Lemon pie is a traditional French dessert with an incredibly delicate and refined taste. Our hostesses met him not so long ago, and he immediately became the favorite dish of many, although it could not be otherwise: who would not like crispy shortcrust pastry, delicious lemon cream and an airy layer of whipped proteins?
Some people call lemon pie a pie, others call it a cake, but everyone unanimously recognizes that this is not only a tasty and fragrant dessert, but also a real table decoration.
And one more important news - preparing such a meal is quite simple and fast. So let's get started.
Ingredients
To bake a lemon cake, you need the following products:
for shortcrust pastry: flour - 250 grams, icing sugar - 50 grams, butter - 100 grams, yolk of one egg, a pinch of salt;
for cream: milk - a quarter liter, granulated sugar and potato starch - 30 grams each, three egg yolks, lemon juice (one), zest of 2 lemons;
for meringues: sugar (sand) - 150 grams, icing sugar - 100 grams, chicken eggs - 5 pieces.
We make shortbread dough
On the board you need to sift the flour, make a hole in it, in which to put the yolk, icing sugar and chilled butter, cut into small cubes. Mix the ingredients with your hands, then chop with a knife until crumbs form, then knead the dough. A little secret: you need to act quickly so that the cold oil does not melt completely, otherwise the dough will crumble.
Cover the finished mass with a clean cloth or wrap in cling film and keep in the refrigerator for about an hour.
Bake cake
Now you need to bake a cake, or rather, its base. From the dough we roll out a round cake and put it into a shape with corrugated sides. We cut off the excess dough, put parchment or special baking paper on top of it and put a press (so that the base of the cake does not swell during baking). We put the mold in the oven, heated to 180 - 190 degrees, and hold there for about 15 minutes. Then we take it out, remove the press with paper and again place it in the oven for the same period. It should turn out to be golden brown.
Make cream
Put sugar in milk, put on a stove, wait for it to boil. Mix the yolks with starch and add 2 large spoons of hot milk to them. Then we combine this mixture with the rest of the milk and keep it on fire, stirring occasionally. As soon as it boils, remove from the stove, attach the grated zest and lemon juice, mix thoroughly.
Beat meringue
Beat egg whites with sugar in a thick foam ( add sand gradually). In the resulting mass, spread the icing sugar, mix with a wooden spatula and divide into two identical parts. Add one serving to the cream.
Lemon pie. The final stage
The cream with whipped proteins is again placed on the fire to bring to a boil. Then we transfer the hot cream to the cake from the dough, and on top add the second part of the protein mass. This can be done using a pastry syringe or bag. We put the lemon pie in the oven and hold until the meringue acquires a pleasant light brown hue. We get the cake from the stove. When it cools down, we send it to the refrigerator for one and a half to two hours. Now our delicious cake is ready.