Blow, blow, blow ,your torch..

blow the pie away...
merrily merrily merrily merrily
DB is just to play!

Harumph...as if this was a breeze... Well it could be. If you read recipes. And follow them in the right order. Not mixing up cooling and heating. So I had a hot crust and a quickly cooling curd. Had to be the other way round eh?

I know I have some minor difficulties involving knowing left from right, doing math and time keeping but I really thought I had figured out cold and hot. Been cool about that since way back when, ever since my mama held my little chubby hand up to the stove to let me feel why I shouldn't touch that. (Hmm, maybe I should teach my cat a trick or two...)

Take into account that I never have seen, eaten or made a true Lemon Meringue Pie before it went surprisingly well. For me the crust was the part I feared most, I had memories of the patch and push crust and not being able to roll out a proper disc... and look at this! So proud! (sorry but I really am!) The crust was a breeze to make with the help of my 16 yr old Magimix, came together nicely and after a quick rest in the freezer I could roll it out like this. Did not use the full amount of ice water (held back on approx. 1 tbs). Lined it with parchment paper and dried beans and into the oven it went.
Now...there was shrinkage people! My beauty crust was diminished (now I understand why the recipe said to let the dough hang over the edges...). Furthermore I think I should have given it some more oventime because of the glass tart pan I used, it wasn't completely done, but I battled ahead anyway as in the meantime I had started the filling.... pie crust still had to be baked and already my filling was cooling.. one can be too efficient..

Yes, the filling. Still don't know what to think... Maybe the way the combined cornstarch/sugar mixture looked prior to adding egg yolks reminded me a wee bit too much of wall paper glue and the memory affected my taste buds, but I feel I could taste the cornstarch through. On the other hand, this made a lovely thick very tart filling... Forewarned by other DB's I was apprehensive about weeping meringue and oozing filling, luckily that didn't happen at all!

Due to the reverse order and my lack of reading abilities the cooling thickening filling was scooped into a still hot pie crust (crossed all extremities here). And on it went, straight to the meringue...
Wiped the stand mixer bowl with a left over lemon half, apart from that didn't use any stabilizer, no cornstarch, no cream of tartar and used granulated sugar. Yep. Got a great meringue; puffy, shiny and smooth. Scooped and swirled it onto the quite cool filling and debated... what to do next? I was looking forward to playing with my new torch. The box said: for caramelising sugar on crème brulée and frivolous pastry. Yep. Frivolous pastry.

We had some mighty fine frivolous pastry on our hands but I chickened out..wasn't going to blow (bad pun intended) my pie by amateurish use of blow torches. So I decided to use the oven as stated in the recipe, resulting in a nicely golden tan.

I really like the fact that the top was crunchy and underneath the merengue was still gooey and at the same time a little cooked. Yummy! I did use the blowtorch on the 4 tartelettes I made from left over ingredients, but I do need to practice a bit, wasn't satisfied with the results.

Verdict: I loved the crust: the way it could be handled, the flavour, all of it. The filling...as I said I'm a bit confused, it was very tart (which I usually like a lot) but felt a bit too stodgy in my mouth. Loved the meringue and I should have piled it on like in a real LMP. (My ignorance showing). I was stupefied by the way the pie behaved. It didn't weep, bead or puddle. Sheer luck. Even the next day it was still looking good! My taste test panel: husband and son nr. 1 really liked it, son nr. 2 ate a slice and said it was for grown-ups, son nr. 3 couldn't be convinced to try but he is a very picky eater and conservative at that.

This challenge boosted my confidence in making pie crust, I still need some practice (cook longer and try to reduce shrinking) but in the future I won't be as scared -or skip- recipes involving crusts. Thanks to Jen our host at The Canadian Baker! Now if you like to see more, head on over to the Daring Bakers Blogroll!