James Martin's lemon meringue pie is 'totally tasty' and has six ingredients

James Martin's lemon meringue pie is made up of three layers - a short pastry base, lemon curd filling, and a fluffy meringue topping - here's how to make it at home

The humble lemon meringue pie, a British favourite with roots in French pâtisserie, is known for its delicious trio of layers - short pastry, zingy lemon curd and airy meringue.

Thanks to Jamie Martin's recipe, dished out on his website, you can master this "light, sweet and totally tasty" dessert at home. Perfect for sharing either as a treat in the afternoon or as a post-dinner delight, the components can also be divvied up into individual portions using separate tins.

While the homemade pastry calls for some TLC, it pays off when you pull that impressive pie from the oven. The making process kicks off with preheating your oven to 200C and then bringing 200g of plain flour, 100g of butter, a sole egg and a dash of water together to form the foundation of your pastry base.

Getting hands-on, you'll rub and knead until you have a smooth dough, which you'll wrap and chill for half an hour. Then it's onto greasing your tart tins, rolling out the chilled dough, lining the tin, and having another quick chill before blind baking your creation for 20 minutes. Once cooled, lavish the base with a generous layer of luscious lemon curd.

For the hot meringue, put the sugar on a lined baking tray and bake for five minutes. In the meantime, beat the egg whites until they're stiff, then mix in the hot sugar and whisk.

Transfer this into a piping bag and pipe it all over the tart, or just spread it over and create peaks with a knife. Use a blow-torch to give the meringue topping a bit of colour.