Here’s a pretty flexible, very delicious, and deceptively simple dessert that has quickly become a favourite at our house.

I’ve made a few combinations of this one now: Key Lime, Meyer Lemon – I even have plans to try with orange!

It works with any plain biscuit. I’ve used super wines and gingernuts. I’m planning an Oreo base for the orange – I’ll scrape off the icing and use the biscuits.

You can change out the nuts too. Almond meal will work, as will ground cashew. Coconut does the job as well.

The place it’s most likely to fail is if your egg whites are contaminated. So make sure your equipment gets a good wash before you get to that stage and you’ll be fine.

Ingredients

200g biscuits, crushed
¼ c almond meal, ground cashews, or coconut
100g butter, melted
4 eggs, separated
395g can condensed milk
4T grated citrus rind (or more if you wish for a stronger flavour)
¼-½ c citrus juice (more will lend a stronger flavour – you’d want more Meyer lemon than a normal lemon)
4 tablespoons caster sugar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease or line 20cm ovenproof pie tin.
2. Process biscuits to a fine crumb. Add nuts, citrus rind and melted butter, process until combined.
3. Press mixture firmly into the tin base, and 3cm up the sides of the tin. Refrigerate while you make the filling.
4. Whisk egg yolks together with sweetened condensed milk. Slowly stir in juice until combined. Pour into biscuit base and bake for 20 minutes.
5. In a clean, preferably glass bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks foam. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of caster sugar into the mix at a time and beat until peaks are glossy.
6. When the pie comes out of the oven, put egg whites on top. If you want to be fancy you can pipe it on, but I just kind of carefully slap it on with a spatula.
7. Reduce heat to 150°C. Bake for 10 mins or until meringue turns light brown. Keep an eye on it as it can burn quickly.
8. Cool and refrigerate. Cut once chilled. Serve with extra citrus slices and/or grated rind.