Zesty Cherry Merengue Pie

I think that the orange and cherry combination in this pie are perfect.  Like Lemon merengue, this pie can be served warm or cold, but I prefer it cold as it cuts very clean and is easier to serve.  This is an ideal dessert for BBQ, it can be prepared in lamington dish and as it has no cream, it will keep well for hours in room temperature. This recipe makes a 10inch flan.

1/2 quantity or 400g Rich Short Pastry  recipe

For the filling
700g pitted cherries (approx 900g with stone)
2 oranges
6 tbsp Corn Flour
5 egg yolks
100g sugar
80g cold Butter

For the Merengue
5 Egg Whites
250g Castor Sugar

Heat oven 180c. Roll out the pastry and line the flan dish. Prepare a disc of baking paper slightly bigger than your flan dish and line over the pastry.  Fill with beans or rice and bake in the oven for 20 minutes.  Take out from the oven, lift the baking paper and beans, then return to oven to cook for further 10 minutes. Take pie shell out from oven and lower the temperature to 150c.

Prepare the filling by adding pitted cherries to a casserole with 500ml water.  Add the sugar and zest of two oranges and bring to boil.  Boil for 3 minutes.  Dissolve the cornflour in 50ml water and add to cherries.  Stir quickly to avoid lumps.  Cook for 1 minute  then turn off heat.  Add the juce of the two oranges and stir, then stir in the cold butter and finally add the egg yolks.  Transfer mixture to cooked pastry shell and allow it to cool slightly before piping over  the merengue.

For the merengue, use a balloon whisk attached to a food mixer and beat the whites till soft peaks form.  Add sugar in three batches and beat till it dissolves and the merengue is smooth and holds it's shape.  Pipe merengue over cherry filling, then bake in the oven for 45 minutes.  Allow pie to cool completely before refrigerating.