire a hard and compact consistency.
This is what makes it ideal for use in this type of cakes, which will not go into the oven later, and for use with a pastry bag. Finally, we are going to decorate the cake with the meringue.
We can use a pastry bag or do it with a spoon if we do not have a pastry bag or much skill with it. We want to have a good layer of meringue with high, irregular peaks. If we do it with the pastry bag we will use a curly nozzle. We have used a spoon. We carefully place tall mounds of meringue until the cake is filled.
Once we have it all covered, we have to toast the meringue, for which we have used a blowtorch. We will carefully burn the entire surface.
We just want the edges of the meringue to brown and the cream not to heat up. Once we have it well toasted, we grate a little lemon or lime on top, to decorate and we will have our cake ready.
We will keep it in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
Easy Preparation Summary
- We weigh and measure all the ingredients and sift the flour
- We mix the flour with the salt and the very cold butter until we get a crumb texture.
- We add the sugar and the egg
- We knead lightly until the dough is integrated and store it in the refrigerator.
- We squeeze the lemons and strain the juice
- We put the milk in a saucepan and boil
- We mix the yolks with the sugar, cornstarch and almond flour.
- We add the lemon juice
- Add the hot milk and mix.
- We return the mixture to the saucepan and cook it until it thickens.
- We keep it in the refrigerator to cool
- We line the mold with the dough and do blind baking
- We fill the base of the cake with the cream and reserve.
- We prepare a syrup to the point of a ball
- Meanwhile, we assemble the whites until they become snowy.
- We add the syrup little by little
- When it is integrated, we continue beating until the egg whites are completely cold.
- We now have the Italian meringue ready to use
- We decorate the cake by covering the surface with meringue peaks.
- Lightly toast the surface of the meringue with a blowtorch.
- When it is golden, we zest lemon or lime
- We keep it in the refrigerator until serving time.
