Juicy Lemon Pie

How many of you like Lemon Pie? I do, and when well done, it´s one of my favorite desserts. Why? Well, because it´s juicy, with real lemon flavor, but at the same time it´s sweet, with a heavy, thick layer of the best merengue ever.

This post goes for Paula, a friend of mine who loves this recipe. Pau, I hope will send me pictures of your Lemon Pie for me to share with the Cook n Shout followers.

This is a recipe Mom shared with me and that I´ll share for you to try it. It´s the best lemon pie I tried so far.

INGREDIENTS:


For the dough:

A- Patience
B- 100 grams of soft butter
C-1 egg yolk
D- 3 tablespoons of sugar
E- 1 tablespoons of alcohol vinegar
F- 2 tablespoons of water
G- 1 cup of all purpose flour
H- Grated lemon peel

For the filling:

A- Patience
B- 1 cup of sugar
C- 1/4 cup of corn starch (or Maizena)
D- 1 cup of cold water
E- 1/3 cup of lemon juice
F- 4 egg yolks
G- 70 grams of butter
H- Grated peel of one and a half lemon.

For the merengue:

A- Patience
B-  1 cup of sugar
C- 4 egg whites
D- Water


PROCEDURE FOR THE DOUGH:


I owe you the pictures for this procedure, because I used a ready-to use- cookie crumbs dough.


FIRST STEP: Soften the butter either in the microwave or leaving it at room temperature for a while.

SECOND STEP:  Stir the egg yolk with the sugar.

THIRD STEP: Add the vinegar, the water and the lemon peel. Stir until well integrated.

FOURTH STEP: As we stir, we add the flour. We must get as a result an homogeneous dough. 

FIFTH STEP: We place the dough to cover the base of the cake mold. If when ready we plan to serve it on a different plate, then cover a little bit of the cake mold walls in order to contain the filling.

SIXTH STEP: Bake the dough at 180 degrees Celsius until we get a dry and slightly golden dough.

PROCEDURE FOR THE FILLING

FIRST STEP: Stir the yolks a little bit to avoid having granules in the filling. 

SECOND STEP: Place all the ingredients inside a casserole except for the butter.

THIRD STEP: Take the casserole to the stove and stir while cooking. You must cook until when you move the spatula, the mixture opens like the Red Sea and closes after it. I couldn´t take a good picture of it, as the liquid moves too fast for me to take a picture with dim light.

FOURTH STEP: When the filling gets the point described above, add the butter and mix until well integrated.

FIFTH STEP: Let the filling cool just a little bit and pour it into the already baked and cold dough. Make sure it is evenly distributed.

PROCEDURE FOR THE MERENGUE 

FIRST STEP: Separate the egg yolks from the whites and pour the whites in a dry bowl. Add a little bit of salt and whisk the whites until hard peaks form (we must be able to turn the upside down without the whites falling. 

SECOND STEP: While we whisk, put the sugar inside a casserole and cover it with water. The surface of the water must be 5mm away from the sugar.

THIRD STEP: Put the casserole on the fire and wait until it boils. Once it does, wet a fork witht he syrup and let a drop fall into a glass of water. If the syrup drop looks hard, we can go to step four, otherwise, keep on boiling the syrup.

FOURTH STEP: We pour VERY gently the hot syrup into the whites. Don´t stop whisking the whites, specially when pouring the syrup. The bowl will rise temperature. Once you poured all the content of the casserole, keep on whisking until the bowl is at room temperature again. This procedure will sweet and cook the whites.

FIFTH STEP: Put the merengue on top of the filling and distribute evenly.  

SIXTH STEP: With the help of a spoon or a spatula, hit the merengue in order to form peaks. You can design this layer as you like, really.

SEVENTH STEP: You can brown the merengue by placing it in in a hot oven for 20 or 30 seconds. You must put it under the flames. 

EIGHTH STEP: Put the cake in the fridge until it´s cold enough to serve it. Enjoy.

I hope you enjoy the cake as much as I do. Don´t forget to send your pictures to cookandshoutenglish@gmail.com so I can share them in a post.