Lemon Meringue Tarts

My farm grows the best lemons and limes. Perhaps its because of the all natural, no chemical fertilizers that we use. Oh, I don't really know why. It's not important. What IS important is that its RAINING limes and lemons in my farm and so, it's time to bake some fancy but easy Lemon Meringue tarts or pies!

I love lemon tarts! Give me a choice between chocolate tart and the lemon one, hands down I'll choose the lemon one every single time. The tangy-ness of the lemon pairs so well with the sweetness from the sugar in a way that your face will still contort to that expression of having bitten into something sharp tasting but at the same time your brain will be surprised from the pleasantness of it all.

There are three parts to this delicious dessert:

a) The tart crust

b) The lemon/lime filling

c) The meringue topping

The Tart Crust

Making of the tart crust is a fairly simple process and requires very few ingredients. This recipe makes 5-6 mini tarts (that is if you, like me, used a muffin tin in place of a tart tin.).

What you need to do is, using your fingers, rub 100 grams of flour with 50 grams of cubed small bits of cold cold butter, a small pinch of salt and a tablespoon of powdered sugar till the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Then add one egg yolk to the mix and form a dough.

Divide this dough into 5 or 6 (if you prefer your tarts with more crust, make 5 potions) equal potions and press each into a muffin mould, bringing it up on the sides. Then, using a fork, poke the crust all over and then cover the muffin tin with plastic and put it in the freezer for 10 minutes.

Bake at 180C (don't forget to preheat the oven first!) for 12-15 minutes or until the tops brown slightly. Take the tin out and let the cooked crusts cool completely in the tins.

The reason why we add cold cold butter instead of melted or room temperature butter is because those little bits of butter, when it hits the high oven temperature will result in a flaky, melt in your mouth crust. This is also the reason why we put the moulded uncooked tart doughs back in the freezer for 10 minutes before baking. You don't want the butter in the dough to melt more than it already has and also, the melted butter will have time to harden up a bit before we bake it in the oven. 

Another thing to keep in mind is to not over mix the dough. Mix all the ingredients just until you combine them. Over mixing results in a crust that is tough, non flaky and frankly not delicious. What happens is that when you continue to mix the flour with wet ingredients (in this case the egg yolk and to some extent the butter) for a prolonged period of time, you activate the already present gluten in the flour and your crust will become more bread-like and elastic than flaky. 

The Lemon/Lime Filling

Here, it's really difficult to come by lemons. Limes are more popular and used on a regular basis. So, even though this is a Lemon Meringue Pie, technically, It's a Lime Meringue Pie. I have made this with lemons and it tastes almost the same. The acidic citrus of the fruits are comparable and very similar in taste.

Take 4 Limes (If you're using Lemons, use 2) and grate its zest. To do this, you'll need a grater. Grate the outer skin of the lime till just before you see the white part of the lemon rind. Juice the lemons. In a separate bowl, mix 80 grams of icing sugar with 3.5 tablespoons of cornflour. Add a little water to this to form a thick liquid paste.

Bring 25 ml of water to a boil in a saucepan and add this water to the cornflour paste, mix and then put this cornflour  mixture into the saucepan again and stir (use a heatproof whisk) continuously with the flame on low. Add the lemon zest and juice into the saucepan and stir. Then, take this mixture off the heat and add in 3 beaten egg yolks. Mix till the egg yolks are incorporated then bring it back on heat (low flame). Stir continuously till the mixture thickens then add 30 grams of room temperature butter (while stirring the mixture.) Keep stirring till you feel that the filling cannot thicken any more. Take it off the flame. Taste and add more icing sugar if you feel you want your filling to be sweeter. At this point, if you want the yellowness of the lemon filling to be like that of the store bought ones then please stir in a few drops of yellow food colouring. Either ways, it doesn't matter. To me that is.

The Meringue Topping

Honestly, this next step is just an over the top, eye catching, unnecessary flamboyance but since we DO have 4 egg whites from all that egg separating that we did (Hopefully you haven't thrown the whites out. Hopefully.), why not make something with that.

I already have a meringue recipe here on my blog so follow that and pipe it out on top of the lemon custard filling. Or just dot it in places as the meringue can be a bit too sweet for this pie. 

The Assembly Line

Scoop the lemon filling into the tarts. 

Dot the uncooked meringue on top on the custard.

Bake at 140C for 20 minutes or until the top is a few shades darker in color. 

I recently bought a blow torch-because I'm awesome like that- and had been itching to try it on something. Hence the over-burnt the top of the meringues in this pie below. They weren't bad. Tasted like marshmallow when you roast them over pit fires. mmmm. 

So there you have it. Lemon Meringue Pie. Do let em cool down completely before eating. 

Cheers!