Candice Brown's peach melba meringue pie

Friday 28 July at 1:00pm

It’s Flashback Friday in the kitchen as Bake Off’s Candice whips up a summer dessert based on a retro classic. Packed full of roasted peaches and raspberries, her Peach Melba Meringue Pie is the perfect way to enjoy the season’s best fruits - and every slice is like summer on a plate.

Ingredients:

For the pate sucree:100g golden caster sugar100g unsalted butter4 egg yolks175g plain flour, plus extra for dusting25g ground almondsGrated zest of 1 lemonPinch of saltBeaten egg, for egg wash

For the filling:6 ripe peaches1 tbsp light soft brown sugar250g fresh raspberries

For the raspberry coulis:200g fresh raspberries50g icing sugar1 tsp lemon juice

For the Italian meringue:½ lemon4 egg whites200g golden caster sugarShreds of lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 160C fan / 180C, gas 4.
To make the pate sucree, beat together the sugar and butter in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Beat in the egg yolks, followed by the flour, ground almonds, lemon zest and salt. Bring together with your hands to form a ball of dough. Flatten this slightly, then wrap in cling film and chill for 30 minutes.
Roll out the pastry on a floured work surface to 3-4mm thick. Lift with a rolling pin and drape into a 25cm loose-bottomed fluted tart tin. Gently press the pastry into the flutes and tease in the edges. Remove the excess pastry so it is just at the top of the tin. Prick the base of the pastry case with a fork.
Scrunch up a piece of greaseproof paper, then spread out and use to line the pastry case. Fill with baking beans. Bake blind for 15 minutes, then remove the paper and baking beans and bake for a further 5-10 minutes until set and golden. Remove the pastry case from the oven and egg wash the hot pastry base. Set aside to cool.
Skin the peaches and cut in half, removing the stones. Cut each half into four wedges. Put the peaches into a frying pan with the sugar. Set over a low heat and gently cook until the sugar has dissolved and the peaches softened. Allow to cool.
To make the coulis, combine the raspberries, icing sugar and lemon juice in a saucepan. Cook over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until the icing sugar has dissolved and the raspberries softened. Mash the raspberries down. Leave lumpy (I prefer a lumpy coulis) or press through a sieve to remove the seeds. Set aside.
Now make the Italian meringue – us the lemon half to thoroughly wipe down the largemixing bowl and whisk attachment of a free-standing electric mixer. Put the 4 egg whites in the bowl and turn on the mixer to whisk the whites to soft, fluffy peaks.
While the whites are being mixed, heat the sugar and 5 tbsp of water in a saucepan. Once the sugar has dissolved, bring to a rolling boil and boil the syrup until the temperature reaches 118C (244F). Remove from the heat.
With the mixer on a medium / high speed, slowly and carefully pour the boiling hot sugar syrup down the side of the mixing bowl into the whisked egg whites. When all the hot sugar syrup has been added, continue to whisk until the meringue mixture has cooled and is thick – it should make stiff and glossy peaks that keep their shape when the bowl is turned upside down.
Spoon the peach filling over the bottom of the pastry case and top with the fresh raspberries (reserve a few raspberries for the decoration). Either spoon on the Italian meringue in soft peaks or pipe it on in your chosen design, making sure the middle peaks are higher. Use a kitchen blowtorch to give the meringue a golden finish and crisp up the peaks. Sprinkle with the lemon zest and top with the reserved raspberries.
Serve immediately with a drizzle of raspberry