I re-discovered my jar of Sherbert Lemons this week. I bought them from the Warner Bros Studio Tour in May(!) and they have been sat in the spare room, forgotten and abandoned. Thankfully, the poor weather means they didn’t get too sticky, and so I have now almost finished them off! But they got me thinking of classic sweets, like Chocolate Limes. So then I thought…….

Chocolate and Lime Meringue Pie Recipe – adapted from The Great British Book of Baking by Linda Collister (GBBO book one)

Ingredients:

Pastry:

125g plain flour

50g cocoa powder

a good pinch of salt

1 tbsp caster sugar

115g unsalted butter

1 medium free range egg yolk, mixed with 2 tbsp cold water

Lime filling:

6 medium unwaxed limes

40g cornflour

300ml hot water

3 medium free range egg yolks

85g caster sugar

50g unsalted butter

Meringue topping:

4 medium free range egg whites

200g caster sugar

Method:

In a food processor, add the flour, salt and sugar and pulse to combine. then add the butter and process to fine crumbs. Then with the machine running, add the egg yolk and water mixture and process until the dough comes together. Wrap in cling film and chill for 20 minutes.

Roll out nice and thin, and use to line a loose-based tart tin:

Prick the bases with a fork and chill for 15 minutes, preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F/ gas mark 4, then line with greaseproof paper and baking beans and blind bake for 15 minutes, removing the paper and beans and further baking for 5 minutes.

Leave the oven on, and leave the cases to cool while the filling is made.

Grate the zest from the limes into a heatproof bowl, then add the juice and cornflour and stir to make a smooth paste. Add the hot water and mix to combine, then empty into a pan and cook, stirring constantly until it boils and thickens, then simmer for a minute, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat and add the yolks, then stirring in the butter and sugar.

Then pour this into the pastry case:

Whisk the egg whites until forming soft peaks, then add the sugar and whisk until it forms a glossy smooth meringue. Spoon this on top of the filling, enclosing all of the filling in meringue.

Then bake this in the oven for 20 minutes until the meringue is a golden brown.

Unfurl from the tin and serve.

….yeah, here is where I had a bit of a GBBO moment, and broke half the pastry case. Ooops. It’s ok, I ate the broken bit. I know. I took one for the team.

Get in my belly!

Also today, I had the most successful Sourdough loaf yet! But was this due to a) part use of different flour as I ran out of regular strong white and had to use some Doves Farm Heritage Wholegrain, b) managing to get it out of the basket without mutilating it, c) accidentally forgetting about it in the initial phase (post-feed) and the second phase (pre-shaping)….., or d) pure fluke. I suspect it may be the latter.

I was so excited by the success though, that I forgot to take a picture. You shall just have to take my word for it. It looked like a proper job, and tasted lush, great texture, nice crust…….. Victory!