Lemon Meringue Tart

Also fondly known as "Lemon Flan", it is a nice dessert comprised of a buttery pastry base, lemon custard and a nice and fluffy meringue topping. Not to sweet if you make it so, but can also satisfy any raging sweet tooth (like me) if you make your own adjustments. Versatile!

Originally, this was a recipe for a Lemon Meringue Pie where it was set in a larger baking dish, but I figured I should put them in tart cases instead.

My reason is simple: with small amounts, people will find it easier to take and eat it, if compared to a pie-version where you'd have to cut a slice. This is especially better for parties :D makes it easier on the guests.

Ingredients

Base

• Approx. 20 tart cases, 2-inch wide.
• Some melted butter to be rubbed inside the tart cases
• Some flour to be dusted into the tart cases

Pastry

• 225g plain flour (almost 1 cup)
• 100g of a stick of butter, grated
• 50g icing sugar (about 3 1/3 tbsp)
• pinch of salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 tbsp water

Lemon cream

• 25g caster sugar (about 1 1/2 tbsp)
• 25g cornflour (about 1 1/2 tbsp)
• 3 egg yolks
• 300ml milk
• Grated rind and juice of one lemon (approx. 2 tbsp, no more!)

Meringue

• 1 cup caster sugar
• 4 egg whites
• (have an extra 1/2 cup sugar and 2 egg whites on standby in case there is not enough Meringue to cover the tarts, which was what happened to me lol.)

Makes approx 18-20 serves.

Instructions

For the pastry

1. Preheat your oven to about 180 degrees.
2. Place the flour in a mixing bowl and grate the butter into it. Using your fingertips, rub the butter into the flour until it becomes breadcrumb-like.
3. Create a well in the center of the bowl and place one egg yolk, and rub that in slowly and evenly into the mix. Add one tbsp of water at first, mix it thoroughly, and then add the remaining 1 tbsp water, and mix it all up until it can take shape into a mold.
4. If you have time, put cling wrap or tin foil over it to cover the bowl and keep in the fridge for maybe an hour or so. If not, just carry on. I skipped this part and it still tasted fine, but I'm sure it would taste better if you did not skip it :)
5. Roll it out onto a flat surface, making sure that it's quite thin (maybe 1mm or 2mm thick) and grab a round cookie-cutter, maybe 2 inches in diameter and start cutting out shapes.
6. Butter and dust the insides of your tart cases with flour to prevent the pastry from sticking. Make sure to beat the tart cases lightly to remove any excess flour.
7. Put the pastries inside and using the tips of your fingers, gently press to follow the shape of the tart case. Take a fork and make some holes in the bottom, just to let the steam escape.
8. Pop it into the oven for about 10-15 minutes. After that, take the pastry out of the tart cases slowly because it might crumble.

For the lemon cream

1. Mix the caster sugar, milk, egg yolks and grated rind and juice of lemon into a pan over a medium fire, reserving maybe a cup of the milk. Mix the corn flour with the cup of milk, this is to properly dissolve the corn flour because corn flour cooks in hot water. If you are not aware, never put corn flour in hot water right away because the mixture will be clumpy. Corn flour cooks in hot water. You'd want to dissolve the corn flour in water before heating it and slowly cooking it properly.
2. Stir the mixture slowly until it bubbles and it thickens. Careful not to burn it! This could take a while but stay alert anyway. After it is thick and cooked, set aside.

For the meringue

1. Beat the egg whites in a mixer on high until "soft peak" form. This is when the egg whites has a fluffy and consistency, and when you put a spoon into it and pull it out, it forms a peak but the tip of it is curled.
2. At this stage, put in your caster sugar and continue beating till it reaches "hard peak" form.
3. This is when the egg whites appear shiny and solid, like whipped cream, and when you put a spoon in it and take it out, it forms a peak that is straight. If you want to know more about this technique, click here.

Putting it all together

1. Quickly but very carefully fold half of the meringue into the lemon cream mixture, reserving the other half for the topping. Mix the lemon cream and meringue mix thoroughly, careful not to whisk it at all, and put it into the pastry cups. The reason being that you'd have to be quick with this is because the mix will harden, making it harder to shape I think.
2. Then using a piping bag with a 1/2 inch star nozzle, put the meringue into the bag and start to pipe the meringue onto the tart. Start from the side and make a swirl towards the center, and upon reaching it, gently pull upwards to form a nice peak. You might have to make more meringue depending on how much you put on one tart. In my case not all 20 of my tarts had full meringue tops. Some only had a miserable dollop of it, hahaha.
3. Dust icing sugar onto the top and pop that into the oven at 200C, for about 10-15 minutes or when the meringue starts to brown.
4. Put the tarts into the fridge to cool. In my opinion, it should be served cold :) and enjoy!