Lime & Blackberry Meringue PiePrint Recipe

With its gorgeous combination of citrus and berries, this pie has ‘sweet, sweet Summer’ written all over it. The recipe arrived on my doorstep last week – on the cover of the most recent Bon Appetit magazine. I have made some changes, like using my own compote recipe, pie crust recipe and meringue recipe but aside from that, it is the celebrated dessert that is gracing their current issue.

There are numerous steps to this pie and quite a bit of chilling time, I know it sounds like a labour of love (and to be quite honest it is!) but I made the different components over two days so in the end it was relatively stress free (but still time consuming).

The result is a light and fluffy, subtly lime-flavoured pie with a burst of sweet blackberry and a crowning glory of toasted meringue. And whilst the many steps to get this result became irritating (it was the heat), the result was totally worth it, I can now enjoy my Summer pie and kick back (Mr Man has promised to do the dishes when he gets home from work!).

Pastry Shell
1 1/4 cups plain (all purpose) flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
113 grams/4 ounces unsalted butter, very cold

Set aside 1 cup of ice cold water. Whisk together flour, 1 tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of salt in a large bowl and cut the butter into 1/2-inch pieces.

Sprinkle the butter cubes over the flour and begin working them in with your pastry blender or a fork (or knife), working all parts evenly. Stop when the mixture has a crumb the size of peas.

Pour half the water over the butter and flour mixture and using a spatula, gather the dough together. Gradually add more water, a tablespoon at a time until you have large clumps of dough. Then use your hands to bring the dough together and form it into a disk, place on a large piece of plastic wrap, wrap and chill for at least two hours.

Heavily flour your work surface and place the chilled dough in the centre. Flour the top of your dough and the rolling pin and roll the dough from the centre out, rotating in a circular motion so you get an even (ish) round of dough forming. Cut to a 13″ round.

Gently place it in 9-inch pie pan, either by rolling it around the rolling pin and unrolling it over the pan or by folding it into quarters and unfolding it in the pan. Trim edges to a half-inch overhang and place back in your fridge for a further 30 minutes at least.

Line pastry with baking paper, fill with pastry weights or rice and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove paper and rice and bake for a further 10 – 15 minutes or until golden. Remove and cool to room temperature.

Lime Curd
1 cup fresh lime juice
3 large eggs
3 large egg yolks
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (113 grams/4 ounces) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
3/4 cup chilled heavy cream

Set a strainer over a medium bowl; set aside. Stir lime juice, eggs, egg yolks, and sugar together in another medium bowl. Set bowl over a large saucepan of gently simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water). Whisk until mixture has thickened, the whisk leaves a path when lifted from curd, for about 15 minutes. Add butter to curd, one Tbsp. at a time, whisking to blend between additions. Strain curd into prepared bowl. Press plastic wrap directly onto surface of curd. Chill until cold, about 2 hours (may be made up to two days ahead – keep refrigerated).

Sprinkle gelatin over 2 tablespoons of water in a small bowl – let stand until gelatin is soft, about 10 minutes. Using an electric mixer, beat cream until soft peaks form. Add gelatin mixture; continue beating cream until just before firm peaks form. Fold whipped cream into lime curd. Cover and chill till pie assembly.

Blackberry Compote
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
3 cups fresh blackberries plus 1 cup for decoration

Bring water, sugar and juice to a boil in a small saucepan over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil until reduced to about 1/4 cup.

Purée 1 cup blackberries with all of syrup in a blender. Force purée through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove seeds. Stir the remaining berries into sauce. Set aside or refrigerate until ready to use (this also can be made a day in advance).

Italian Meringue
120 grams/4.2 ounces caster (superfine) sugar
3 eggwhites
Pinch of cream of tartar

Combine sugar and 120 mls of water in a small pan and bring to the boil, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon until sugar dissolves.

Reduce heat to medium and brush down sides of pan with a clean, wet pastry brush to remove sugar crystals. Cook until syrup reaches 115C (soft ball stage) on a thermometer (10-15 minutes).

Start whisking eggwhites with cream of tartar in the clean, grease-free bowl of an electric mixer until soft peaks form.

Meanwhile, bring sugar syrup to 121C (hard ball stage). Increase speed to high and with motor running, gradually pour syrup into meringue. Beat at medium speed until cooled to room temperature and meringue is thick and glossy (15-20 minutes).

Assembly
Spoon blackberry compote across the base of the pie shell. Pour over the lime curd and even out with an off set spatula.

Spoon meringue over lime curd, leaving a 1″ plain border, and sculpt decoratively. Tuck 1 cup berries in and around meringue.

Bake pie until meringue is toasted in spots, 3-5 minutes (or use a kitchen torch to brown). Chill for 30 minutes before serving. Pie can be made 3 hours ahead. Keep chilled.

Source: Bon Appetit, August 2011

© 2011, Michelle. All rights reserved.