Oct 8th, 2016

Author: donich_admin

A not too successful bake…

I had a go at making the ‘Citrus Meringue Pie’ signature challenge from Bake Off yesterday. The recipe I tried was Jane’s one for Lime and Coconut Meringue Pie and I can’t say that it was entirely successful. The recipe is here Recipe – and I followed it pretty exactly apart from not putting coconut flavouring in the base because I don’t like artificial flavourings….

I found the pastry to be very very delicate – I more or less had to mould it into the dish by hand as it fell to pieces when I rolled it out.  When cooked it was lovely and crisp, but a little sweet for my taste.

Making the curd topping I wimped out and cooked it over a pan of water rather than straight in a saucepan as it said in the recipe.  This worked ok and it made a lovely filling though it took a bit of a long time to thicken.  To my taste, again, it was too sweet and I would have reduced the sugar by about half.

Then I made my real mistake.  I cooked the base and lime filling, then left it overnight, then added the meringue, then left it to cool.  This did not work out well, because the filling sitting on the pastry overnight made it go soggy (oh noes!!), and then although the meringue had a lovely crispy top when it came out of the oven, it went soft again before we had a chance to eat it.

So it was okish – but nothing to write home about and I wouldn’t make it again because it was fiddly and took a lot of preparation.  The only person who really seemed to like it was J who took two slices home with him.