Lemon Meringue Pie And A Cold Busy Day....

Bon appres midi Home, Love and Life friends and how are you all doing today...? Well some of you may remember from my last post that I was going to make a Lemon Meringue Pie Tuesday but ran out of time so I decided to do it yesterday as I haven't made one in ages and everyone loves it.....Well yesterday morning I had a very busy start to the day as I had to get Bec off to daycare, make sure Luke was ready for intework before I left the house so I could get to field service on time..(for those of you who don't know me I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses and I'm one of those people that come knocking on your door for a friendly chat) and it was a lovely morning spent with Brothers and Sisters in the ministry that finished right on lunch time....So after field service I came home had some lunch, watched my fave show from the night before, then ducked into town to get a couple of things before getting home to find Luke on the front veranda waiting for me and making a start on the pie.....I started with the pastry for the crust which is an easy recipe and the crust home made is just delish....Then I realized it was 3pm and I had to go and get Bec. Upon returning home I found Chris home from work early which was a nice surprise and got back to making the rest of the pie.....I made the lemon butter for the filling and once it was ready thought I'd give it bit of a taste test and thank goodness I did because I had forgotten to add the sugar....have you ever tried lemon butter without the sugar..?? very tangy...lol....so I quickly threw in the sugar while the butter was still hot and thankfully it dissolved and tasted perfect.....So next I thought I'd roll out the pastry and get that cooked.....well maybe not.....it seemed the oven had other ideas and didn't want to light yesterday afternoon and with an oven not lighting I couldn't finish my pie!! Now I was not happy....I'd done all this work and couldn't finish it...no matter how many times I tried to light the oven it just didn't want to go.....So I cleaned up my mess and got dinner started....I thought maybe if I leave it for a while it'll come good and light and it has lit before.......I got dinner going and after about 15 minutes of cooking I thought I'd try the oven again and what do you know....yep it lit up first time!!! Was sooo happy.....so I thought I'd just leave it on  while I finished cooking dinner as I wasn't game enough to turn it off and try again later being as it was being extremely temperamental......Finally I had the whole pie put together and in the oven by 8pm last night and it turned out spectacularly...as I knew it would hehehe....bit of a big head or what...lol...However seeing as you can't serve Lemon Meringue hot because it falls apart I had to wait for it to cool down so I could cover it and put it in the fridge to chill.....And at last this morning for morning tea we were able to have a piece of pie that took two days to make....

Lemon Meringue Pie that almost wasn't....

Being as it was a very cold start to the morning here in Busso (four degrees at 8am..!!) I thought I'd take advantage of the sunshine this afternoon and have a coffee while I blog from the peace of my garden on my fave bench under the trees. The morning started with us freezing our butts off as soon as our feet hit the floor but with the heater going I thought I'd take advantage of being cooped up inside and catch up on some washing and a bit of tidying up before I even thought about venturing outside. Thankfully by about 10:30am it had gotten up to 13 degrees....woohoo...so I thought I'd sweep the front veranda and do a little tidying up outside. The day just really consisted of plenty of washing, meeting the lawn mower man for the first time, greeting the gas plumber to fix the stove....yey..now I can actually finish cooking things when I start them, folding washing and washing more washing, attempting to get Bec to have a nap (which failed) sweeping floors, cleaning out the chickies box so they have fresh straw...they're doing so well and getting bigger and their feathers are coming through and finding some time to make a coffee to head outside with while I blog.....Seeing as there was no way Bec was sleeping she joined me outside and had a run around with the dogs, a play on her bike and generally exploring the yard and what she could get into....

My fave place to sit with a coffee and I thought today this would be the perfect spot to do some blogging and Instagramming from...

Bec wandering through the garden...

Giving Molly a belly rub...

As I turned around to see what Bec was up to I spotted this gorgeous pink hibiscus growing....

And a red hibiscus....

When we first moved in I thought this was a massive birds nest....I now know it's a possums nest....hope they stay up there...

So that was my very cold day today...how did you all get on with your day and was it as exciting as mine...hehehe.....I hope you're all nice and warm and for those of you who have wood fires please think of me freezing in front of my gas heater :( I'm missing my wood fire more and more...

Well now as promised to those who have already asked on Instagram (yep still loving it) here's my recipe for the super delish Lemon Meringue Pie......and on the weekend I'm making my famous Sticky Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce so stay tuned...Au revoir...xo

Lemon Meringue Pie

Pastry
70g (1/2 cup) self-raising flour
130g (3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon) plain flour
30g (1 tablespoon plus 3 teaspoons) caster sugar
120g cold butter, cut into pieces
1 large egg (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)

Lemon Filling
56g (4 tablespoons plus 3 teaspoons) cornflour
170g (3/4 cup) sugar
180ml (2/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons) fresh lemon juice
230ml (2/3 cup plus 1/4 cup) water
60g butter, cut into pieces
3 large egg yolks (we use eggs with a minimum weight of 59g)

Meringue
3 large egg whites
170g (3/4 cup) caster sugar

Begin by making the pastry. Place the self-raising and plain flours, caster sugar and butter in a food processor. Process on medium speed for about 20 seconds, until mixture resembles fine fresh breadcrumbs (there shouldn't be any large chunks of butter).

Add egg and process on medium speed for about 15-30 seconds, until egg is incorporated and mixture clumps together.

Form dough into a flattened round and place in a freezer bag or wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Combine cornflour, sugar, lemon juice and water in medium saucepan. Stir until mixture is smooth.

Place saucepan over medium-high heat and stir constantly until mixture reaches the boil (this will probably take about 7-10 minutes). Reduce heat to low and continue stirring for about 30-40 seconds, until mixture changes from cloudy to transparent and becomes thick and smooth.

Remove saucepan from heat and vigorously stir in butter and egg yolks. Continue stirring until all the butter has melted and the ingredients are well combined

Pour filling into a small container, cover and refrigerate until cold.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the lower-middle position.

Roll out pastry between two sheets of baking paper or on a lightly floured board to fit a 23cm (9 inch) pie plate (pastry should be about 4mm thick and 29cm diameter). Lift pastry into pie plate and gently press into dish.

Trim pastry overhanging the sides.

Place a sheet of baking paper on top of the pastry and fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice.

Bake at 180 degrees Celsius (160 degrees Celsius fan-forced) for 10 minutes. Remove weights/rice and baking paper and bake for 10-15 minutes more, until the pastry is a light golden colour. Allow pastry shell to cool completely.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celsius, or 190 degrees Celsius fan-forced. If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the middle position.

To make meringue, place egg whites in a large bowl of an electric mixer and beat on high speed until at soft peak stage (when the beater is lifted, a peak will form and then droop over). Add the sugar gradually, about 2 tablespoons at a time, beating well after each addition. Once all the sugar has been added, continue beating until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and glossy. To test whether the sugar has dissolved, rub a small amount of meringue between your thumb and finger. If you can still feel sugar crystals, beat the meringue for another minute then test again.

Spoon lemon filling into cooled pastry shell and spread evenly. Dollop meringue on top of the lemon filling. Spread meringue to cover filling. Form peaks in the meringue with a spoon (we press the back of a spoon against the surface of the meringue, then lift the spoon to form a peak).

Bake for about 7-10 minutes, or until meringue is lightly coloured.

Allow pie to cool to room temperature. Cover pie and refrigerate until cold.

Slice chilled pie into wedges and serve. Store pie in an airtight container in the refrigerator. The pie will also keep quite well if left in pie dish and cover with glad wrap which is what I do.

The end result and well worth the effort....I know this recipe seems like there's a lot involved but it's really quite simple as everything is done in stages....Enjoy and let me know how it goes - Michelle xo