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Lemon Meringue…One Last Time

I don’t know if you are like me but I seem to have two kinds of shopping trips. There is the "quickie", as in quickly in and quickly out (depending who’s in front at the cash register) to get a couple of items I may have forgotten for dinner or something. The second kind, my favorite, is the one in which I have my baking plans carefully thought with a list of ingredients necessary and where I have and take the time to perouse the aisles checking out new products, picking up, touching, smelling fruits and vegetables, talking with the fish guy or my salad guy. He calls me "papillon" because like a butterfly I go from one bin to the next but can’t make up my mind on anything. It is during those longer shopping outings that I often get sucked into buying a case of fruits or other because it is a one day sale, and you probably figured by the title of today’s post that this is what happened when I found myself hauling a case of lemon out to my car.
I tried to do everything possible, lemon curd, preserves, cocktails, but irreversibly found myself drawn to the citrus recipes I found in Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home To Yours.

I had a difficult time settling on one and I promised myself to try the others fairly soon,as they look and sound so tempting: Pierre Herme’s Lemon Cream tart, Fresh Orange Cream Tart, Creamiest Lime Cream Meringue Pie, Florida Pie,….and the one chosen today: Tartest Lemon Tart.

I decided to make individual tarts and changed the ingredients only very slightly.

Here is the recipe, adapted from Dorie Greenspan.

2 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
2 egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)
1 1/2 Tb. cornstarch
Sweet Tart Dough or your prefered pate sablee.

For the dough: in a food processor, combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 cup powdered sugar and 1 stick of butter, pulse until it ressembles coarse meal, add 1 egg yolk and pulse until combined into a ball. I flattened it into a disk in between sheets of plastic wrap, refrigerated it and rolled it out to cut rounds big enough to fit into my mini tart pans. The dough gets soft very fast so you can flour your fingertips to push it up and down the sides and bottoms of the pans.You can also sub. 1/4 cup ground nuts for 1/4 cup of the flour for added flavor.

For the filling: juice the lemons and strain if necessary. Combine the egg, yolks, sugar and cornstarch, add lemon juice and pour into the tart shells. Bake at 350 for 15 – 20 minutes. Let cool completely.

For the meringue: whip the egg whites to a foam, slowly add the sugar to form a shiny meringue. Pipe on top of the baked and cooled tarts. Put under broiler for a couple of minutes or until lighlty browned.

Serve, and pucker be ready…these are tart!

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Comments


Mercotte October 1, 2006 um 4:01 am

tes petites tartelettes sont trop mignonnes ! C’est Clea qui va baver devant, elle adore les tartes au citron!


Sophie François October 1, 2006 um 6:31 am

Très craquantes ces tartelettes, j’en veux bien mon petit dej !


Anonymous October 1, 2006 um 8:41 am

Absolutely beautiful! I can’t handle too much tartness, but I’d be more than happy to give these a go!


veronica October 1, 2006 um 10:02 am

superbes tartelettes.


Astrid October 1, 2006 um 9:08 pm

Beautiful tarts, I never knew lemon meringue could look so sophisticated. And great lighting on the photos.


Anonymous October 1, 2006 um 11:38 pm

Oh! I can’t believe how many posts I’ve missed!!!

These are just beautiful. I see you bought Dorie Greenspan’s book. I saw it in the bookstore the other day but couldn’t justify the price tag. It’s on my birthday/Christmas wish list!


Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) October 2, 2006 um 1:57 am

These are beautiful!


jasmine October 2, 2006 um 2:52 am

I swear…everytime I check in on your blog, it’s just like Christmas.

What a wonderful place to visit 🙂

j


wheresmymind October 2, 2006 um 1:31 pm

That looks TOO perfect…good thing I wasn’t around…there wouldn’t be fancy swirls…more like squiggles 😉


Lis October 2, 2006 um 3:13 pm

aww they look adorable! I wish I had one in front of me right now *sigh* – beautiful work, Helene


Anonymous October 3, 2006 um 3:40 am

They are so cute.


Julia October 3, 2006 um 11:35 am

oh, those look so delicious…yum!
really enjoyed reading your shopping description, I love to shop that way as well…peacefully on my own and picking out all my tasty goodies…=)


Helene October 3, 2006 um 1:07 pm

Clea: merci! Toutes tes miniatures sont sources d’inspiration!

Sophie: ou a tous les repas…:)

Ellie: actually, the meringue cut down on the tart factor and made for a smooth taste.

Veronica: merci!

Astrid: Well, you know with the French visiting, I have to make things "tres chic"! I am really enjoying this camera and have yet so much to learn!

Yvonne: the book was $25 at Costco, and for the amount of great recipes and variation it is worth the money.

Lydia: thank you!

Jasmine: I feel the same visiting your blog! I could dive into your pictures!

Wheresmymind: there were some squiggling involved at some point…cause of the lemon drops!

Lis: I wish I could package one for you! Thank you for stopping by!

Peabody: I showed your blog to my dad, aka "cheesecake freak" and he wants one before he leaves.

Julia: I wish I could meet up with you in Paris, but I’ll be there for Christmas. I am too collecting places and addresses!


Anonymous October 3, 2006 um 8:29 pm

Hi Helene
My parcel has arrived. Great fun opening it this morning and the double ginger cookies went down well with my green tea. I’ll be posting to my blog later today. Thankyou for all the wonderful goodies.


Jen October 4, 2006 um 2:22 am

These are the sexiest lemon meringues I have ever seen. Just beautiful Helene!


Anonymous September 16, 2008 um 7:01 pm

Is it possible that the filling is not cooked before putting into tart shells. Just wondering. they look wonderful. noone seems to have tried making them.


Helene September 16, 2008 um 8:24 pm

Anonymous: the same tart has been made by other bloggers but I think following the same instructions. The filling is essentially a lemon curd, so yes, you could make it separately and add it to the baked shells after they are cooled. Since the filling contains cornstarch,cook it well on low heat to make sure you cook the chalky taste of cornstarch out.


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