Friday, May 29, 2009

Lemon Meringue Pie

Gosh! I'm salivating just by writing the word "meringue"! :-)

I have to say before to continue, that the only sweet thing I used to prepare were pancakes, and I have really mastered it!....I never get bored making them, but hey, this post is not about pancakes but about the LEMON MERINGUE PIE.
I can't remember who gave me this recipe, I've had it in my computer for a long time, then in 2007, after a year of being in the UK, I was craving for a good, well made lemon meringue pie... because let's be honest, in England you only find the ones that are not particularly baked with love, but the very "chemical ones" as I like to call them, where the filling tastes like anything but lemon and the meringue...oh well, you can imagine.
I found this recipe and decided to give it a try....I saw my sister (who's a very good cook) making one years ago and it didn't seem too complicated so here I was, collecting all the ingredientes.... exciting!.
The best thing of all was that it came out puuuurrrrfect!!!, my first ever lemon meringue pie was a big success


Here's the picture....the decoration is not brilliant, but the taste! oh dear!. Since then, I have baked loads of pies like this and I have improved the meringue a lot.
I'm still working on the decoration,
I think I need a good set of piping nozzles.

Being now very interested and completely in love with cupcakes.....I decided to make some small (cupcake size) lemon meringue pies:

They were very nice, but I think that the pastry was too thick, I'll have to try again.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

* 1 1/2 cup of self raising flour
* 1 tbsp of butter (it can be oil instead)
* 3 eggs
* 1 cup of sugar
* 1 tin of condensed milk
* Zest and juice of 2 lemon



Method:

Pastry:
Preheat the oven to 180 C
Lightly grease a round pie plate (including the borders).
In a large bowl, mix flour, egg yolks, butter (or oil) and 1/2 cup of sugar until you get a good consistency to knead and give shape with your hands. If it's too dry add a bit of milk.
Roll out the dough and cover the pie plate with it. Bake in the oven for 5 minutes, remove it from the oven, place a circle of baking paper on the pastry shell, covering it all and then put baking beans (these will prevent the patry from rising too much), put back in the over for 10 minutes,
or until it's slightly golden. Take out of the oven.

You can prepare the lemon filling whilst the pastry is baking in the oven.

Lemon filling: Pour the whole tin of condensed milk into a bowl, add little by little the lemon juice while you stir gently (I add aprox one tsp at a time, I stir gently, then another tsp and so on). When you've added all the lemon, add the lemon zest. Cover with a lid or cling film and put it in the fridge.

Meringue: Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until you have a thick and creamy consistency, add the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar little by little while still mixing.

Take the lemon filling out of the fridge, put it all in the pastry shell and even with a spoon. Then, cover the pie with the meringue with a spatula. You can give a final decorating touch passing a fork on top or, you can use a piping bag instead. After you've done the decoration, take the pie back to the oven (180 C) for 15 minutes, untill you see the meringue gets slightly golden.

I hope you enjoy it!!

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Home SWEET home

Baking is one of my great passions.

My grandma used to prepare wonderful cakes and all sorts of sweet things to celebrate birthdays in the family, she was a fab cook, very creative. I think I got this love for baking (among other things) from her.
I haven't done too much so far but I'm eager to learn all about it!.
Since my grandma Juanita passed away in July 2007, I have found myself in the kitchen more often, maybe to feel closer to her as I miss her terribly!.

All the wonderful sweet smells that take me straight back to my childhood are the ones of cakes, cookies, sweet bread and so on. I love the cosy and family- loving feeling I get from it, which I want to pass on to my little son Bjorn (whom is already showing signs of a very sweet tooth!).

I want to make of my home, a real "home sweet home" to be enjoyed and always remembered by family and friends.

I'm collecting recipes from everywhere, books, magazines, internet, family and friends, so if you have a special recipe please send it to me and I'll give it a try.
I love recipes from other cultures as well, there is so much to taste!!.

*In this picture: my grandma Juanita at 16 years old.
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