Lemon meringue tartlets

I love lemon cakes, tarte au citron, basically anything lemony. Tonight I made these lemon meringue tartlets. I had some difficulties with the pastry, and I cheated with the lemon curd (next time I'll do it properly, I promise!) but meringue at least is one thing you can't cheat on, and these ones came out beautifully. My biggest mistake was that I meant to make these for a friend who just had surgery… but I forgot she can't eat gluten. I'll be thinking of something else to cheer her up. In the mean time, someone has to eat these babies..

(Recipe below, since I couldn't find a link to one)

 

The recipe. To make short cuts, buy a good lemon curd and a good sweet pastry and skip to the last part. There is no way to skip the meringue, though. Luckily, that's easy!

Lemon curd

200ml lemon juice (4-6 lemons)

grated zest of 4 lemons

200g caster sugar

4 eggs

4 egg yolks

180g unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1. Put all the ingredients in a large, heavy-based saucepan, leaving out roughly half the butter. place over a medium heat and, using a hand whisk, whisk constantly while you cook the curd. Reduce the heat if it starts sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once the curd reaches boiling point, you will notice large bubbles coming to the surface. Continue whisking vigorously for another minute and then remove from the heat.

2. Off the heat, add the remaining butter and whist, until it has melted. Pass the curd through a sieve and into a plastic container. Cover the surface with cling film, allow it to come to room temperature and then chill for at least 6 hours, preferably overnight, for it to firm up well. It will keep in the fridge for up to 4 days.

Sweet pastry tartlet cases

330g plain flour

100g icing sugar

grated zest of 1/2 lemon

1/4 tsp salt

180g cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes

1 egg yolk

2 tbsp cold water

1. Put the flour, icing sugar, lemon zest and salt in a bowl and add the butter. Rub it in with your hands, or more easily, use a mixer fitted with the beater attachment, or use a food processor. In all cases, you need to mix the ingredients until you get a coarse breadcrumb consistency, making sure there aren't any large lumps of butter left.

2. Add the egg yolk and water and mix just until the dough comes together, being careful not to mix any longer than necessary. You might need to add a tiny amount of extra water.

3. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and knead very lightly for a few seconds only, just to shape it into a smooth disc, 5-6cm thick. Wrap in cling film and chill until ready to use. The pastry will keep in the fridge for a week and at least a month in the freezer.

4. To bake, roll out the pastry 2-3mm thin, and quickly so it doesn't get warm. Cut out 6 circles using a pastry cutter and press inside small, buttered tins (a cupcake rack works fine). Rest them in the fridge for 30min so they stay firm and don't sink when you put them in the oven. Preheat oven to 150C. Line the cases with greeseproof paper and fill with baking beans. Bake for about 25min, then remove the paper and beans. If they don't have a golden-brown colour yet, bake for another 5-10 minutes. Remove the cases from the tins when they are still slightly warm, then leave to cool completely.

Lemon meringue

1/2 quantity of lemon curd (chilled for at least 6h)

6 pre-baked tarlet cases

120g caster sugar

2 egg whites

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Spoon the cold lemon curd into the tart cases, filling them three-quarters full. Leave aside, preferably in the fridge.

2. To make the meringue, spread the sugar over an oven tray lined with baking parchment. Place in the hot oven for 5-6 minutes. The sugar should become very hot but musn't begin to dissolve. Remove from the oven and reduce the temperature to 150C.

3. At the last minute of heating up the sugar, place the egg whites in the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer. Whisk on high speed for a few seconds, until they begin to froth up. Now carefully pour the hot sugar on to the whisking whites in a slow stream. Once finished, continue whisking for a good 15 minutes, until the meringue is firm, shiny and cold.

4. Use 2 spoons or a piping bag to dispense the meringue on top of the curd and create a pattern. at this point you can either leave the meringue totally white or you can place it in the oven for 1-3 minutes to brown the top very lightly. Serve at once or chill for up to 12 hours.