Conquering the world

The surest sign of stress is when I start to cook, especially when I start up stupid projects. Ok, so here I announce that I will do a new dessert a week, to overcome my aversion to baking (disasters and all, like when my oven caught fire when I was trying to make foccacia in Fort Lee). Except for cheesecake, most of the baking recipes I do are no-brainers. Have to give a kernel of credit to Julie Powell, who with single and bloody-mindedness cooked through the whole of Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking", I decided to master my own fear of the oven. A patissier I am certainly not, so I'll fumble through international desserts this year, by golly!




So here is my first attempt - a lemon meringue pie. Not so difficult, but considering that I hate making pie crust and have never made meringue before, I thought it would be a tiny challenge for a start. Anyway, it was so-so, I think that the recipe had the oven too hot for the final bake (which is why the meringue looks more brown than golden, but I think I have it down pat now - I put the dripping tray above the pie so that it doesn't burn on the outside. So here is the recipe for all it's worth.





Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients:

Pie crust
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
75 g butter (president's, no less!)
2 tbsp cold water

Pie filling
Juice from 1 lemon
grated zest from same lemon
1/2 cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 cup water
25 g butter
3 tbsp cornflour and 1 tbsp cold water

Meringue
3 egg whites
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 cup sugar
A pinch of salt

Method:
Pie crust:
1. Sift flour and salt together
2. Cut butter into small cubes, then use pastry blender to mix with flour until it becomes fine grains
3. Add water to bind together and roll dough into ball
4. Roll out dough in between 2 sheets of baking paper
5. Mould into 9 inch pie pan, leaving a ½ inch overhang to crimp
6. Put pan in fridge for ½ hour
7. Prick pie crust base with a fork. Put in oven with baking paper and weights (beans) and bake at 200 deg C for 12 minutes
8. Remove from oven and remove weights and paper. Bake again uncovered for 5 minutes. May want to put dripping tray at top rack of oven to prevent the crust from burning.


Lemon Custard:
1. Add lemon juice, lemon zest, butter, sugar and water together and bring to a boil
2. Turn down flame and stir in eggs, whisking throughout
3. Mix cornstarch and water and add to lemon and egg mixture, whisking for about 5 minutes until the mixture thickens
4. Turn off flame and cover custard with baking paper (to prevent a film from forming) and cool.

Meringue:
1. Beat egg whites, a pinch of salt and cream of tartar together until peaks are stiff
2. Add sugar and continue beating until mixture is glossy

Assemble the pie:
1. Spoon custard into pie crust and smooth the top
2. Spoon meringue on top of custard, making sure that the custard is completely covered
3. Bake in oven at 175 deg C for about 15 – 18 minutes (shield top of pie with dripping tray in top rack).

moody...

My general mood for these few days. Along with "what am I doing here" questions. Need a holiday...