Lemon Curd Italian Meringue Tart

Lemon Meringue Pie is probably one of my all time favorite dessert feet.
This recipe is inpired in Raspberry & Lemon Curd Italian Meringue Tart by Mia loves Pretty

Lemon Curd Italian Meringue Tart

Prep time: Short crust pastry 70 mins (40 mins of this is refrigeration time, 20 mins of this is bake time)
Lemon Curd filling 50 mins (30 mins of this is having the lemon curd filling set in the pastry case, fridge)
Italian Meringue & Piping (40 mins)

Ingredients
Short Crust Pastry

• 225 gm or 1.5 Cups Plain White Flour
• 125 gm Chilled Unsalted Butter, cut into small cubes
• 80 gm or 0.5 Cup Icing Sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar), plus extra for dusting
• 2 Egg Yolks
• 1 TBSP Iced Water

Lemon Curd

• 430 ml or 1.75 Cups of Milk (skim or whole is fine)
• 220 gm or 1 Cup Caster (aka Super fine) sugar
• 50 gm or 0.33 Cup Cornflour (aka Corn Starch
• 80 gm Unsalted Butter, cut into cubes
• 2 TBSP Finely grated Lemon Zest
• 125 ml or 0.5 Cup Lemon Juice
• 6 Egg Yolks

Italian Meringue

• 80 ml or 1/3 Cup Water
• 330 gm or 1.5 Cups of Caster (aka Super fine) sugar
• 3 Egg whites, a room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar (or substitute with lemon juice if you don’t have any)

Equipment

• 5 inch X 14 inch fluted tart tin (with liftable centre)
• Standing Mixer
• Small saucepan x 1, Medium saucepan x 1
• Whisk
• Measuring cups and Scales
• Palette knife / Spatula
• Candy Thermometer
• Rolling Pin & Board
• Kitchen blowtorch

Steps:
Short Crust Pastry

1. Place the flour, butter and icing sugar in a food processor (I used my KitchenAid standing mixer with the whisk attachment), and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
   Whilst the motor is running, add the egg yolks and cold water, and watch as the breadcrumbs come together like a dough.
2. Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface (floured with plain flour or icing sugar) and gently bring it together to form a ball then flatten it to a disc. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins (or 20 mins in the freezer), or until firm.
3. Preheat oven to 160 Degrees Celsius (325 Degrees Fahrenheit). Take your dough out of the fridge and wait for 5-10 mins until the dough is roll-able to about 1.5cm thickness. Place this dough onto your greased tart tin, press down into the tin and the fluted edges and then trim off all the excess dough sitting over the edge. Place this in the fridge to firm up for 8 minutes.
4. Line a piece of baking paper on top of this pastry case and place pastry weights on top (I didn’t have any, and just filled the case with lentil beans, you can also use rice!). Blind bake for 10 minutes, then remove the baking paper and weights and further bake another 10 minutes until the pastry is slightly golden. Leave to cool then remove the pastry case out of the tin onto a baking rack or tray

Lemon Curd Filling

1. Place 1 cup of the milk into a medium saucepan, and place the sugar as well. Place over high heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
2. In a separate mixing bowl, place the cornflour and the remaining milk and whisk together. Then add this cornflour mixture to the milk mixture.
3. Reduce heat to medium, add butter to the saucepan mixture and whisk until melted and combined.
4. Add lemon juice, zest and egg yolks and continue cooking and whisking until the mixture is thickened like a custard texture, then take off heat.
5. While lemon curd mixture is hot, pour it in Crust Pastry and smooth the surface with a palette knife.
6. Place the filled pastry case in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Italian Meringue Topping

1. Place the Water and sugar in a small saucepan over high heat. Place a candy thermometer in the saucepan and bring the mixture to the boil, cook 6-10 minutes until the thermometer reads 121 Degrees Celsius (or 250 Degrees Fahrenheit)
2. Meanwhile place the egg whites and cream of tartar (or lemon juice) in an electric mixer/standing mixer and whisk until soft peaks form.
3. Whilst the motor is running on the electric mixer, add the sugar syrup in a thin steady stream into the egg whites. Continue to whisk until the mixing bowl feels cool (be careful because the metal bowl can get really hot!).
4. Spoon the glossy mixture onto the pie(s) (or pipe them out like I did) over the lemon curd and using a kitchen blow torch, lightly torch the surfaces until golden flecks form.