Most people will agree that lockdown has caused a massive increase in home baking. I don't know how I'd cope without the daily Instagram updates on influencer's banana breads and sourdoughs.
I guess it's a comfort to know that, while everything is "unprecedented" and everyone is behaving differently, mixing flour butter and sugar still does the exact same thing. And let's face it, fat and sugar is always has been a comfort!
Other main activity on the list, like most people, is the daily walks to maintain a low level of sanity. So when those two activities combine, you get a good bunch of foraged elderflower and a pie to go with it. Elderflower goes great with acidity, hence lemon and elderflower being a classic combo. Therefore, a lemon meringue pie seemed like a good use for it.
And let's not forget to take a moment to appreciate Elderflower season... love it so much!! It doesn't last as long as my personal favourite: Wild Garlic season; so it's good to make the most of it. My mum's been going wild making syrups, sodas and wines so she made me want to go forage myself.
To infuse this traditional desert with elderflower, I put a few bunches of it in sugar and left it covered for 24 hours, very happy with the result and would truly recommend. Then I just made my lemon meringue pie traditionally but replacing all sugar with the one infused with elderflower. It worked especially well in the meringue which would've been really nice to eat on it's own. I also used the flowers in the sugar as a decoration in shortbread made from the spare pastry so nothing went to waste!
If you want the curd to taste strongly of elderflower I would recommend also infusing it with a bunch while melting the butter to get more impact.
