Libby Klein I got this pie from a list of Food and Wine Magazine's 40 Best Recipes Ever and made it gluten free. It's very zingy - which I like. In fact, you may have noticed that I have a thing for lemony desserts. This was a keeper and I'll be making it again, but next time I'll double the meringue.
I use a blowtorch from the hardware store to toast the meringue. It's also good for melting the sugar for Crème Brûlée and scaring people who didn't know you had a full sized blowtorch in the cabinet.
You can find another - non orangey - version of this gluten-free pie crust in my recipe for petit fruit pies from last summer. Those were really good too.
Flaky Gluten-Free Citrus Pie Crust
Ingredients:
3 cups one-to-one Gluten-Free blend (or all-purpose flour)
1 tsp salt
1 and 1/2 cups good butter, cold
1 egg
1 TBSP neutral vinegar
1 Tbsp orange zest
1/3 cup orange juice
Directions:
Blitz your flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor. Add your butter in cubes and blitz until the mixture is crumbly. Beat your egg and vinegar together. Blitz into the crumbly dough. Add your orange zest and cold orange juice in small amounts with the food processor on and watch the dough come together. Only add enough water to make a cohesive pastry dough. You don't want it too dry, but you should be able to pat it into a ball and flatten it to a disc pretty easily. Flatten dough into a disk; wrap in plastic wrap, and chill 1 hour or up to 2 days.
Preheat oven to 350°F. Unwrap dough, and roll into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured surface. Without stretching dough, fit dough circle into a 9-inch pie plate. Fold edge of dough under, and crimp edges or press with the tines of a fork. Using a fork, prick bottom of dough all over. Freeze 15 minutes. Line pastry with parchment paper; fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in preheated oven until golden brown around the edges, about 20 minutes. Remove weights and parchment; bake until lightly browned, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack, and cool pastry shell completely before filling, about 30 minutes.
Citrus Meringue Filling
Filling
1/2 cup cornstarch
2 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest plus 6 tablespoons lemon
juice (from 3 lemons), divided
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (from 2 limes)
1 2/3 cups water
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
Meringue
4 large eggs, separated
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
Prepare the filling
Preheat oven to 350°F. Stir together cornstarch, lemon
juice, and lime juice in a medium nonreactive saucepan until cornstarch
dissolves. Stir in 1 1/2 cups water, 1 1/2 cups sugar, butter, 1/8 teaspoon
salt, and lemon zest. Bring to a boil over medium-low, stirring constantly with
a wooden spoon until thickened, about 15 minutes. (Mixture will thicken as it
cooks.) Remove from heat.
Whisk egg yolks in a large bowl. Gradually whisk in hot
lemon-lime mixture. Pour mixture into pastry shell. Press a piece of plastic
wrap directly onto surface, and let cool 30 minutes.
Combine egg whites and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt in bowl
of a heavy-duty stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat on medium
speed until frothy, about 1 minute. Gradually add cream of tartar and remaining
1/2 cup sugar, beating on medium speed until mixture forms stiff, glossy peaks,
about 4 minutes.
Gently dollop the meringue over warm lemon-lime filling.
Using the back of a spoon, spread meringue to edges. Swirl decoratively with
spoon. Hit it with a blowtorch until the meringue is golden brown, about 1 to 2
minutes. If you don’t have a blowtorch, you can put it under the broiler for a
couple of minutes but really keep an eye on it.
Transfer to a wire rack, and let cool to room temperature,
about 1 hour. Transfer to the refrigerator until well chilled, about 3 hours.
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