Lemon pie and crunchy maple meringues
I love simplicity. So when I can deconstruct a pie and serve it randomly on a plate, or in a verrine, that's my thing!!
Pour le crumble
Sometimes I make a simple crumble with leftover tea biscuits that I grind into a powder and mix with a pinch of spices A Spice Affair apple pie and a little melted butter before putting in the oven so that they become a little crispy.
However, here, I had no cookies waiting for me in the back of the cupboard. So I mixed:
- 1 cup almond flour
- 1/2 cup quinoa flour (could be regular flour)
- 1/4 cup pecan pieces
- 1/4 cup maple sugar (or regular sugar)
- 3/4 c. of the mixture of 'Apple Pie A Spice Affair
- A pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup margarine or softened butter
- 1/4 cup neutral oil (sunflower or canola style)
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a bowl, combine all the ingredients. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cook until the crumble becomes a little golden. Let cool and break into coarse pieces.
For the lemon jelly
- 3/4 cup of sugar
- 1/4 cup of cornstarch
- Zest of a lemon
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup of lemon juice
- 2 cups water
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 c. à thé de butter
In a saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch, lemon zest and salt.
Add remaining ingredients except butter. Heat over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened. This will take several minutes, arm yourself with patience (or do a little reading at the same time!).
Remove from the heat and stir in the butter. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate.
For the maple meringue
In a large saucepan, bring the maple syrup to a boil until the candy thermometer reads 115°C. Remove from fire.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until a soft peak forms. Then gradually add the hot syrup to the egg whites, whisking. The whites will puff up. Continue beating for 3-4 minutes, until stiff peaks form.
Right now, I'm using this texture for angel food cake frosting.
Otherwise, like this pie, I like to make my meringues crunchy.
Using a pastry bag, I shape the meringue on baking sheets with parchment paper, giving it the shape of small peaks. I put them in the oven at 175F for about 3 hours.
To check the cooking, I make sure that the small meringue peaks come off the parchment paper easily and that after cooling, the meringue breaks up neatly. If this is not the case, it is necessary to prolong the cooking.