Week 7: Lemon Meringue Pie

Yes, I managed to figure out what week it was.

So this week I did not bottle and go for the easy option, and chose a recipe with new stuff and old nemesis: the latter being pastry, which I am rubbish at but getting better. This particular variant is sugar pastry which is extra crumbly and liable to fall apart and one of these days I’m going to be able to roll it out into something resembling a circle rather than an abstract shape Picasso would be proud of.

I do, however, know how to pick it up on the rolling pin which impresses the tutor – it’s not a perfectly symmetrical bake but good enough. I’m sure the aesthetics will come with time.

Making my own lemon curd is fun and successful, even if I endeavour to tip half of it down the front of the cooker. Getting the diluted cornflour smooth enough in the lemon sugar syrup is hard work, but when the butter then egg yolks are mixed together you get that lovely, murky yellow paste.

The meringue itself is very easy, and can be used for something like baked alaska too (just egg whites whipped up, with sugar added afterwards). It also survived the journey home, which is perhaps the most surprising thing of all. Of all the things I’ve made on the course, I might be happiest with this the most (which might actually mean I’m learning something).

I’ve got three weeks left in the class; I might see if I can find a beginner’s sugarcraft course in Cardiff but if not, I think keeping Wednesday night as baking night would be a fun way of keeping this blog going. I might even put polls in about what I should bake next.