Tuesday 14 May 2013

Orange Meringue

This is an alternative to Lemon Meringue, Life didn't give me lemons for this recipe but I had oranges to use up so thought I'd give it a go lol. It turned out amazing. I also made a crumb base for this pie instead of the usual pastry traditionally used :)

Ingredients:
Base/Pastry :

11 Digestive biscuits ( you can use any plain cookies)
1/2 a cup of melted butter plus one extra tbsp for curd.

Orange curd filling:
1 orange 
Orange peel  as needed
juice of whole orange
1 cup of sugar ( I blended granulated sugar to make it finer, but you can use caster or confectioners sugar)
2 Tbsp cornflour ( may need to add more if required)
1 cup of water
3 egg yolks
1 tbs butter

Meringue:
3 egg whites
Sugar as needed

Preparation Method :



Put the Digestives or cookies of your choice into a zip lock bag and really go for it and bash em up until you get fine crumbs.





Add the cookie crumbs to a pan on low heat and add in the melted butter.
Stir it on low heat until it resembles wet sand and remove from heat.



Now Add the buttery crumbs to a round cake tin and spread them evenly around the base and allow it to go arround the edge too. Pres down firmly by either using your hand or the bottom of a glass.
Now put it in the fridge for 10 minutes to chill.

Pre heat your oven 180



Separate 3 eggs and set aside  ( whisk the yolks)




Get a clean pan and turn the heat up to medium.
Add in the water,sugar,cornflour, orange juice and rind.
Stir continuously until the mixture thickens up.



Now add 1 tbs of butter and stir it in quickly and remove the pan off the heat for the next step.

Add a little of the mixture to the egg yolks and whisk in very quickly. This is called tempering. If you don't do this and add  the egg yolks straight to the hot mixture , you will get scrambled yolk so don't forget to temper them.
Now add the egg yolk mix back into the pan and heat on medium heat for 2-3 minutes to cook them through and remove from the heat.
Let the mixture cool slightly.









While waiting for the orange curd to cool slightly, now is the time to prepare the meringue.
I don't have a mixer so had to do it by hand (hard work)
But if you do go ahead and use it to do this.
Whisk the egg whites vigorously while adding a little sugar at a time I ended up using 6 tbsp s. Keep whisking until you see stiff glossy peaks forming ( this is very important) if the meringue is too watery it will just flop while baking and end in disaster.



Now Take the crumb base out of the fridge and add the orange curd to it and spread evenly on the base.



Spread the meringue gently over the pie with a spatula.



Gently form peaks by lightly tapping the meringue and lifting the spatula.



It will look similar to this.

Now pop the pie in the oven and bake for 10 to 15 minutes until you see the meringue getting a lovely goldish colour.
( keep an eye on it as it can burn easily).



The meringue is ready but put hat knife down...... I know you want to but you you can't dig in just yet. 
You must chill the pie in the fridge for 3 hours( yup 3 hours)
It needs to set during this time or it will fall apart. So be patient ok :)

Ok folks the 3 hours is up and now it's time to see who gets to the fridge first lol.



Before cutting into the meringue swish your knife into hot water and pat dry, this will allow the knife to glide through the meringue perfectly :)



Serve and enjoy :) I certainly did :)

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