Key Lime Meringue Pie

I made a lime meringue pie for the first time the other day and I felt such a sense of achievement! Admittedly I didn't make the pastry... but I am truly horrific at pastry so it was for the best.

It was deliciously limey and sweet and I had a lot of fun eating the left over filling....

Anyway heres how I did it :

Ingredients:

Sweet Pastry

Filling:

2 tbsp cornflour

100g sugar

finely grated zest of 3 limes

 juice from the 3 limes

85g butter

4 egg yolks

1 cap food colouring, green (optional)

200ml boiling water

Meringue:

Four egg yolks (room temperature)

200g castor sugar

1 tsp cornflour

Put a baking sheet in the oven and heat oven to Gas Mark 6. Bake the pastry case ‘blind’ (filled with dry beans) for 15 mins, then remove the foil and bake a further 5-8 mins until the pastry is pale golden and cooked. Leave on the side to cool.

Place all your filling ingredients into a saucepan and cook gently until thick. Stirring constantly as you don't want lumps.

Pour your thickened filling into you cooked pastry case and set aside.

Whisk your egg whites for a minute or so, then add the caster sugar and tsp cornflour. Whisk until the mixture is glossy, and the meringue stays in stiff peaks (if you can hold it above your head upside down you know its ready!

Spread over the filling, and using the end of a small teaspoon, make little flicks and peaks on top of the meringue. Bake in the oven on Gas Mark 4 for about 15-20 minutes or until the meringue is lightly coloured on top.

I added a little green colouring to emphasise that it was lime and not lemon :) you could quite easily change this to a lemon meringue pie by using 2 lemons instead of the three limes!

Serve with ice cream or cream, or even enjoy it on its own :)