lemon meringue tart – oh my goodness me!

Can we just forget the fact that last week I was talking about preparing for the spring?  Let’s just pretend that we don’t have to worry about wearing skimpy dresses in a few weeks time and let’s indulge.

Last weekend we were invited to Sunday lunch with some friends, and my girlfriend Marie-Laure made her mother’s recipe for lemon meringue tart.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven!   I couldn’t remember the last time I ate this dessert, but I can tell you it is about to get a major revival in this house.

So here, for you to share and enjoy is Marie Laure’s incredibly simple recipe.

To make a tart for 6-8 people, you will need a 30cm or 12″ tart mould, preferably loose based, an oven pre-heated to 180°C / 350°F and the following ingredients:

A portion of sweet pastry, I’m sure you have your favourite recipe

6 eggs

6 organic lemons

250g or one large cup sugar

60 grams or 1/4 cup butter

6 egg whites

300g  or 1 and a half cups fine sugar

Roll out your pastry and lay it in the base of the mould, bringing it carefully up the sides, cut the edge neatly to the top of the mould.  Line with greaseproof or waxed paper, with baking pellets, or beans over the paper to keep the pastry flat and pop into the oven for 15 minutes.  After 15 minutes remove the paper and the beans and return the pastry to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until golden brown.

In the meantime you can make the lemon curd.  Grate the rind of the lemons and squeeze the juice.   Put both in to a large saucepan with the sugar, stir well.  Add the eggs and beat well then start to heat very gently.  Be careful not to cook this too fast otherwise you’ll have scrambled eggs instead of creamy lemon curd!    Once the curd has started to thicken, remove it from the heat and add the butter, stir well.   Pour the curd  into the pastry base and pop into the oven, at the lower temperature of 130°C/250°F for about 15 minutes.

Remove the tart from the oven and leave to cool.

To make the meringue, whip the 6 egg whites until stiff and add the sugar little by little, beating all the time.   You want to finish with stiff peaks that don’t slide out of the bowl if it’s tuned upside down.

Once the meringue is perfectly firm, either use a piping bag and squeeze swirls of meringue onto the lemon base, or simply smooth the meringue into place with a spoon and then make swirls with a large fork.  Both will taste delicious!

The meringue should be slightly crisp on the outside, and for this you can either use a kitchen blowtorch, or the grill setting of your oven turned up high … which ever you choose to do, this is not the moment to answer the phone or take the dog for a walk, the meringue will only take a few minutes to bake.

Most people enjoy this dessert cold.  As ever, be ready to be heaped with praise, this dessert is guaranteed to wow your fans every time!

pictures from google