Ravneet Gill’s no-bake lemon meringue pie recipe

What I really like about this lemon meringue pie is that it doesn’t involve making a pastry base. Instead, it uses the biscuit crust of a cheesecake to form something quick, easy, crumbly, slightly salty and fun to house the zingy curd and soothing meringue. (You could use Italian meringue here instead of Swiss, just change the technique.)

Lemon meringue pie

Prep 10 min
Cook 40 min
Serves 8

For the base
100g salted butter
250g digestive biscuits, blitzed or bashed to a fine crumb

For the filling
200g golden caster sugar
2 whole eggs, plus 2 yolks
Zest and juice of 4 lemons
Salt
80g unsalted butter

For the Swiss meringue
4 egg whites
220g caster sugar

For the base, melt the butter in a small saucepan, then pour over the blitzed digestives in a large bowl and stir to combine. Spread the biscuit crumb evenly in the bottom of a 20cm pie dish or cake tin, packing it in nice and tightly, then put in the fridge to chill and set while you get on with the rest of the pie.

Put the sugar, whole eggs and egg yolks in a heavy-based pan on a low heat and whisk until light and fluffy. Add the lemon juice and zest, a pinch of salt and the butter, and carry on whisking until the mixture has a thick, custard-like consistency. Blitz smooth with a hand blender, then pour on to a tray, cover with clingfilm to prevent a skin forming, and leave to cool.

To make the meringue, put the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer, and stir to combine. Set the bowl over a bain-marie and whisk until the sugar dissolves. Whisk on a medium speed until the meringue mixture cools (or whisk it with a hand-held electric whisk).

To assemble, spoon the cooled curd on the set pie base, scrape the meringue on top and blowtorch to colour (or whack it under a hot grill, but keep a close eye on it).