Frozen Lemon Meringue Dessert

This recipe is good all year & can be served during Passover or would be a beautiful dessert for Easter dinner!   The recipe is from Chatelaine magazine 2013. I have made this a couple of times. This year, at my Passover seder,  my guests loved it!

It is made in 3 stages, but well worth the effort. The crust is made with matzo meal, baked then cooled. The filling is made on the stove with fresh lemon juice & cooled completely before putting on the crust. Then the 2 layers are frozen. A meringue topping is next, then it is frozen until ready to serve. A perfect dessert after any meal. It would be good all year, maybe substitute graham wafer crumbs for the matzo meal or use a traditional graham wafer crust. It’s a good  to start this recipe the day before you want to serve it, or even 2 days, as the filling needs to be set in the freezer before the meringue topping is put on, & then it needs to be frozen again. Not a last-minute dessert!! I suggest you read through the recipe before making it so you have an idea of the time required. But remember…it is delicious so worth the time!

The recipe is from Chatalaine.com

Here is the list of ingredients with my directions but I did not change any of the ingredients except one substitution

Frozen Lemon Meringue Dessert

Crust 

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups matzo meal ***use graham wafers or vanilla cookies for the crust if not for Passover

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp grated lemon peel

pinch of salt

3/4 cup margarine *** I didn’t have any Passover margarine so I just added oil. The crust was a bit oily on the bottom but it tasted fine.

1 tsp vanilla

Lemon Filling

1 1/2 cups sugar

6 eggs at room temperature

1 tsp lemon peel

1/2 cup lemon juice, about 2 lemons

Meringue 

3 egg whites at room temperature

1/4 cup sugar

Method

Preheat oven to 325f

Lightly spray a 9 inch springform pan

Crust

1. Separate the 2 eggs. Put the 2 egg whites in the fridge for later
2. In a food processor, add the matzo meal ( cookie crumbs), sugar & lemon peel, pulse to mix well
3. Add the margarine, egg yolks, & vanilla. Process until well mixed
4. Put into the springform pan & press into the bottom of the pan evenly to form the crust
5. Bake until brown, approx 20 minutes Cool completely before putting the filling in

Lemon Filling

1. Get a double boiler ready. Bring the water to a boil, then to a simmer. If you don’t have a double boiler, use a pot that a heat proof bowl will sit over the top, You will be making the filling in this. The simmering water should not touch the bottom the top pot/bowl. This needs to be a stable set-up as you will be using a hand mixer to beat the filling while it is cooking.
2. Take 1/4 cup of sugar out of the 1 1/2 cups of sugar & set aside *** the 1/4 cup of sugar you are setting aside will be used for the meringue
3. Separate 3 eggs, put the whites in the refrigerator to save until later in the recipe ( the meringue)
4. Put the 3 egg yolks into the top of the double boiler or heat-proof bowl.
5. Add the remaining 3 whole eggs & the remaining 1 1/4 cup of sugar, lemon peel & lemon juice to the egg yolks
6. Put the pot/bowl over the simmering water & beat with a hand mixer until the filling has thickened and coats the back of a spoon. If you don’t have a hand mixer, I guess you could whisk it   This can take several minutes. The original recipe says 5 – 7 minutes…I didn’t check the time when I was doing it.
7. When the filling is done, cool it in the fridge. Cover it with plastic wrap placed right onto the filling so that a scum won’t form when this is cooling. You want the filling to be smooth   Alternately, you can put the filling from the pot into a bowl & submerge this into a bigger bowl with water & ice to cool. I did that but then the crust wasn’t cool so I put the filling into the fridge. *** The original recipe says to make the filling first, then the crust, but I suggest doing it in this order ( crust then filling)  so the crust is completly cool when the filling is ready.
8. Once the lemon mixture is completely cool, using the 3 egg whites you reserved from step #3, beat the whites until frothy. Beat in the reserved 1/4 cup of sugar from step #2 & beat until stiff peaks form.
9. Take the lemon mixture out of the fridge & whisk it to soften it up. Stir in 1/4 of the egg whites into the lemon filling, this softens up the filling & makes it easier to fold the rest of the whites in.
10. Fold the remaining beaten egg whites into the lemon filling until well combined
11. Put this lemon filling into the cooled crust. Smooth it out
12. Cover with plastic wrap & put into the freezer until firm,, recommended 4 hours, or overnight

Meringue

1. The meringue will be put under the broiler, so position the oven rack so that it isn’t too close to the broiler, maybe the second row & turn the broiler on to preheat it
2. Take the 5 remaining egg whites from the fridge, the whites from  step 1 of crust & remaining 3 egg whites that are for the meringue & beat until frothy, then add the sugar gradually. Beat until stiff peaks form
3. Take the lemon dessert out of the freezer, remove palstic wrap
4. Put the meringue all over the top of the dessert, spreading it right to the edge of the pan. You can make peaks or a design with the meringue using the back of a spoon if you want
5. Place the dessert under the broiler BUT WATCH VERY CLOSELY   SINCE THE BROILER IS PREHEATED THE MERINGUE WILL BROWN VERY FAST!! IF YOU BURN THE MERINGUE  IT WILL HAVE TO BE SCRAPPED OFF & REDONE WHICH WILL BE MESSY & MIGHT NOT WORK OUT WELL!!!  IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MINUTE OR SO TO BROWN NICELY 
6. Cover loosely & return to the freezer …for about 1 hour or longer.
7. When ready to serve, take the dessert out of the freezer about 10 minutes before. Using a knife that you dip in hot water & dry off, loosen the dessert from the ring.of the pan.  Remove the ring & put the dessert onto a serving plate.*** I like to try & remove the ring sooner than 10 minutes so that the dessert is still really frozen so I can pry off the bottom of the pan, but….this is very iffy so use your judgement if you want to try this. sometimes it is messy & the dessert can break. I just don’t like the metal bottom sliding around on my serving plate!

Enjoy!