You can call a Lemon Meringue Pie old fashioned, homey, classic or trendy, elegant, chic and you’ll be right all times. This elegant dessert just never fails to impress and is always the one requested by friends and family.
This is my mom’s favorite dessert and my dad mastered making it. Friend’s and family would always be asking for it and it was reserved for very special occasions. Other than being delicious, it’s also absolutely gorgeous with the meringue crown.
What to expect
There are quite a few variations for lemon meringue pies, but I love this one best because:
- The crust is buttery and flaky, paté sucreé with some almond flour for a nutty hint
- The lemon curd is very creamy, not too sour and not too sweet
- Fluffy Swiss meringue, lightly burned and so delicious.
Let’s just talk about tart rings for a minute
You can make a big 28cm (11 inch) tart, 2x 19.5 cm (8 inch) or about 12x 6.5cm (2.55 inch). In these pictures, I was practicing with my new Valrhona Perforated Tart Rings, I really recommend getting these rings if you want beautiful flat round edges that are perfectly baked all around. I’ve been wanting them for a while but they were hard to find, until my friends at Duikelman, my absolutely favorite kitchen supply store in Amsterdam brought them in. I’m now saving up to order some more sizes and shapes 🙂
Make it yourself
The first step is to make this Easy Home Made Pie Crust for the flaky crust, you can make this a day in advance and keep well covered so it doesn’t lose the crunchiness.
Then grate some lemon zest and squeeze the juice out of two lemons
Mix together with eggs and sugar
Cook over medium low heat and whisk constantly
Cook until it reaches 80 °C (176 °F) and has a thick heavy consistency
When it reaches the desired consistency transfer to a food processor and process for a few minutes, until the steam is released and it’s cooled down a bit
Then add your room temperture butter, one tablespoon at a time, while it’s still working.
Wait a minute between each addition, so the butter can be fully incorporated before the next one comes in.
When finished you should have a thick creamy curd. You can either store this in a jar in your fridge for a week or continue fill the tart crusts until the top
Cool them for 3-4 hours or over night in the refrigerator
Lets make some Meringue
Add egg whites and sugar to a double boiler
You can easily improvise one with 2 pots and a cup of water. Bring the water to a gentle simmer in the larger pot and whisk the egg white and sugar mixture constantly
After a few minutes, rub a bit of the mixture between your fingers. It’s ready when the sugar is completely dissolved and your can’t feel the sugar grains. This will happen at 79 °C (175 °F) – It’s important to make sure it reaches this temperature to assure the eggs are pasteurized before serving.
Transfer to a stand mixer with whisk attachment, make sure to wipe the bottom of the pot first to prevent any moisture from getting in the bowl. Whisk on high speed until a glossy, fluffy white meringue forms with firm peaks
Now you can either spoon it nicely on top of the tarts, or you can pipe it any way you like. In this case I used open star tips of three sizes, but really anything works
Prepare your cooled tart and pipe your meringue on top and burn lightly with a kitchen torch
And there you go! Your beautiful lemon meringue tart! I’m very curious what you’ll think. If you made this, please take a picture and tag me on Instagram @kerenruben or Facebook Keren’s Kitchen and let me know if you’ll be making this again
Ingredients
- Tart Crust
- 245g (8.6oz) All Purpose Flour
- 40g (1.4 oz) Ground Almonds (Almond flour)
- 75g (2.6 oz) Powdered Sugar
- 170g (6 oz) Cold Butter, cut in cubes
- 1 Large Egg
- For the Lemon Curd
- 200g (7 oz) Granulated Sugar
- 100g Lemon Juice (about 3 lemons)
- 60g lemon zest (about 3 lemons)
- 4 Large Eggs
- 285g (10 oz) Butter, room temperature
- For the Meringue
- 4 Egg Whites
- 200 g (7.7 oz) Granulated Sugar
- 1/8 Tsp Salt
- 1/4 Tsp cream of tartar
Instructions
- For the Crust
- In a food processor, put together the flour, ground almonds and powdered sugar until fine powder
- Add butter cubes and pulse a couple times, until a chunky, sandy texture (we want small pieces of butter to remain visible)
- Add Egg and pulse a few more times until you see it’s formed into big pieces of soft dough
- Combine the dough together with your hands into a disk and wrap it with saran wrap, do it quickly so the butter doesn’t melt from the warmth of your hands. Place in the fridge for at least 30 min (or up to 3 days)
- Heat oven to 180 C
- Flour you surface and roll out your dough to about 3mm thick. Gently pick up the rolled though and line your pie pan with it, pushing the dough into the corners with your thumb.
- Poke the dough with a fork all around the bottom and place it back in the refrigerator for an additional 30 minutes.
- Blind Bake for 15 minutes, remove the pie weights and bake for another 10 minutes.
- Cool completely before filling
- For the Lemon Curd
- In a medium sauce pan add sugar, eggs, lemon peel and lemon juice, whisk together
- Place the pan over medium low heat and whisk continuously until the mixture gets to a thick, heavy consistency and reaches 80 °C (176 °F)
- Remove from heat and transfer into a food processor. Process for 5 minutes to let it cool.
- Add butter, one tablespoon at a time, making sure it is completely integrated before adding another
- When all the butter has dissolved, fill in the tart crust and refrigerate for at least 3 hours
- For the Meringue
- In a large pan, heat up 2 cups of water, bring to a boil and then lower temperature to bring to a simmer
- In a medium sauce pan, whisk together the egg whites and sugar
- Set the pan on top of the larger pan, making sure it does not touch the simmering water
- Let the steam from the simmering water cook the egg-sugar mixture while continuously whisking, until egg whites reach 79 °C (175 °F) and sugar is completely dissolved.
- Transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment and whip at high speed until the meringue is glossy and forms firm peaks, about 5 minutes.
- Use Immediately and pipe on top of the pre-made tarts, torch lightly from each direction. Serve directly or keep refrigerated for up to 2-3 days
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