It’s only mid-February and where I come from this is still the middle of winter, but here, in Greece, the spring appears to have moved in! We took some time off work the other day as we woke up to a beautifully sunny (that’s actually not that rare here) and super warm 25ยฐ C (77ยฐ F) day and we felt like we’ve time travelled. Everything was in full bloom, our cat started chasing after bees and butterflies in our garden and it seemed like the storm and ferocious winds of just two days earlier were all a figment of our imagination.
We are cautious about celebrating spring’s arrival too soon as Greek islands tend to get a few summer days thrown in the middle of winter on a yearly basis (a weather phenomenon called Halycon Days) so the cold and storms may still return…but I’m hoping to fend it off for good with this spring-inspired dessert.
All this sunshine, butterflies and warm weather got me craving a spring-like dessert. Something light, fresh and big enough to satisfy my sweet tooth yet small enough to make my moment of weakness feel innocuous. After a few experiments, I decided on mini vegan lemon meringue pies.
The combination of sour lemon curd, sweet meringue and crumbly pastry is to die for. No wonder that this classic French combination has become such a hit all over the world. If, like me, you have a weakness for miniatures, you’ll love this dessert as it’s damn cute! It would also make a great addition to an afternoon tea party (although I’m in the espresso party camp myself ๐ ). Give it a go, if you can make a pie crust, you can make these pies with your eyes closed.
PASTRY CASES
- 180 g white all-purpose flour, sifted
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp icing sugar
- 60 ml / 4 tbsp olive oil
LEMON CURD
- 80 g / just over ยฝ cup cashews (soak in water overnight)
- 150 ml / ยฝ cup + 2 tbsp of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 5 tbsp / 75 ml maple syrup or sugar to taste
- 2 level tsp cornflour / cornstarch
- pinch of turmeric (for colour, optional)
MERINGUE
- ยฝ cup / 120 ml aquafaba / chickpea water*
- 125 g / ยฝ cup + 2 tbsp fine caster sugar
- ยฝ tsp white wine vinegar (optional)
PASTRY CASES
- Combine sifted flour and icing sugar in a large bowl. Add olive oil and rub it into the dry ingredients with your hands. Finally, add water – be careful, do it gradually – how much water you’ll need depends on how absorbent your flour is. Combine all the ingredients into a dough gently, but do not knead. Wrap it in a piece of cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 mins.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and divide into 10 portions. Roll each portion out between two sheets of baking paper until you get a rough circle, about 2 mm in thickness. Place the rolled-out dough over the ramekin and gently line the inside of the ramekin with it. Trim the excess pastry with a sharp knife. Pierce the bottom of the ramekin with a fork a few times and put the first ramekin into the fridge. Repeat with the remaining ramekins / moulds.
- Chill all the pastry-lined ramekins in the fridge for about 60 mins.
- 45 min into pastry chilling time, preheat the oven to 175ยฐ C / 350ยฐ F. Line the pastry cases with pieces of baking paper and fill with baking beads or rice.
- Blind bake the pastry for 20 mins, then remove the beads and bake for another 15 mins. Cool pastry cases down completely before filling them.
LEMON CURD
- Rinse soaked cashews and place them in a blender with 150 ml of lemon juice and maple syrup if using. Blitz several times until you get a completely smooth liquid.
- Pour cashew and lemon mixture into a small pot. Warm the mixture up gently stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. If using sugar instead of maple syrup, add about 4 tablespoons of sugar into the pot and allow it to melt in. Taste the mixture and add more sugar if necessary – remember that you’ll probably want your curd to retain some tang to contrast with the sweet meringue nicely.
- Mix 2 tsp of cornflour with 1 tbsp of water in a small bowl and add this mixture to the warm lemon curd mixture. Bring the mixture to the boil gently (stirring the whole time) and allow it to bubble for two minutes to let it thicken (the mixture will thicken further as it cools).
- Finally, add a pinch or two of turmeric to the warm mixture to give the curd a pale yellow colour. Be very careful as I found that even as little as ยผ tsp will overpower the mixture! You can also skip this step if don’t have turmeric or don’t like it.
MERINGUE (whip it just before you are ready to assemble the pies)
- In a large, clean bowl (make sure there is no greasy residue, it is best to use a glass bowl for this) beat chickpea water with an electric whisk or use a stand mixer until you get stiff peaks. You may want to add ยฝ tsp of vinegar to speed things up although I have been able to get stiff peaks without it too.
- To test if whipped chickpea waterย is ready, gently turn the bowl upside down. If the mixture does not start sliding down, you can start adding sugar. Otherwise, keep on whipping until the mixture stays in the bowl when inverted.
- Add sugar gradually, tablespoon by tablespoon, whipping well after each addition. By the time you’ve used up all your sugar the mixture should turn beautifully sticky and glossy – no different to an egg-based meringue, really.
ASSEMBLY
- Fill cool pastry cases with a generous amount of (cooled) lemon curd.
- Pipe meringue on top using a piping bag or a clean ziplock (again needs to be completely grease-free) bag with a cut-off corner.
- Toast the meringue under a hot oven grill. It will only take about 2 minutes but watch the pies like a hawk as they can go from light brown to burnt in seconds. They may also need rotating after a minute if your oven burns a bit hotter at the back, like mine does. Alternatively you can use a blow torch if you own one.
- Let meringue pies stand for at least an hour after toasting the meringue so that it stabilises. Consume on the day – I had some of mine the next day and they were still nice but definitely nicer on the day they were made.
I used mini ramekins of the following dimensions: diameter of 5.5 cm / 2 in and height 2.5 cm / 1 in.
My recipe for lemon curd has been adapted from this recipe.
Thank you so much for the tip! I will definitely have to try again using your other vegan meringue recipe :)
Also I forgot to mention that I also subbed in sunflower seeds for the cashew nuts as a nut free option and it worked great!
Thanks again, Chloe x
Unfortunately when it came to cutting the pie the meringue seemed to have reverted back to very liquidy foam :(((
I'm not sure why, as I whipped the aquafaba for a good 15 minutes and let the pie sit for a few hours before slicing. The only thing I did differently to the recipe was leave it in the oven to brown for about 10 mins rather than 2 - could this have ruined it?
Thanks so much for the amazing curd recipe though - I subbed in limes for a delicious result! x
I'm sorry to hear that. I assume you used caster sugar, as I know that sugar type matters here and the amount stated in here recipe? It's hard for me to say why this happened but my feeling is that the meringue would benefit from some sort of stabiliser like xanthan gum, cornstarch, tapioca starch when used to cover a large area. I used cornstarch in this recipe and it worked well. Hope you'll try again and it will be a complete success. x Ania
You are welcome. I mean cashews nuts, raw (unroasted). Hope this helps! Ania
Thank you, I am really pleased to hear that. Yes, I am pretty sure it would work, but you need to make some calculations to ensure that you have enough filling. I used 10 x 5.5 cm / 2 in ramekins which had the height of 2.5 cm / 1. in. As for the pastry bit, you might be better off using one of my later recipes, like this 9" pie for example: https://www.lazycatkitchen.com/vegan-pumpkin-pie/ Hope that helps! Ania
I made these for a family birthday and they blew our minds! Thank you so much for the recipe. These are so special that I will do them for Christmas and special occasions. I usually make your black forest mousses but now they have competition! You are a culinary genius. Xxxx
I have not tried myself but I know that some people do so it's worth giving it a try. Ania
I'm glad it worked out well in the end. Yes, aquafaba is really efficient, isn't it? As for the flavour, I'll be honest with you - I am not sure. I always make my own aquafaba as we eat a lot of chickpeas and I have not detected any funkiness ever. I also fed quite a few aquafaba desserts to my non-vegan friends and no one had any issues with the taste so perhaps is it is some additive/stabiliser they add to the tinned version? Now that you have successfully made a meringue, I highly recommend making aquafaba at home and seeing if the taste is still there. It's so easy, cost-effective and I would risk a statement that it's a bit healthier as you don't get any metal residue - although these days, it is really hard to know what is in your food, isn't it? Any questions, shout. x Ania
Any ideas on where it could have gone wrong? I whipped up the aquafaba until stiff, then started adding in the sugar slowly. I had to whip it for a good while as my machine isn't very powerful, but I thought it seemed pretty firm at the end. It would hold stiff peaks. I put it in the oven 2-3 mins until brown, then let cool on the counter for 1hr, then in the fridge 30min. I've never made traditional egg meringues, so I'm not sure what to compare it to. My French husband said it looked stiff and ready to be baked, but he was surprised that it was only for 2-3 mins. Maybe more cooking time? Maybe not whipped enough? Hmmm...
Thanks for this recipe. I'll definitely be trying it again! Fingers crossed.
I'm glad to hear that you enjoyed these overall although I am sorry to hear that the meringue did not work as well as you have hoped. This is designed to be a set meringue topping as opposed to dried out / baked, which is why I grill (or you could also just a chef's torch) as opposed to bake it. This is possibly where the confusion lies as you mention baking it for a long time (presumably at a very low temp), which would result in a different (crunchy) texture. Ania
I made these recently and LOVED them, they were a huge hit. I've been dying for lemon meringue pies ever since I went vegan and i'm so happy to have them back in my life.
I started prepping to make another batch - only problem is my brother accidentally threw out my aquafaba! Might seem a silly question, but do you think I could freeze the lemon curd for use at a later date? I've got cashews soaking that are just going to go to waste otherwise.
I'm delighted to hear that these went down well with you. Your brother did WHAT??!! Thrown aquafaba away? that's criminal in my view... ;) Yes, of course, freezing the curd is totally fine. Good luck with your next batch! Ania
Love these! Have you ever tried using any kind of sugar substitute in your aquafaba meringue? I'm vegan and sugar free, so I would love to have a sugarfree meringue, if it is possible.
Thanks,
Fanni
Thank you, I'm pleased to hear that. I haven't, I'm afraid and I am not sure this is possible as sugar doesn't just provide sweetness here, but also gives structure to aquafaba. I think I've heard of some success with maple syrup, but I haven't tried myself unfortunately. Ania
Thanks
Yes, sure you can, you just need to calculate the surface area of your pie dish to make sure you have enough mixture to fill it (the dimensions of my ramekins are at the bottom of the recipe). Good luck!
could i use the amount of lemon curd and meringue for a whole tart (instead of mini cupcakes)
Thanx!
Sure you can but you'll need to calculate surface area of your tart case and compare it to my 10 mini tarts (dimensions are under the recipe). Good luck and let me know how it went! :)
Yes, cornstarch / cornflour is a great thickening agent and it is rather crucial in this recipe. I have not tried subbing it for anything else, but conventional wisdom says that you could replace it with tapioca starch, potato starch or arrowroot powder so it's definitely worth a shot. A small amount of vegan gelatin - agar agar should work too. Good luck and hope it works out next time.
Ania
If you make it in the form of meringues, yes it totally does - crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. In this application, however, because it only gets a few minutes under the grill, the top simply gets a little char on it. To get it crunchy it would have to be in the low oven for a long time, something you could try, but it may affect the cooked cake underneath.
Hope that helps,
Ania
Yes, the recipe calls for raw cashews. You can try with toasted ones but I worry that it may change the flavour a little. Raw cashews are very neutral in taste whereas toasted ones not as much.
Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Do you think it is possible to use this recipe for a whole pie instead of little ones? Also, do you think this pie would freeze well?
Thank you.
My pleasure! I am certain that you could easily make a large pie instead of a few little ones, I just like little desserts:) I'm not sure about freezing though as I have not tried it. My gut feeling tells me that it may not taste as nice once thawed.
Ania
The lemon meringue looks great!
I'm struggling with an alternative to nuts though. (Can't tolerate any, even the smell).
Can I use anything else?
Thank you ๐
Thank you, glad to hear that you like this recipe. As for nut substitution, in this context nuts are a source of fat so my (quite confident) guess is that you could replace them with coconut cream (fatty part of full fat coconut milk) and/or vegan butter. I actually wanted to use vegan butter but I cannot get it where I live. Olive oil could work too, I think! As there is no need to blend things if you are not using cashews, I would add small amounts of fat (coconut cream/vegan butter or olive oil) directly to the pan with lemon juice and maple syrup and test as you go along to gauge the exact quantity needed.
Hope that helps and please let me know how you got on!
Ania
Am looking forward to making. :)
Thanks!