Equipment
- 1 thermometer
- 1 kitchen blowtorch
Ingredients
Tart Casings
- 280 grams flour
- 90 grams icing sugar
- ½ lemon, zest only, finely grated
- 140 grams butter, cold and cubed
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 150 grams white chocolate, melted
- pinch salt
Lemon Curd Filling
- 4 eggs
- 3 lemons, juiced and finely grated zest of
- 130 grams butter
- 200 grams caster sugar
- 2 sheets gold leaf gelatine
Italian Meringue
- ½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup water
- 2 egg whites, room temperature
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
Instructions
Tart Casings
- Place the flour, icing sugar, salt, lemon zest and butter into a food processor. Blitz until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs.
- Add in the egg and egg yolk and mix until the dough comes together.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and kneed the dough briefly to bring it all together.
- Form the dough into a ball, wrap in glad wrap and place it into the fridge for about 45 minutes.
- Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it out between 2 sheets of baking paper, to a thickness of about 2mm. Transfer the dough to a baking tray and refrigerate for another 20 minutes.
- Remove the pastry from the fridge again and use a 6cm round cooker cutter to cut out 24 discs from the dough. Line 2 x 12 mini muffin tin trays with the pastry discs. Place the tarts back into the fridge for another 20 minutes.
- Blind bake the tarts at 170 °C for 20 minutes. Remove the beans from the tarts and bake for an additional 2 minutes to try out the casings.
- Remove from the oven and leave to cool. Remove the tart casings from the muffin trays and brush generously with melted chocolate on the inside. Place to the side until needed.
Lemon Curd Filling
- Soak the gelatine leaves in water for about 5 minutes. Remove the gelatine leaves from the water and use your hands to squeeze out excess liquid. Set Aside.
- Place all the curd ingredients, except the gelatine leaves, into a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the curd reaches a temperature of 82 °C. Take care to avoid burning yourself on steam escaping the sides.
- Remove the bowl from the heat and add in the gelatine. Stir until it has dissolved.
- Strain the curd into another bowl. Place the bowl of strained curd mixture onto another bowl filled with iced water. Cool the filling to 38 °C.
- Use either a spoon or a piping bag to fill each of the tart casings. Transfer the casings to the fridge to finish cooling and set. Allow at least 30 minutes for this step.
Italian Meringue
- In a small saucepan, combine the sugar and water. Heat over high heat, brushing down the sides as necessary with a pastry brush dipped in water. Cook until the sugar syrup reaches 116 °C.
- Meanwhile,combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Set the mixer to medium speed and mix until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes.
- With the mixer running, carefully and slowly drizzle in the hot sugar syrup. Increase the speed to high and whip until the desired stiffness is achieved.
- Using a piping bag to pipe the meringue onto the cooled lemon tarts. Finish the lemon meringue tarts by using a blowtorch to cook the outside of the meringue.
These delicious petite mini lemon meringue tarts combine a buttery shortcrust shell with a tangy curd filling and a sweet Italian meringue topping to make the perfect bite sized dessert. These tarts are perfect for a party, a birthday or when you simply have a craving for lemon meringue pie. They are also a great way to use that abundance of lemons you get on your lemon tree as spring starts to kick in.
The combination of the crunchy and crispy casing combined with a tangy, gooey filling and a sweet meringue on top make for the perfect bite and are sure to be loved by all.
There is a bit of work that goes in to making these tarts, but none of it is overly complicated, and the casings and lemon curd filling can be both made in advanced and then combined with the meringue just prior to serving.
How to make petite lemon meringue tarts
There are 3 separate elements needed to make these tarts:
- shortcrust pastry casings
- lemon curd filling
- Italian meringue topping
Both the casings and the curd can be made ahead of time. The meringue topping is best made on the day you go to serve these tarts. You can also omit the meringue topping to make gorgeous lemon tarts. Try topping lemon tarts with a fresh raspberry for an alternative way to serve these tarts.
The tart casings
The easiest way to make the tart casings involves the use of a food processor or electric stand mixer. Combine the flour, icing sugar, salt, lemon zest and butter together. You will then process these ingredients until the mixture resembles bread crumbs.
Add in the egg and egg yolk and mix this together and you will end up with a dough that will be used to make the tart casings. Turn it onto a floured surface and roll it into a ball. Cover the ball and place in the fridge for about 45 minutes.
Next, remove the dough from the fridge and roll out to a 2mm thickness. I find the easiest way to do this is to roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper.
The way to get a nice crispy shortcrust pastry is to ensure you are working with cold dough. So once its rolled out, place the dough back into the fridge for another 20 minutes.
Use a 6 cm round cookie cutter to cut out pastry discs from the dough and place these discs into a mini muffin tray. Refrigerate the dough for a further 20 minutes before you blind bake the tart casings.
Remove the tarts from the oven, allow them to cool and then use a pastry brush to liberally coat the tart shells with melted white chocolate.
The lemon curd filling
To start with you need to take some gold leaf gelatin and soak it in water for about 5 minutes. Allow it to go soft and then remove it from the water and use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquid.
Next place the eggs, lemon juice and zest, butter and caster sugar into a saucepan and whisk constantly over a pan of simmering water until the mixture reaches a temperature of 82 °C. At this point remove the curd from the heat and add in the gelatine, stirring until it has dissolved. Place the curd mixture over a bowl of iced water and cool the filling to 38 °C.
To finish, either use a piping bag or a spoon to fill each tart casing. Transfer the filled tart casings to the fridge to finish cooling and allow the curd to set completely.
The Italian meringue
The first part to making an Italian meringue is to combine sugar and water together and heat the resulting syrup to a temperature of 116 °C.
When your syrup is nearly at temperature, start whisking the egg whites and cream of tartar in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Whisk the mixture until soft peaks form.
Once your syrup mixture is at temperature, slowly drizzle it into the egg white mixture, increase the speed and whip until your meringue mixture reaches the desired stiffness. This part usually takes several minutes to achieve the right consistency.
To finish, use a piping bag to pipe the meringue mixture onto the filled tarts and then finish the meringues by toasting with a kitchen blowtorch until lightly golden. If you don’t own a blow torch, you can also place them in a hot oven for a couple of minutes. Make sure to watch them if you use the oven as they might start to burn quite quickly.
