Classic Lemon Meringue- my family recipe!

Lemons are the business.
They taste good, their juice makes really pretty natural highlights in your hair, they smell amazing and lemon juice has a massive range of household cleaning uses, amongst other things.

Also, lemon meringue. 'Nuff said. What's not to love about the creamy and sweet tartness of silky lemon curd topped with a big, fat cloud of meringue? Especially if its super easy to whip from ingredients that you've more than likely got in your pantry already.

This is the recipe that my mom and my gran have always used- it can also be used to make granadilla meringue, lime meringue or orange meringue, just sub half the lemon juice for the juice/pulp of your choice!

The only difficult thing about this recipe is waiting for the pie to cool completely once it comes out the oven. Which, trust me, is crucial if you don't want everything falling apart. It also just tastes so much better when its cool.

Ready? Here we go.

You will need:

• 1 packet of coconut biscuits (in South Africa, we use Tennis biscuits but use your favorite type for a biscuit base)
• 100g real butter, melted
• 1 x 385g tin sweetened condensed milk
• 5 eggs, separated
• 120ml or half a cup of lemon juice, fresh or ready bottled
• 180ml or three quarter cup of castor sugar

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C.
To make the biscuit base, crush your biscuits until they resemble large bread crumbs- put them in a food processor and pulse; put them in a plastic bag and beat them to death with a rolling pin, or wine bottle. The choice is yours.

Add the melted butter to the crushed biscuits and give them a good mix until all the butter has combined with the crumbs. Press the butter biscuit mix into your pie dish to form an even base for your pie- I like to give the plate a quick shot of cooking spray first, to make slicing easier, but this isn't strictly necessary.

Pop into the oven for 5 minutes to set your base.

To make the curd (aka the point of the whole exercise), mix your egg yolks, lemon juice and condensed milk in a medium sized bowl. Beat with an electric beater or a fork until thick and creamy. Taste good? There is a bit of room for an extra tablespoon or three of lemon juice for an extra punch, if you like. Remove the biscuit base from the oven and pour in your curd.

Put back into the oven for 15 minutes to bake, keeping an eye that the edges of your base don't start browning too much- the curd is sufficiently baked when a light touch with your finger lifts a teeny layer off the top of the curd.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 10 minutes while you whip up the meringue.

I like to use my trusty Kenwood Patissier, but any electric beater will do.
Whip your egg whites until they form soft peaks.
At this point, some patience is required if you want a stable, evenly- coloured meringue, so beat in the castor sugar, tablespoon by tablespoon, making sure that the sugar granules have dissolved before each addition.
When all the sugar is added and you have some beautifully glossy, firm peaks to your meringue, spoon it carefully over the set curd. Smooth it out, scoop it up, make whatever patterns you like to see on your pie.

Place it back into the oven for 15-20 minutes until your meringue has the level of colour and firmness that you like.
Remove from the oven...and wait. Resist the urgent to slice it until it is completely cool! It is, of course, completely edible at this stage if you like the decontructed look, but patience really is a virtue in this instance.

This is best served with tea if you want to do things properly, but this is just as good spooned straight into your mouth when you open the fridge to get the milk for your morning coffee...

Thanks for reading. Did this recipe work for you? I'd love to hear your tips and variations!