Mini Lemon Meringue Pies
User Reviews
4.9
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Prep Time
15 mins
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Cook Time
20 mins
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Additional Time
1 hr
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Total Time
1 hr 35 mins
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Servings
6 servings
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Course
Dessert
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Cuisine
French, International
Mini Lemon Meringue Pies
Description
This recipe for Mini Lemon Meringue Pies starts with a shortcrust pastry dough made by rubbing butter into sifted flour and icing sugar before adding milk to form a smooth dough. The dough rests briefly before being rolled out and cut into rounds to fit muffin tins, forming crisp pie cases upon baking. Filling the cases is a lemon custard created from egg yolks, caster sugar, fresh lemon juice, vanilla, and thickened cream that delivers a balance of rich creaminess and citrus sharpness.
The meringue is prepared by whipping egg whites with caster sugar until stiff peaks form, then piled atop the lemon filling. A final bake sets and lightly browns the meringue, adding a sweet contrast and airy texture to the creamy filling and crumbly crust. These mini pies are elegant individually sized desserts suitable for teatime or special occasions.
Allow sufficient cooling time between baking stages to ensure proper setting of the filling and meringue texture. Using baking paper to weigh down the pastry during blind baking helps maintain a crisp crust without shrinking.
Ingredients
Pastry:
- 300 grams plain flour
- 150 grams butter unsalted
- 80 grams icing sugar
- 20 millilitres milk
- 500 grams rice
Filling:
- 5 egg yolk
- 140 grams caster sugar
- 1 lemon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 220 thickened cream
Meringue:
- 5 egg whites
- 120 grams caster sugar
Instructions
Pastry:
- Sift flour into a bowl along with the icing sugar. Add butter and using your finger tips rub the flour and butter together until it begins to resemble bread crumb. Add milk and continue to rub together until it forms a smooth dough.
- If the dough is too wet add a little flour.
- Leave the dough in a cool place to rest for 15 minutes.
- Spray a muffin pan with a non stick spray ready for the pastry.
- Lay a large sheet of baking paper down on a bench and place half the dough on top and flatten with hand. Lay another sheet of paper on top and use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until about 4mm ( about 1/5 of an inch) thick.
- Cut the pastry with a pastry cutter or scone cutter and fill muffin tray, press down the pastry and ensure it comes to the top of each hole. Use excess pastry to patch up any parts with holes.
- Repeat process until pastry is used up to make 8 pie cases.
- Preheat oven to 170 ℃ / 310 ℉.
- Fill each pastry cup with baking paper and fill with rice. This is called blind baking and stops the pastry from collapsing and rising
- Cook for 12 minutes and remove from oven. Let it stand for 10 minutes before removing rice and paper. Keep the rice for the next time you need to blind bake.
Filling:
- In a bowl add egg yolks and sugar. Keep egg whites for meringue.
- Whisk the egg yolk until sugar is dissolved. Add vanilla, lemon rind and juice and whisk for 30 seconds.
- Add cream and whisk gently to mix all ingredients.
- Pour mix evenly into pastry shells leaving 3 mm from the top of pastry top and bake in oven for 14 minutes. The mix may still look a little soft when taking out of the oven. Place in fridge for half and hour to set. Remove from muffin tray and place onto a flat baking tray.
Meringue:
- Turn oven up to 200 ℃/ 390 ℉.
- In a clean bowl add the egg whites and using an electric beater begins to whip the whites. As they being to whiten slowly add sugar and continue to whisk until the mixture begins to form peaks.
- Place the mixture into a piping bag with a straight nozzle and pipe meringue onto pies.
- If you don’t have a piping bag spoon the mixture onto pies.
- Place in oven for 5 minutes to brown meringue. It may be required to rotate tray every now and then to form an even colouring onto pies.
- Remove from oven and place in fridge to cool. These will be ready to eat when cold.
Notes
- Use baking paper to weigh down the pastry during blind baking to keep cases crisp and evenly shaped.
- Allow the pies to cool adequately between baking stages for the best texture in filling and meringue.
- Plan for a couple of hours to complete the pies, accounting for resting and cooling time.
User Reviews
Overall Rating
4.9
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