Ryan's Key Lime Pie

By stancec44

When something is described as being one of the best things that the judges have tasted in three series of the Bake Off, how do you resist attempting to make it? Also, can chill overnight before doing the meringue, if it is too much to do all at once.

The answer to that of course is that you don’t.

Ingredients

• Sweet Pastry
• 300g plain flour
• 60g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• pinch of salt
• 180g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
• 3 large free range egg yolks
• About 2tbsp icy water
• Filling
• 4 pieces stem ginger in syrup, drained and finely chopped
• finely grated zest and juice of 6 limes
• 397g tin of condensed milk
• 4 large free range egg yolks
• 300mL double cream, well chilled
• Italian meringue
• 250g granulated sugar
• 5 tbsp water
• 4 large free range egg whites, at room temperature
• Decoration
• 2 limes, finely sliced
• few small sprigs mint

Details

Adapted from bakingmakingandcrafting.com

Preparation

Step 1

To make the pastry, sift the flour, icing sugar, ginger and salt into a mixing bowl. Add the diced butter and rub in until the mixture looks like fine crumbs. Mix the yolks with the icy water and stir in with a round-bladed knife to make a soft but not sticky dough: add more water if necessary. (NB. I made the pastry using my food processor, because I am lazy: just add all the dry ingredients – pulse, then add the butter and process until it gets to the fine crumb stage, then add the egg mixture until the dough just comes together) Wrap the dough in cling film and chill for about 20 minutes until firm.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to a circle about 37cm across, and the thickness of a pound coin. Use to line the flan tin, then prick the base of the pastry case with a fork and chill for about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 200C/400F/gas 6.

Bake the pastry case ‘blind’ for 12-15 minutes; after removing the paper and beans, reduce the oven temperature to 180C/350F/gas 4 before baking for a further 8-10 minutes until the pastry is a light golden brown. Leave to cool, but do not unmould.

For the filling, scatter the chopped ginger overt he base of the pastry case. Set aside half of the lime zest for the decoration and put the rest into a mixing bowl with the juice, condensed milk and yolks. Whisk for a couple of minutes until the mixture thickens slightly. Whip the cream until it falls in a thick, ribbon-like trail from the whisk (the stage before soft peak), then fold into the lime mixture using a large metal spoon – the mixture will thicken considerably. Pour into the pastry case and chill for about 1 hour until firm.

Next, make the Italian meringue. Put the sugar and water into a medium pan and heat gently, stirring frequently, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Turn up the heat and boil steadily, without stirring, until the syrup reaches 120C/248F on a sugar thermometer. While the syrup is cooking, put the egg whites into a bowl and beat with an electric mixer until stiff peaks form when the beaters and lifted. As soon as the syrup reaches the correct temperature, pour in a steady stream onto the egg whites, beating at the highest possible speed, keep whisking until the mixture has cooled to room temperature (5-7 minutes).

Unmould the pie and set it on a serving platter. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag. Pipe the meringue in a thick rope of continuous loops around the edge of the pie, then use a kitchen blowtorch to lightly brown and highlight the meringue curves. Decorate with lime slices, the remaining lime zest, and sprigs of mint.