Preheat the oven to 170 °c and grease a 24cm flan or quiche tin with some room temp butter using your fingers, then set aside

Add the room temp butter and sweetener to a bowl and beat until light and creamy

Sieve the coconut flour, cornflour and xanthan gum into the bowl with creamed butter and mix well to combine (the mix will go slightly clumpy, like crumble topping)

Using wet hands, pick up the 'dough' ball and place in the greased tin. **Push the dough down firmly to flatten and work the 'pastry' up the edges of the tin to create a nice pie crust edge. Use your hands or the back of wet spoon to smooth out the 'pastry' on the base and into the corners, aiming to achieve the same level of thickness throughout. If you create any gaps/holes, just smooth over more 'pastry' to fill the gaps **This pastry is too sticky to roll out (even after chilling - I tried and it didn't work, so stick to using your hands to smooth out the crust!)

Once smoothed into the tin, use a fork to prick some holes into the base and place the pie crust in the oven to bake for 10-15 minutes. Keep a close eye on the crust. Once the edges are starting to brown, place some baking parchment paper over the crust to stop the edges from browning too much and burning Tip: scrunch up a piece of baking parchment paper then straighten out flat (this helps to shape the paper to the item you want to cover when using)

Keep baking until the pie crust is slightly golden at the edges, quite pale at the bottom, but dry to the touch, then remove from the oven and set aside in the tin

Place a gelatin leaf into cold water to soak OR If using vegetarian vege-gel instead, pour into the 200ml of cold water and mix well before taking the next step

Make a slurry (a wet paste) with arrowroot powder and xanthan gum and some water

Pour the lemon juice, zest, water and sweetener and arrowroot slurry into a saucepan, whisk and bring to a boil, then remove the pan from the heat

Once cooled slightly, add the egg yolks one a time, whisking well into the lemon mix until all are combined, then do the same with melted butter (ensure the butter is melted but not hot), adding bit by bit, whisking well to ensure the lemon filling stays smooth

If using gelatin leaf instead of vege-gel, squeeze out excess water from the gelatin sheet, add to the saucepan and place back on a low-medium heat. Keep stirring until the the lemon filling has thickened to create a thick curd. Please note, this lemon curd takes a little time and slow heat for it to thicken, then it thickens all of a sudden. If you are struggling to thicken the curd, increase the heat slightly but ensure to keep stirring (heating it too hot will cook the eggs too fast and you will end up with lemony scrambled eggs!)

Once thickened, pour the lemon curd filling into the pie crust

Add the room temperature egg whites to a bowl with the cream of tartar and whisk on high for approx. 5 minutes, or until peaks are formed

Add the powdered sweetener a spoon at a time, whisking on high between each spoonful until all the sweetener is added and all stiff peaks form which will not drop if the bowl is held upside down!

You can place the meringue into a piping bag and pipe on top of the pie if you'd like to create a piped design, or use a pallet knife to 'plop' it all over like I have

Place in the oven and bake until the meringue has started to golden slightly on the peaks, around 10 -15 minutes but keep a CLOSE eye!

Once baked, remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for at one hour at room temperature, then carefully remove from the tin. You can then place in the fridge and chill for a few hours but it is best eaten the day it is made as the meringue topping does not last and the pie crust becomes soggy due to using coconut flour. I bake mine the day before using and the next day the pie crust is slightly wet at the bottom, but this works well and tastes AMAZING!