Adam Liaw's Bondi Meringue Pie

Recently, Adiam Liaw published a recipe in The Age for Bondi Meringue Pie.  I was immediately intrigued by the name of the pie  - what made it a Bondi pie?  Adam explains by saying that it is red and yellow like a lifesaver's cap, and the meringue on top resembles waves in the surf.  Perfect!

Effectively, this is a lemon meringue pie with an additional raspberry puree layer.  You can find the recipe online here.

It is as delicious as it looks.  

I don't have a blow torch, so knowing that I would need to crisp the meringue in the oven, I didn't chill the filling before adding the meringue on top.  This caused the still runny raspberry layer to spill over a bit when the meringue was placed on top, but this was neither here nor there for me.  And as foreshadowed, I browned the meringue in the oven for around 10 minutes rather than using a blowtorch.  (Also note that my meringue did not behave and fluff up as it should have - normally not a problem for me, but this time it was.) 

This pie is delicious - it got plenty of oohs and ahhs at work, and he taste matched the appearance.

Tips:

• Grease your pie tin before lining it with the dough.  (The recipe doesn't mention it, and not everyone might know!)

• To cut down on time, I rolled out the crust between two sheets of baking paper and put it in the pie plate without chilling the dough first.  I then put the crust in the freezer for 30 minutes before baking.

• Next time, I might try thickening the raspberry layer with a cornflour paste instead of gelatine - the gelatine was tricky to dissolve, and the raspberry layer didn't thicken well until after it had some time in the refrigerator.  This is especially important if you are going to brown your meringue in the oven.