Lemon Meringue Pie – Most Divine You Will Ever eat in your LIFE! It’s a Winner! Choice of 2 pastry crusts – 1 baked – 1 instant, with a very quick, smooth, and buttery, microwave lemon curd filling, and a cooked Swiss Meringue Topping, so that your meringue won’t weep or slide off your filling. Just make sure that you glue your meringue topping, well to the edges of your crust, pressing down lightly, not too much or it will deflate, and that your meringue is placed onto a warm filling. 
Chefs Tips:
As soon as your pastry crust comes out of the oven – very quickly before it cools down, with a teaspoon, gently press down on the pastry to prevent puffiness. It must be done quickly or you will damage your pastry, as it begins cooling down very fast once it comes from the oven. If you use this trick you will never need to bake your pastry blind. I just used ordinary table sugar in both my filling and pastry. If you want to make Castor sugar, you may just run ordinary table sugar through a food processor with a metal blade on – or in a coffee grinder.
Do not risk replacing cream of tartar with fresh lemon juice, or you will risk weeping!
When placing on your meringue topping onto your filling, make sure that you glue it to the edges around your crust. This will prevent it from sliding off.
Be extra careful not to get any yolk in your egg whites for your Swiss Meringue or it will NOT whip up well – You want a fluffy and billowy result…
Use an extra clean grease-free stainless steel bowl for best results.
When making meringues do not pick rainy days or when there is too much damp/humidity in the air. Alternately pick drier/normal days, or check the barometer if you have one.
If you would like to make this, a Lemon Cream Tart go
It’s “Numero UNO” so be Warned! You will want to make one every day!
Absolute Heaven in your mouth! You will have to go and try it out for Yourself! No slaving over the stove here! The filling is done in the microwave with my secret technique!
Servings: 8
Total Calories with Instant Biscuit Pastry: 3,644 Per Serving: 456 Calories
Total Calories with Homemade Pastry: 3,316 Per Serving: 415 Calories
Creamy and dreamy, buttery and smooth. With just right amount of tart and sweet. This recipe is made with homemade condensed milk and does not affect my dairy allergy at all! Everybody will think it was made with condensed milk!
Buttery, smooth, dreamy, and Creamy – No Weeping or Seeping of any liquids!
Perfect calculations! Just enough Lemon Curd to generously fill a 23 cm diameter home-baked pastry shell. With just the right amount of pastry for the casing.
All my ingredients are just spot on! Do NOT change a thing!
Beautifully set! Perfect! And no weeping!
Instant Biscuit Pastry Crust – Recipe 1: Total Weight: 174 g Total Calories: 855
Notes:
If your biscuits are already sweet, omit the sugar when making your biscuit crust. You may use any plain, sweet tea biscuits for this one.
Ingredients:
100 g biscuits (Marie or Tennis biscuits in South Africa)
62.5 g butter, melted (may use good tasting margarine to null) pinch salt to taste
11 g sugar (only if using Marie biscuits)
Do NOT add sugar with Tennis biscuits
Method:
Dissolve butter until very hot in the microwave. Break up the biscuits by adding to the food processor together with sugar only if using South African Marie biscuits or place in a bag and crush with feet or rolling-pin until fine crumbs. Stir biscuit crumbs into hot melted butter. Empty into pie plate and press out with an inverted drinking flat-bottomed glass. Bake 180 C until golden. Set aside to cool. – Note: Some people don’t bake this crust, but it is preferable as it gives you a fresher tasting crispier texture but is entirely up to you.
Homemade Shortcrust Biscuit Pastry: Recipe 2: Total weight: 102 g – Total Calories: 527
This gives a delicious thin pastry crust, without wastage. I really love this crust. I have been using it all my life and it just cannot be bettered!
Ingredients:
45 g (3 Tablespoons / 45 ml) butter – May use hard margarine or ½ and ½ (I prefer butter)
1 Tablespoon castor sugar
45 g (90 ml) Cake Flour – or use your set of measuring spoons
Pinch salt or to taste
1.25 ml vanilla extract (essence) or to taste – optional
Method:
Place your 23 cm diameter tart foil or baking dish on a scale and weigh into it your flour, castor sugar, and salt. Rub in butter with fingertips until it forms crumbs. Knead to form a ball and press into foil tart baking dish. Use a flour-dusted pastry press – if you don’t have it, use your fingers to press out pastry into the tart dish. If you have a food processor: Place a food processor bowl with a metal blade on, onto the scale, and weigh in your ingredients starting with flour, ending with small cubes of butter on top, sugar, and just a light sprinkling salt to taste. Close lid and whizz until pastry forms a ball. Remove and continue with the above method.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 10 – 12 minutes or until light golden brown. Remove from oven. Set aside to cool.
Lemon Curd Filling:
Ingredients: Total Calories: 2,515 Total Weight: 808
240 g (480 ml) sugar
3 eggs, large (whole)
3 eggs, large (yolks only)
174 g butter (1.5 sticks)
125 ml lemon juice, freshly squeezed
1.5 tbsp lemon zest, freshly grated (plus a little extra)
Method:
Find 2 microwave-oven-safe bowls. Place the 1st bowl onto a scale. Crack into it your first 3 eggs, whole. Separate the other 3 eggs, being careful not to get any yolk in your whites. Set whites aside or store in a sealed container, refrigerated, for later use. Add the 3 yolks to your whole eggs and weigh in the sugar. To the 2nd bowl, weigh-in, or add your butter and lemon juice. Place in microwave and cook on high for 4 mins or until just melted but steaming hot. Meanwhile, cream the eggs and sugar together, with a stick blender constantly running, pour over your steaming hot lemon butter mixture in a steady stream to partially cook (temper) your eggs. – Quickly, preventing the mixture from cooling, because it can cool rapidly, put entire contents back into the microwave oven to cook on high for a further 2.1 minutes (1000 watt oven) and Voila! Your filling is done. Pour filling into pastry tart shell and set aside.
Swiss Meringue Topping:
Ingredients: Total Calories: 274 Total Weight:187 g
4 large egg whites (120 grams), at room temperature
1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated white sugar
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) cream of tartar – prevents weeping
1/2 teaspoon (2 grams) vanilla essence
Method:
In a large enough stainless steel heatproof bowl, whisk the egg whites with the sugar and cream of tartar. Place your bowl containing your whites over a saucepan of simmering water, and whisking or stirring continuously, heat the egg whites until the sugar has melted and the mixture is hot, or if you have a sugar thermometer has reached 71 C -or- 160 F, as this will eliminate the risk of salmonella. Remove from heat and continue beating at high speed until stiff peaks form. Lastly, beat in your vanilla essence.
Pour your warm lemon filling into your pre-baked, pastry crust, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon or spatula. Using two spoons, place large spoonfuls of the meringue starting at the edges of your tart, all around where the crust meets your filling, making sure to glue the meringue, all-around your pastry crust edges. You may gently press down on the meringue to remove any air bubbles. Once your meringue has been glued around the edges of your crust, pile the rest of the meringue onto the tart. Using a fork make decorative swirls in the meringue or with the back of your spoon.
Preheat oven to 180 and brown meringue until golden brown, but watch carefully as it does tend to burn very quickly – Alternatively, you may place under a gently heated grill if you have enough space between your element and meringue to prevent burning. If you are lucky enough to have a handheld propane torch you may use that to save on energy and time.
Allow your tart to rest at room temperature for your filling to set for an hour or two.
You may now serve it or you may store it, uncovered, refrigerated until serving time if you prefer it cold.
This tart is best eaten the day it’s made but can be stored for 1 – 2 days.