Lemon meringue pie is delicious but normally quite high in sugar. Anyone wanting a low-sugar version of a lemon meringue pie should take a look at this Slimming World recipe. It uses ready-made shortcrust pastry, so it isn’t entirely diet-friendly, but uses sweetener in place of sugar and doesn’t use any butter in the filling – it uses gelatine instead, which is much lower in calorie.
I already had some pastry in the freezer I needed to use up and my husband likes lemon meringue pie (he usually doesn’t like any of the desserts I want to make!) so when I came across this recipe in an old copy of Slimming World magazine it seemed like a great idea. Unfortunately I never get on with using my grill – it’s above eye-level and really hard to keep an eye on it – and I burned the top a bit!
Other than that it was fairly easy to make, especially if you are using ready-made pastry, though you do have to allow the filling to set overnight in the fridge. I couldn’t find my baking beans so the bottom did rise up a bit when I blind baked the pastry case but I didn’t mind.
To make the filling, you boil water with the sweetener until it turns syrupy, then remove from the heat and whisk in the lemon zest and juice and egg yolks. You then cook it in the microwave to set.
Stir in the gelatine, allow to dissolve and if you like you can sieve it to remove the zest though I left that in. Allow to cool and pour into the pastry case and leave in the fridge overnight to set.
To make the meringue topping, whisk egg whites and sweetener and spoon over the base. Place under a hot grill just for a minute or two until lightly browned on top – be careful not to burn it! I forgot to take any photos after I took it out of the tin, but wanted to share this recipe anyway - this tasted really good, not really any different to a full-sugar lemon meringue pie in my opinion.
