There are three basic steps. Make a short crust pie shell, put in the filling and bake it, then cover with Italian meringue. I won't give the short crust recipe, you could even buy a pre-baked shell to make it easier, but the authors give wonderful tips on how to prepare and roll out short crust pastry, over several pages, and I think I've made my best attempt ever following their rules.
To fill the pastry shell:
6 large eggs
1.5 cups sugar
3/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp lemon zest
Whisk eggs and sugar until frothy. Add the lemon juice and the cream, whisk in. Strain through a sieve then add the lemon zest and mix. Pour into the pastry shell and bake at 150 C for 1 hour. Cool on a rack and then cover in fridge overnight.
Italian meringue topping
This was fun!
4 egg whites
3 tbsp water
1 cup light brown sugar tightly packed
2/3 cup castor sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Add the sugars to a heavy based saucepan and cook without stirring until it reaches 253 F on a sugar thermometer.
At this point, beat the egg whites on a medium speed until frothy and slightly increased in volume. Add the cream of tartar. Turn off mixer, and a little of the hot sugar, and mix on medium for a few seconds. Repeat, adding more syrup with the machine off, and then beating again. Turn to high speed and beat until it holds a peak when lifted with a spoon.
It frothed up into the most amazing meringue!
Spread the meringue full to the edges of the pie shell, apparently if you leave any gaps the meringue will weep fluid later. Lift into peaks with a spoon or spatula while it is still warm. I then browned the top with a kitchen blow torch, but you can put it in an oven at 230 C for 5 minutes as an alternative.
Here's the result - amazing!
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