March 2009 - Easter is on its way - here's a recipe for crumbly lemon-flavoured Easter biscuits, topped with soft, marshmallowy meringue
The Recipe
Makes about 12 biscuits
Ingredients:
For the biscuit base
- 225g Plain flour
- 175g Butter or margarine
- 100g Caster sugar
- The yolks of two eggs
- One lemon
For the meringue topping
- The whites of two eggs
- 75g Caster sugar
Method:
Prepare the biscuit base:
Blend the sugar, butter and the grated outer lemon rind together in a mixing bowl, then add the egg yolks and work them in.
(To separate an egg yolk, carefully crack the egg in half over a separate bowl, pass the yolk from one half of the shell to the other, repeatedly - as you do, the egg white will spill out into the bowl below)
Add the flour, mix it in gently with a wooden spoon, until a soft, even-textured dough is formed.
Cover the dough and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour.
Make the biscuits:
Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C
Sprinkle some flour on a flat, clean surface, roll out the dough to about 1cm thick and cut it into rounds with a fluted cutter.
Transfer to a baking tray and press the bottom of a flat tumbler gently on the top of each, to create a shallow depression.
Squeeze the juice from the lemon.
Brush it on the tops of the biscuits and set them aside, to work on the meringue.
Prepare and add the meringue:
Place the egg whites in a large bowl, add a teaspoonful of the lemon juice and whisk fast with an electric or rotary hand beater.
Keep going until the whites are fluffy and stiff enough to stay in place in the bowl when it is tipped up.
Add the sugar and whisk again until it is thoroughly mixed in
Spoon a blob of the mixture onto the top of each biscuit, spreading it around so as to leave a narrow margin at the edge.
Bake in the oven for 20 -25 minutes, or until the top is evenly light golden-brown.
Remove to a wire rack and allow to cool completely before eating.
