How To Make A Super Easy Lemon Meringue Pie

It was Mother's Day the other day, and I took it upon myself to make and bake my mum the best thing ever. But it also had to be screaming Spring vibes. And that's when I picked up my copy of the The Simple Things March issue and saw a recipe for lemon meringue pie that looked to DIE FOR. Soo, that's what I baked and as you can see from these pictures, it didn't turn out half bad. I for sure had SBF (Soggy Bottom Fear) when I let it cool and took it out of the tin. But thank the lemons it was all good!

A couple of years back I attempted this dessert for the first time, but with a different recipe and it was a disaaaassteeerrr. (Name that reference!) But this year it was such a success (kinda) with a much simpler recipe. So, without further ado, I shall share it with you! Just throwing it out there, this post isn't sponsored but this recipe comes from Rachel Allen's book Recipes From My Mother which featured in the magazine. And I think I might buy it after this success yay. Ok now to the recipe...


1. Firstly, to make the pastry, put the flour and sugar in a bowl and rub in the butter until it all looks like breadcrumbs. Add half of the beaten egg (we're saving the other half for later) and using your hands, bring the mixture together to form a round. Add more water if needed.

2. Cover in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 mins or up to 24 hours. And then preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius.

3. Once the pastry is ready, place it between two sheets of cling film that's larger than your 23cm loose bottom tart tin. Then with a rolling pin, roll it out until it is 3mm thick while making sure it keeps a round shape.

4. Remove just the top layer of cling film and turn the pastry upside down with the cling film side up and place in the tart tin. With the cling film still on, press the pastry into the edges of the tin with your thumb. Patch gaps with pastry and make sure there is a little bit of pastry just going over the sides of the tin. (It will shrink to size while blind baking) Remove the cling film and place in a freezer for 5 minutes.

5. Bake the pastry blind by lining it with baking parchment, and filling with baking beads for 20-25 minutes until the base feels dry to the touch. Remove paper and beans and using the other half of the beaten egg yolk and water, brush over and return to oven for 3 mins. Once done, set aside to leave to cool.

6. For the lemon curd, on a very low heat melt the butter with the sugar, lemon zest and strained juice. Then add the beaten eggs and stir carefully until the mixture has thickened and will coat the back of the spoon. (Note: this could take 10 mins or so!) Take off the heat and pour into a bowl to cool.

7. Pour the cooled curd into the pastry case and set aside. For the meringue, put the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl and using an electric whisk, whisk till they form stiff peaks. Then, add one tablespoon of the caster sugar and whisk again till stiff peaks are formed. Then fold in the remaining sugar. Spread the meringue over the curd and with the back of the spoon, lift up little snowy meringue peaks all over. (Obviously you can see I failed with that!)

8. Lastly, place the pie in the oven for 10 mins and bake till the meringue is golden brown on top. Remove and leave to cool, then serve. Or save it for the next day, mmmm.