The Healthy Vegan Kitchen

For the Double Daring Bakers Challenge this month I got to tackle a Lemon Meringue Pie!!!  It was actually, pretty easy!

Lemon Meringue Pie (from “Wanda’s Pie in the Sky” by Wanda Beaver)

Daring Bakers Challenge #15: January 2008 Host: Jen (Canadian Baker)

The pies had to be lemon, but other than that, we could play a bit. I made mine just like normal, except veganized it. I was really worried about how to make a vegan meringue, but I was able to find one online while looking for vegan marshmallow recipes. So, here is what I did:

Lemon Meringue Pie

Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie

For the Crust: I made an Oat Pie Crust

2 TBSP warm water

1 tsp ground flax seeds

½ cup old fashioned oats, ground

3 TBSP rice milk

½ tsp vanilla extract

2/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour

¼ cup sugar

1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

For the Filling:

I used Colleen Patrick - Goudreau’s lemon filling recipe for Lemon Bars on page 126 of The Joy of Vegan Baking

For the Meringue: I used the Vegan Meringue recipe from Dave Soleil

To Make the Crust:

Whisk together the warm water & flax seeds, set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 9” tart pan with a removable bottom with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, combine the rice milk & vanilla. In a large bowl, whisk the ground oats, flour, sugar, lemon zest, baking powder & salt. Drizzle the flax mixture onto the dry ingredients & stir with a fork until crumbly. With the fork, stir in the milk mixture, one tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface & knead 7 to 8 times. Wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Roll the dough out to an 11” circle, dusting with flour if necessary. Transfer to prepared pan, pressing to fit. Trim edges.

Line the tart shell with a piece of parchment paper & fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until set. Remove weights & parchment paper & bake for 8 to 12 minutes more, or until lightly browned. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. (The shell will keep, loosely covered with foil, for up to one day.)

To Make the Filling: See page 26 of The Joy of Vegan Baking

Before the Meringue:

To Make the Meringue: Check out his recipe

For the Crust:

Let’s see, I didn’t get to make this while alone in the kitchen, so my many mistakes are

1. Forgot the pie weights & parchment paper during the blind baking.

2. Baked it for 20 minutes before remembering it.

3. Didn’t refrigerate the pie crust before rolling out (hence, how think it was).

For the Filling:

Since I messed up on my crust baking times, I had to adjust my cooking method for the filling. So, I cooked it on the stove top while my crust was cooling. I cooked it for about 10 to 12 minutes, stirring constantly until it set. Oh, I also added 2/3 cup lemon juice instead of 1/3.

After Baking the Meringue:

Okay, so my oven cooks hotter in the back then the front:

Sliced:

Verdict: YUM! Everything came out great, well, except for the crust being too thick. I will definitely be making this again.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 7:55 am and is filed under Dessert, Daring Bakers, tofu, fruit, Challenges, Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.