Lemon Meringue Pie

Roll the pasty out fairly thin, put over the rolling pin and lay over a 7 inch flan dish. Lightly press down with your fingers, slice off the excess around the rim and use a fork to prick the base. Cook in the oven at 400°F/200°C/Reg6 for twenty minutes. Take out and allow to cool.

Meanwhile mix the cornflour with four tablespoonfuls of water in a saucepan until quite smooth. Slowly pour on ½ pint of boiling water stirring as you do so. At this point the mixture looks like wallpaper paste but do not worry! Grate the two lemons in to the mixture, then cut the lemons in half and squeeze the lemon juice ito the mixture as well.

Separate the two eggs putting the yolks in one bowl and the whites into a deeper bowl. Beat the eggs for a few seconds with a fork. Put the saucepan with the flour mixture over a medium heat until just bubbling and then take off the heat. Stir in the egg yolks and 3 ozs of the castor sugar until thoroughly mixed, and then spoon into the pasry case.

Use a whisk (electric or manual) to beat up the egg whites until the peaks are stiff which takes a good three or four minutes by hand. Then carefully and lightly fold in the remaining 2 ozs of castor sugar to the egg whites and spread over the top of the lemon mixture in the pastry case.

Put back in the oven at 350°F/180°C/Reg4 and cook for around 15 minutes until it is a nice golden brown colour. Allow to coll for five minutes and serve or leave until cold and serve.