LEMON AND MERENGUE PIE

Ingredients

Pastry

2 cups/250g plain flour
1 cup/125g icing sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1 cup/125g Vegan margarine
1-2 tbs Cold Water

Lemon Filling

1 tin of Coconut Milk
2 tbs Fresh Lemon Zest
Juice of 2 Lemons
1 & 1/4 cups/280ml Almond Milk
4 heaped tbs Corn Starch
5 tbs Unrefined Caster Sugar
1/2 tsp Ground Turmeric (optional, gives the tart a yellow colour)

Meringue

1 cup/235ml Chickpea Water
1/2 cup/60g Icing Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla Essence
1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum

Method

Pre Heat your oven to 180deg celsius or gas mark 4 and grease a medium sized loose bottom tart tin.

For the Pastry, sieve the flour and sugar into a large bowl, add the vanilla essence & cubed cold margarine.

Using your hands combine the mixture until it starts combining.

You may need to add a couple tbs of water to bring the mixture together. This can be made in a food processor if you are short for time. Once the mixture is in a ball, wrap in cling film and place in the refrigerator until cold.

Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll to 1/2cm thick & carefully line your tin. I rolled my pastry on greaseproof paper, this made it easier when transferring to the tart tin.

Trim any excess pastry & cover the centre with greaseproof paper and weigh down using baking beans. Blind bake for 6 minutes before removing the beans and greaseproof paper to bake for an additional 6 minutes or until the pastry is golden.

Carefully place the cooked tart case on a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Lemon Custard filling.

Heat the coconut milk with the lemon juice & zest in a medium saucepan gently over a low heat.

In a mixing bowl combine the almond milk, cornstarch and sugar and whisk until completely incorporated.

When the coconut milk is hot, pour in the milk mixture from the bowl into the saucepan. Whilst still heating whisk until the mix starts to thicken. Add the turmeric if you want a bright yellow colour. Don’t worry it doesn’t spoil the flavour.

Continue to whisk for 2 more minutes until the mix is super thick.

Carefully pour the lemon filling mixture into the tart case. Neatly spread the mix out using a stepped pallet knife. Then place clingfilm directly over the lemon filling making sure theres no air pockets. Its very important to directly cover the filling with clingfilm as this stops a skin forming which eventually will crack & doesn’t look good.

Place the tart in a fridge to completely set for at least 3 hours.

Before serving, make your meringue.

Using an electric whisk. Whisk the ingredients in a clean bowl. Until you have stiff peaks.

Pipe the meringue on to your tart. I lightly toasted my meringue by using a blow torch however this is optional.

Enjoy.