My favourite pie – Vegan Lemon Meringue. A wonderful mix of tangy and sweet. Vegan Meringues are now pretty good, so pies like this can be part of any dairy and egg free cooks repertoire. The main issue is the type of meringue to make.
Aquafaba meringue is all the rage and absolutely makes a nice meringue and is easy to do. It looks the part for sure – fluffy and white. However, ahem, I think it makes a meringue that’s too foamy for my taste. I prefer the result I get from using Orgran Egg Replacer. It’s a firmer meringue, crisper on the outside, with a little bit of the chewiness you get with egg meringue. I’ve included recipes for both so you can choose.
I’ve also seen that a lot of Vegan Lemon Meringue recipes call for using a blowtorch to get that nice brown look on the top of a meringue. Truth be told I’m too accident prone to want to arm myself with a blow torch, so I just finish the pie under the grill for a few minutes. Watch it like a hawk so it doesn’t burn.
This isn’t a quick pie to make, it’s easy, but you do need to let the lemon curd cool in the fridge in the pie crust before topping with the vegan meringue. I love lemon zest, so this recipe has quite a bit which you can cut down if you wish.
Vegan Lemon Meringue Pie
- September 25, 2020
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Ingredients
- First step is to make the vegan pastry
- 2 2/3 cups plain flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp caster sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons vegetable fat - Trex is good
- 7-8 tablespoons cold non-dairy milk like Koko
- 1 tsp baking powder
- For the curd:
- 2 cups fresh lemon juice (about 10 lemons)
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
- 2/3 cup corn flour
- Zest of 6 lemons (less if you're not a fan of zest)
- 1/2 cup non dairy milk
- 3 tablespoons non dairy margarine
- For the Meringue
- 1/2 cup Aquafaba
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
- Or Orgran Egg Replacer
- 90g Orgran Egg Replacer
- 1 cup cold water
- 1/2 tsp Pectin
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- 125gr sifted icing sugar
- 1 tbsp soft brown sugar
Directions
- Step 1
- Make the pastry
- Step 2
- I find this pastry is best made in a food processor but you can do by hand if you wish. Make sure the non-dairy milk is chilled and do build in enough time to chill the pastry for 30 minutes after you finish making it
- Step 3
- Mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder together
- Step 4
- Measure the fat and then add into the flour in ‘chunks’ or tablespoons. Next using the pulse on the food processor quickly mix until the flour and fat looks like breadcrumbs. If doing by hand use a pastry cutter or two knives and work as quickly as you can. Don’t over mix. Now mix in the milk, one tablespoon at a time until you have a pliable pastry and chill for thirty minutes
- Step 5
- Bake blind in a hot oven (425°F 215°C). Roll out your pastry so its larger than your pie dish. You’ll have some left over from this recipe as I like to have a lot to work with. Line the pie dish with the pastry, and cover with baking parchment. Add in baking beans evenly across the base to weigh the parchment down. I make the parchment big enough to bend over the edges of the pastry but you can use tin foil to protect the edges if you prefer. The tin foil needs to be remove for the last 10 minutes of baking to get the edges brown. Bake for 25 minutes in the hot oven until brown. Put to one side to cool, and remove the baking beans and parchment. The pastry needs to be cold before putting in the curd
- Step 6
- Make the curd
- Step 7
- Squeezing the lemons does take time, as does the zesting. Zest them first as you really can’t get enough grip if you zest after they are squeezed
- Step 8
- Take the lemon juice, sugar and water and whizz in a food processor to combine. Pop the mixture in a pot on a low heat
- Step 9
- Put the cornflour in a large bowl and slowly add in some of the warm liquid whisking all the time – a go a tablespoon at a time. Continue to do this until you’ve half the lemon juice mixture combined with the corn flour. Now pour the cornflour mixture into the pot and whisk til there are no lumps. Heat the mixture, whisking all the time for about 5 minutes or until it start to thicken and go a darker colour. A low simmer is what you’re after.
- Step 10
- Whisk in the dairy free margarine, lemon zest and dairy free milk and bring back to a low simmer for about 2 minutes. The mixture should have thickened up, and cover the back of a spoon.
- Step 11
- Take off the heat and cool – it will get thicker as it cools
- Step 12
- Add the curd to the cool pie crust and refrigerate for a couple of hours.
- Step 13
- Make the meringues next. I prefer Orgran as I think it’s closer to proper meringue. Sift the Orgran into a mixing bowl and add the pectin and mix
- Step 14
- Put on high and mix while slowly adding the water – mix for 5 minutes then continue to mix on high for another five minutes as you add the sugars a tablespoon at a time. You should end up with a lovely meringue.
- Step 15
- If you are using Aquafaba then add the liquid to a mixing bowl and mix on high
- Step 16
- Slowly add the sugar and vanilla. Mix for 10 minutes until you have a fluffy meringue
- Step 17
- Spoon the meringues onto the top of the cooled pie and make swirls so you get a nice pattern that browns easily
- Step 18
- Put in a low oven (140°F, 60°C) for 1 hour 30 minutes. That should dry out the meringue. Then put the grill on high and place the pie close to the grill for 3 or 4 minutes. Keep the door open, and sit in front of it watching the pie like a hawk. Keep checking, and rotating the pie to get a nice brown top.
