One of life’s great pleasures - Lemon meringue tart

With a crumbly, short pastry base, a sharp, zesty lemon filling and light, fluffy Italian meringue topping, this dessert is a real pleasure to eat. Each element is also a pleasure to make, all utilizing a different skill of a pastry chef and combining to make something that is much greater than the sum of its parts. This recipe will make 12 individual tarts or the same quantities can be used to make one large tart. Using Italian meringue is extremely stable and easy to use, It does not weep of leak, however it will only keep in the fridge for a little over 24 hours before it starts to fall.

For the shortcrust pastry

250g plain flour

125g unsalted butter

70ml water

For the lemon curd

4 lemons, zest and juice

200g caster sugar

100g butter cut up into small cubes

3 whole eggs plus 1 egg yolk

For the Italian meringue

3 egg whites

225g caster sugar

75ml water

To make the pastry rub the butter and flour together in your hands until all the butter is combined and it becomes the colour of sand. Add the water and bring the mixture together until it is just combined. Chill for an hour to allow it to become workable. Roll out until 1 cm thick and cut out using y a 10 cm tart case, then roll each one thinner so that it will fill your tart case and go over the sides a little bit. Place and small sheet of baking paper inside and a layer of baking beans. Blind bake at 170c for 20 min, remove the beans and parchment and allow to cool. once cool trim the excess pastry and remover the from the cases.

To make the lemon curd place the zest, juice and sugar in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and whisk occasionally until the butter has melted then add in the beaten egg. Continue to whisk occasional until the mixture has reached 84c so that the eggs are fully cooked and the mixture has thickened enough to cover the back of a spoon. Set aside and allow to cool then spoon the mixture into the tart shells.

to make the Italian meringue place the sugar and the water a pan and using a jam thermometer heat until it reaches soft ball (114c). Whilst the sugar heats up place the egg white into a clean mixing bowl and whisk on a medium speed. When the sugar is ready the eggs should have doubled in size, turn the mixer on as high as it will go and very slowly pour in the hot sugar syrup, continue to whisk for a further minuet to allow the meringue to cool slightly. The benifit of Italian meringue is that it is not only very stable but the addition of the boiling syrup means the the meringue will now be fully cooked and safe to eat by anyone. Pipe this on top of the filling and glaze the meringue with a blowtorch and enjoy.

#pastry #cake #tart #lemon