Lately I've been addicted to the USA TV show Mad Men, for those of you who don't know it's set in the Advertising world in the early 1960s, it's filled with all 2012 politically and socially inappropriate things. They start drinking at 9am, sexism is rife as are affairs, smoking is a necessity, at work, at dinner, in trains, planes, hospitals, while your pregnant, the works. Of course the majority of married women are house wifes and there is the gossip and bitchiness that goes with that. My lovely friend L has leant me the seasons and I'm currently on the last disc of the 3rd seasons, I don't know what I'll do when it's finished!
Why you may be thinking am I sharing my TV viewing with you, well a recipe I found in my mothers old handwritten cookbook that is older then me (I'm 30!), that was a recipe handed down from my grandma. In a time when people drank and smoke and where all women were housewives and baked and looked pretty! Quite ironic considering the TV series I have become slightly addicted too, I had visions of my grandma quickly whipping this dish up for an unexpected dinner party. The delightful recipe I found was an almost too good to be true Lemon Meringue Pie.
Why you ask? There was no arduous stirring to make up the lemon curd, there wasn't even any requirement to use a saucepan! I was liking this recipe even more, not even for the base! Lemon isn't my favourite dessert and I wanted to wanted to add a little twist apart from it being GF, so I added a passionfruit. It was the best decision that I have ever made! The taste was nothing but divine!
The base called for 180g of plain biscuits crushed (now in the 60s, it would have been in a bag run over with a wooden spoon, sweat dripping from your forehead until the job was done). Thankfully now we have inventions like mix masters, and the gf biscuits I brought came in 2 sealed bags, I placed both bags into the mixer and mixed on medium until the were in fine pieces. I then added the additional bag. Not I used Freelicious GF biscuits which taste great but you will have to buy 2 packets as there size is 125g. The original recipe also calls for 90g of melted butter, but the base crumbled in my pie so I am going to recommend using 100g just to make sure it binds together. You then press the mixture into a pie dish and place in the fridge.
Without further ado here is the recipe:
GF Lemon and Passionfruit Meringue Pie
Ingredients:
180g plain biscuits
100g melted butter
400g can condensed milk
4 lemons
Rind 1 lemon
3 slightly beaten egg yolks
1 large or 2 small passionfruits
4 egg whites
1/2 cup sugar (just under)
Method:Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Break biscuits and place in a mix master, mix into a fine pieces. Melt 100g melted butter, add to biscuits, mix together. In a pie dish using a wooden spoon push out the biscuits mixture to all edges so it is equal and there are no bumps. When completed place in the fridge to cool. Combine the condensed milk, juice of 4 lemons, the lemon rind, passionfruit and egg yolks. Place this mixture into the biscuit mixture in the pie dish. Using a hand held or free standing mixer, mix beat egg whites until stiff peaks form, add the sugar slowly (don't use the whole 1/2 cup just under is plenty). Once beaten you can pipe, but I simply used the spoon and went around the edge of the pie first with heaped tablespoons of meringue and then added to the centre of the pie.
Enjoy
xx
If you make this dish I would love to hear how what you think of it or do you have a recipe handed down from your grandma in a handwritten cookbook, theres something so precious about it. If you would like to chat to me on Twitter my name is @MMOAGFL, I'd love to hear from you.
