- Hey guys, today we are making a lemon merengue tart
which is one of my favorite things
to make in the spring time.
They're fairly easy to do, and you can
make the whole thing the night before which is even better.
Let me show you how to make it.
So the first thing we're gonna do is prepare our crust.
So in the bowl of a food processor
we're gonna add a cup and a quarter of all purpose flour.
Two tablespoons of powdered sugar.
I like to use powdered sugar for this tart dough
because I find you'll get a really nice, lighter texture
with the powdered sugar than regular sugar.
And a quarter teaspoon of salt.
You can pulse that up until everything is combined,
then we're slowly gonna add a half a cup
of chilled butter that you've diced into cubes.
Pulsing all the while until a coarse meal forms.
Then you're gonna whisk together
one egg yolk and two tablespoons of ice water.
Then you're gonna add that mixture
to your food processor while pulsing.
Just keep pulsing away, and eventually
it'll start to come together as a dough.
You wanna keep going until you
get a nice dough ball forming.
Then you can take it out, flatten it into a disc
and then wrap it up and refrigerate.
Now you do wanna refrigerate this for
at least 30 minutes to an hour,
just because it will really help
with the shrinkage of the dough.
If you bake it too soon, your dough starts to shrink
and then it can be really hard to blind bake at the point.
Then to roll out our dough, we're gonna
be using the French style rolling pin
from J.K. Adams that came in my May subscription box.
You'll see how beautifully the dough rolls out
and it just becomes so much easier
and lighter to use, I find, than a traditional rolling pin.
If you're not familiar with the subscription box
and you wanna know more about it,
we're now taking subscriptions for the July box
so I will leave you a link in the description
and you can get caught up.
Then you can fit it into your tin, trim those edges.
Then you wanna take a fork and pierce the bottom of it,
just to allow the steam to escape.
Because we've been working with this dough,
and it's probably come up to room temperature,
it's a good idea to just pop your tin in the freezer
for 30 minutes, just to become nice and firm.
Then when it is time to bake, you're gonna
take your tart tin, then take a piece
of parchment paper, put that on top of your tart.
Then I like to use baking beads
which you can find online, but you
could also use dry beans or rice
just to weight that paper down.
Then we're gonna bake our shell
at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes,
just until it's set and slightly golden brown.
Then you can allow the shell to cool,
and we'll get to work on the filling.
The filling is super simple to do.
So in a large bowl, you're gonna add
six egg yolks, a third of a cup of corn starch,
and a quarter teaspoon of salt.
You wanna whisk that all together
until a nice pale yellow paste forms,
then you can set that aside.
Then meanwhile, in a saucepan,
you wanna add a cup and a half of water
and three quarters cup of sugar.
You wanna heat that on medium low,
just until that sugar dissolves,
and you have a nice, clear liquid.
While our sugar is melting,
we can prepare our lemon zest and juice.
So we're gonna use our Talisman Design
lemon zester and reamer, another product
that came in the subscription box.
And just, you wanna zest the entire lemon.
So usually get about a teaspoon or so.
Then you wanna cut the lemon in half,
and then you're gonna ream it.
We're looking for a third of a cup of lemon juice.
So you may need two lemons to get that much.
Then you're gonna go back to your sugar water.
And you're slowly gonna add
just a little bit at first into that egg mixture.
So we wanna temper those eggs,
make sure we don't scramble them.
Then you can add the rest of the sugar water.
Then this mixture is gonna go back into your saucepan.
You're gonna cook it on medium low,
stirring all the while, just until it thickens.
I think it's best to stir it with a whisk.
Just kind of keep it going, keep it moving.
And once it starts to thicken up
and coat the back of a spoon,
you know that it's good to go.
Then we're going to add our lemon zest and lemon juice.
Now our filling is all ready to go.
So we're gonna pour this filling into our baked pie shell.
You just kinda wanna smooth it out and level it out.
Then you can place this in the refrigerator
while we prepare the merengue.
Then to make the merengue, it's also really easy.
All we're gonna do, in a saucepan,
is add a third of a cup of water,
and one and a half cups of plain white sugar.
You wanna heat that on medium high,
just until all of that sugar dissolves.
Then once it boils for about three to four minutes
and becomes syrupy, that's when you wanna take it off.
At that point, you wanna set it aside to cool slightly.
Then in a bowl of an electric mixer,
you're going to add four egg whites
and a half a teaspoon of cream of tartar.
The cream of tartar is gonna help us
to stabilize the egg whites, which is
a good thing to do so that they don't fall on us.
If you can't find cream of tartar,
you could also use a half teaspoon of fresh lemon juice.
Then you're gonna beat this up on high
until you start to see nice, soft peaks begin to form.
Then you're slowly gonna add our sugar syrup,
just in a steady stream, whipping all the while
until they becoming nice and stiff and glossy.
That's what you're going for,
and once you reach that stage, you can stop the mixer.
Then we're gonna get our pie out of the fridge.
And we are going to place this beautiful merengue on top.
I just pile it all on there.
Now if you wanted to be really decorative,
you could also put this in a pastry bag
and pipe some nice little dollops,
but I don't know, I think there's something
really sweet about the rustic approach.
Then at this stage, I do think it's easier
to us a kitchen torch, to be honest.
They're not that intimidating,
and it is a lot easier to kind
of get an even browning with a kitchen torch.
But you could also put this tart under the broiler as well.
Then once your tart is all nice and golden brown,
you can place this in the refrigerator until ready to serve.
All right you guys, I'll see you back here next Saturday
with another quick and easy recipe.
Until then, bye!