LEMON MERINGUE PIE PAVLOVAS

Makes 6

For the meringues

4 egg whites
200g caster sugar (or double the weight of the egg whites)

For the lemon curd

4 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
100g butter
2 lemons

Extras

300ml double cream shortbread shortie biscuits

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 120C/100fan/gas mark1/2.

Begin by making the meringues. Separate your egg whites from egg yolks. Placing the whites in the bowl of a stand mixer and yolks into a large, heatproof glass bowl to create your lemon curd with later. Whisk the egg whites in the stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or alternatively using an electric hand whisk) on a slow to medium speed initially for roughly 20 seconds to break them up. Increase the speed to medium until stiff white peaks are formed and the bowl can be turned upside freely. Now increase the speed and start to add the sugar slowly a teaspoon at a time, whisking continuously until the meringue is thick and shiny.

Take a sheet of non stick parchment and draw around the lid of a jam jar 6 times. Turn the paper over and dab some of of your meringue on to the corners of the paper and stick down on to your baking tray/s. Line another tray in the same way for piping the merging kisses on to.

Fill a piping nozzle fitted with a large star nozzle and pipe a dab on to the base of 6 of the biscuits and place within the 6 drawn out circles. Next pipe meringue nests within the outlined circles, covering the biscuits fully.

Pipe your meringue kisses on to the other lined tray to decorate each pavlova with and create individual lemon meringue iced! Bake the meringue nests for approx 1.5- 2 hours and the meringue kisses for 1 hour or until the meringues have a crisp outer shell and you are
able to peel them off the parchment without them sticking.

While the meringues are baking you can make the lemon curd. Place the sugar and butter into your large, heatproof glass bowl with egg yolks in. Grate the zest from the lemons into the bowl, then place a sieve over it, to catch any pips, and squeeze in the juice of both lemons. Set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Using a balloon whisk, whisk the mixture for a few minutes until the butter has melted, then continue whisking for 5–7 minutes or until the curd has thickened slightly and looks like a thin custard – it will continue to thicken as it cools. Remove the bowl from the pan and transfer into an empty jar and leave to cool.

When you are ready to assemble the pavlovas, whip the double cream to medium peaks and spoon and fill the hollow of each meringue nest with the cream, followed by some of the lemon curd-either spooned or piped. Place a biscuit into the filling and the piped meringue kisses around it, together with some crumbled up meringue and biscuits. To create your lemon meringue iced gems, take one of the biscuits and cover the centre with lemon curd, before topping with a meringue kiss with some cream on its base.