WHAT? A Vegan Lemon Meringue Pie with Meringue that DOESN’T DEFLATE!!! :0

WHAT? A Lemon Meringue Pie with Meringue that DOESN’T DEFLATE!!! :0

Yes- You heard me!

This meringue is like the real deal!
Just look at the cell structure!
It can stay in the fridge for DAYS without the meringue topping melting! 🙂
Unless you eat it, which ofcourse, you will, as it’s so jolly good!
It’s just like the real thing, so no more sloppy foam inside that doesn’t set!
Just look at that!

The pastry is to die for!
It’s well worth taking the time to make it yourself, as it’s so much nicer than using a shop bought, ready made pastry case.
It’s flaky and just perfect and wafer thin!

The Lemon Curd sets nicely, is nice and lemony and a great contrast to the sweet,light and airy mounds of billowy Meringue.
This is diet disaster territory!
Seriously, if you’re trying to be good, I apologise, because I am leading you astray, but it is well worth falling off the bandwagon for!

I have come a long way from the first vegan Lemon meringue Pie I ever made!
The first one was whipped up in the dark of night, a year ago, after hearing about Aqua faba on the internet!
I didn’t believe it could possibly be true, so I just had to try it!
Since then, as you can see by the food I have produced, i have made many different things with it from mousses of all kinds, through to Rocky Road, Pies and Cheese Cakes!
But it still irked me that the meringue in the Lemon Meringue Pies made with Aqua Faba just still were not quite the same as ones made with Egg, which set, rather than stay foamy inside, and one of the Plantified Members asked me if I could make her a recipe that was like the ones she used to enjoy, so I got out my chefs hat and whipped one up, and Voila- here it is!

I hope you really enjoy it!
Please share with your friends and if you do make one with the Plantified recipe, please post it on Facebook with #Plantified so we can all see your creation!
Pile that meringue high, and never fear, you CAN  make it IN ADVANCE as that meringue is not going anywhere- but in your mouth! 🙂

Please also come and join our new FACEBOOK GROUP https://www.facebook.com/groups/Plantified/

My Plantified Mousses Recipe book is on it’s way to being finished, and you will receive an email letting you know when your FREE copy of the E-book is ready to download!
If you would like a FREE COPY OF THE RECIPE E-BOOK, and haven’t yet signed up to Plantified, please sign up here: http://plantified.com/register/ and you will receive your FREE recipe book once it is released.
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Mango and Passionfruit Mousse Joconde Entremet, as seen in the Free Mousse E-book for members of Plantified.

Enjoy
x
Katrina

* I used a 10inch / 25cm Diametre Flan tin
This recipe will make enough to make one large 10 inch pie, plus 3 smaller individual serve pies, OR a 6 inch pie also, because you don’t want to be left pining for more the next day when the big ones all gone! 🙂

*** Like everything , accuracy in measuring and weighing yields the best results.
The sugar syrup requires a candy thermometre to check the temp.
If you don’t have one, use the Ice cold water trick, and drop some syrup into the cold water.
The syrup should form a firm, stable ball that loses its shape once pressed.

Ingredients:

Shortcrust Flaky Pastry pie crust

150g self raising flour
30g castor sugar
2 Pinches of salt
50g hard white margarine (I use Crisp and dry – it’s basically a veg-based lard alternative)
50g yellow baking margarine (butter substitute)
70ml soya milk
1/2 tsp vinegar

Lemon curd:

1 1/2 cups Lemon Juice
3 tbsp Lemon Rind
1000 ml coconut cream (the whole of the can, solids and liquids is fine!)
280 grams sugar
100 grams Corn starch.(Corn flour)
A few drops of Natural yellow colouring

Meringue:

1 1/2 cups Aqua faba (I use butter bean)
1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Sugar syrup:

600 grams caster sugar
10 grams Agar powder (approx 3 tsp,but weight is better)
1 cup water
1 tbsp glucose syrup (you can leave this out but it stops any crystalisation!)

***Don’t know where to buy Agar Agar powder cheaply?
This is the one I use in everything I make, (they ship for free to many places):
(USA FREE DELIVERY $8 / 100 g) Crazee Deal Agar Powder / Faluda / Falooda / China Grass (Vegan Gelatine) Premium High Quality 100G
(USA FREE DELIVERY $15 / 300 g) Crazee Deal Agar Powder / Faluda / Falooda / China Grass (Vegan Gelatine) Premium High Quality 300G

(UK FREE DELIVERY £3.80 / 100g ) Agar Agar Powder (Vegan Gelatine) – 100g (Falooda/Faluda/Ceylon Moss China Grass) DSc

( UK FREE DELIVERY 300g / £6.25) Agar Agar Powder / Faluda / Falooda / China Grass (Vegan Gelatine) Premium High Quality – 300g

Glucose Syrup (USA $7.93 for 8oz) Wilton Glucose to Create Smooth Elastic Gum Paste, 8.5-Ounce

METHOD:

Shortcrust Flaky Pastry pie crust

150g self raising flour
30g castor sugar
2 Pinches of salt
50g hard white margarine (I use Crisp and dry – it’s basically a veg-based lard alternative)
50g yellow baking margarine (butter substitute)
70ml soya milk
1/2 tsp vinegar

• Put the self raising flour in a mixing bowl. If you don’t have self raising flour, just add 1.5 tsp (8g) to 150g of plain flour of baking powder. Mix it into the other dry ingredients and add the margarines.
  With a knife (or I use a pastry blender as it’s much quicker) cut the margarines into the flour mix. Don’t cut the margarine too much (ie. don’t bread-crumb it). It needs to be rough and reasonably chunky.
• Mix the vinegar and soya milk until it splits (this only takes a few seconds). Slowly add the curdled soya milk into the pastry and cut it in with a knife. It’s very important not to overwork the mix as you don’t want to develop the gluten bonds. ******You may not need all the milk so as soon as you can bring the mix together you don’t need to add any more. Place it in the fridge for half an hour or so if your margarine has lost some of it’s firmness.
• It’s important while you’re working with the pastry dough to keep it dusted with flour so it doesn’t stick. It’s a delicate pastry and will rip if it sticks and you don’t want that.
  -Place the dough onto a floured surface and form it roughly into a rectangle. Dust the top with a little flour and begin to roll it out with your rolling pin. It’s much better to roll it out bit by bit and not try to get it too thin in one go. You’re aiming for a lovely uniform piece of dough every time. Roll it away from yourself to a thickness of about 1 cm. It should be a long rectangle (about three times longer than it is wide).
• Now fold the third that’s closer to you over into the middle. Fold the third that’s furthest away from you over that. Now it should be roughly square and three layers thick.
  Turn it 90°, and roll it out again. Once you have the long rectangle again, fold the bottom and top thirds into the middle as before. Try to be really pedantic about getting this right. Keep it uniform in thickness and shape as much as possible.
• Repeat this roll and fold process four times in total. What this does is sandwiches the rough chunks of fat in between 12 layers of pastry. This is where it gets it’s lovely, flaky, layered texture. This is where all the magic is!
  -Once you’ve done your final fold, roll the dough out to a length of about 35-40cm. Then roll it width-ways until it’s about 3mm thick.
• Make sure it is the right size to fit your pie tin.
  I used a flan tin, so it was a decent size, and i had enough pastry left over to do 3 little individual pies.
• Take your rolling pin and use it to roll the pastry onto, for an easy transfer to the pie tin without stretching or breaking it.
• Sit the rolling pin over you pie tin and unroll the pastry without stretching it.
  it is better to get in in kind of gathered and straighten it out once its in.
• Shape the pastry to the tin and cut off the excess taking care to remember it will shrink slightly so don’t cut it too close.
• Place parchment paper inside the pie crust and fill with baking beads, making sure they go right to the edge as you want it all to stay flattened without rising.
• Bake at approx 180c, depending on your oven, and keep an eye to make sure your edges don’t over brown, taking care to cover the edges with foil if needs be.
  -When baked, remove to cool.

Lemon curd:

1 1/2 cups Lemon Juice
3 tbsp Lemon Rind
1000 ml coconut cream (the whole of the can, solids and liquids is fine!)
280 grams sugar
100 grams Corn starch.(Cornflour)
A few drops of Natural yellow colouring

• Combine all the ingredients and whisk together in a saucepan and bring it up to heat.
  Cook down, allowing time for the corn starch to thicken, taking care not to burn the bottom.
  This took at least 15 mins for me.Once done, pour into pie shell and refridgerate to set.
  It is still somewhat liquidy when you pour it in.
  It needs to set OVERNIGHT, or it will not be firm!

Meringue:

1 1/2 cups Aqua faba (I use butter bean)
1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

• Put both ingredients into the mixer and start beating.
  I do this before I do the sugar syrup and leave it running the whole time.
  Yes, I hear you, 1.5 cups IS ALOT of Aqua Faba, but the whole point of a dessert is indulgence, not stingyness, so we want a nice big pile of Meringue!
• Add 2 tsp vanilla extract once it has whipped to stiff peaks.

Sugar syrup:

600 grams caster sugar
10 grams Agar powder (approx 3 tsp,but weight is better)
1 cup water
1 tbsp glucose syrup (you can leave this out but it stops any crystalisation!)

• Place sugar syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
  You may find a candy thermometre useful to make this (and alot of other recipes I have ) , otherwise use the cold water test described in the instructions above.
  You can get a cheap candy thermometer here in the UK/ Europe: Kitchen Craft Cooking Thermometer(£2.20) and here in the USA ($5.99) : Farberware Protek Candy and Deep Fry Glass Thermometer, ClearBoil until it reaches 250f!
  This can take some time.
• Give it a stir once in a while so you don’t burn it.
• When it reaches 250f, take it off the heat and slowly add it to the running mixer.
  I used my splash guard on the mixer as it was at totally full capacity with that amount of AF foam!
• Gradually pour all the sugar syrup in and continue to beat.
  You will get steam coming off it as it is still hot so leave it running and it cools down somewhat.
• Once it is thick and glossy and not piping hot you can add it to the pie.
• Get a 50cm piping bag and tip ready.
• I added most of the meringue in a pile on the pie, and THEN piped a top layer on top and used the tip to make peaks.
• Leave it to cool for a while and the top will set.
  Then you can either torch the top, or put it under the broiler.

Chill- then serve.

Picture Version Method Below:

Shortcrust Flaky Pastry pie crust

150g self raising flour
30g castor sugar
2 Pinches of salt
50g hard white margarine (I use Crisp and dry – it’s basically a veg-based lard alternative)
50g yellow baking margarine (butter substitute)
70ml soya milk
1/2 tsp vinegar

-Put the self raising flour in a mixing bowl. If you don’t have self raising flour, just add 1.5 tsp (8g) to 150g of plain flour of baking powder. Mix it into the other dry ingredients and add the margarines.
With a knife (or I use a pastry blender as it’s much quicker) cut the margarines into the flour mix. Don’t cut the margarine too much (ie. don’t bread-crumb it). It needs to be rough and reasonably chunky.

Mix the vinegar and soya milk until it splits (this only takes a few seconds). Slowly add the curdled soya milk into the pastry and cut it in with a knife. It’s very important not to overwork the mix as you don’t want to develop the gluten bonds. ******You may not need all the milk so as soon as you can bring the mix together you don’t need to add any more. Place it in the fridge for half an hour or so if your margarine has lost some of it’s firmness.

It’s important while you’re working with the pastry dough to keep it dusted with flour so it doesn’t stick. It’s a delicate pastry and will rip if it sticks and you don’t want that.
Place the dough onto a floured surface and form it roughly into a rectangle. Dust the top with a little flour and begin to roll it out with your rolling pin. It’s much better to roll it out bit by bit and not try to get it too thin in one go. You’re aiming for a lovely uniform piece of dough every time. Roll it away from yourself to a thickness of about 1 cm. It should be a long rectangle (about three times longer than it is wide).

Now fold the third that’s closer to you over into the middle. Fold the third that’s furthest away from you over that. Now it should be roughly square and three layers thick.
Turn it 90°, and roll it out again. Once you have the long rectangle again, fold the bottom and top thirds into the middle as before. Try to be really pedantic about getting this right. Keep it uniform in thickness and shape as much as possible.
Repeat this roll and fold process four times in total. What this does is sandwiches the rough chunks of fat in between 12 layers of pastry. This is where it gets it’s lovely, flaky, layered texture. This is where all the magic is!
Once you’ve done your final fold, roll the dough out to a length of about 35-40cm. Then roll it width-ways until it’s about 3mm thick.

Make sure it is the right size to fit your pie tin.
I used a flan tin, so it was a decent size, and i had enough pastry left over to do 3 little individual pies.

Take your rolling pin and use it to roll the pastry onto, for an easy transfer to the pie tin without stretching or breaking it.

Sit the rolling pin over you pie tin and unroll the pastry without stretching it.
it is better to get in in kind of gathered and straighten it out once its in.

Shape the pastry to the tin and cut off the excess taking care to remember it will shrink slightly so don’t cut it too close.

Place parchment paper inside the pie crust and fill with baking beads, making sure they go right to the edge as you want it all to stay flattened without rising.

Bake at approx 180c, depending on your oven, and keep an eye to make sure your edges don’t over brown, taking care to cover the edges with foil if needs be.
When baked, remove to cool.

Lemon curd:

1 1/2 cups Lemon Juice
3 tbsp Lemon Rind
1000 ml coconut cream (the whole of the can, solids and liquids is fine!)
280 grams sugar
100 grams maize starch.

Combine all the ingredients and whisk together in a saucepan and bring it up to heat.
Cook down, allowing time for the maize starch to thicken, taking care not to burn the bottom.
This took at least 15 mins for me.

Once done, pour into pie shell and refrigerate to set.
It needs to set OVERNIGHT, or it will not be firm!
It is still liquidy when you pour it in like this:

Meringue:

1 1/2 cups Aqua faba (I use butter bean)
1/2 tsp Xanthum Gum
2 tsp Vanilla Extract

-Put both ingredients into the mixer and start beating.
I do this before I do the sugar syrup and leave it running the whole time.
Yes, I hear you, 1.5 cups IS ALOT of Aqua Faba, but the whole point of a dessert is indulgence, not stingyness, so we want a nice big pile of Meringue!

– Add 2 tsp vanilla extract once it has whipped to stiff peaks.

Sugar syrup:

600 grams caster sugar
10 grams Agar powder (approx 3 tsp,but weight is better)
1 cup water
1 tbsp glucose syrup (you can leave this out but it stops any crystalisation!)

-Place sugar syrup ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
You may find a candy thermometre useful to make this (and alot of other recipes I have ) , otherwise use the cold water test described in the instructions above.
You can get a cheap candy thermometer here in the UK/ Europe: Kitchen Craft Cooking Thermometer(£2.20) and here in the USA ($5.99) : Farberware Protek Candy and Deep Fry Glass Thermometer, ClearBoil until it reaches 250f!
This can take some time.

-Give it a stir once in a while so you don’t burn it.

-When it reaches 250f, take it off the heat and slowly add it to the running mixer.
I used my splash guard on the mixer as it was at totally full capacity with that amount of AF foam!

-Gradually pour all the sugar syrup in and continue to beat.
You will get steam coming off it as it is still hot so leave it running and it cools down somewhat.

-Once it is thick and glossy and not piping hot you can add it to the pie.

-Get a 50cm piping bag and tip ready.

-I added most of the meringue in a pile on the pie, and THEN piped a top layer on top and used the tip to make peaks.

Leave it to cool for a while and the top will set.
Then you can either torch the top, or put it under the broiler.

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