Lemon Meringue Tart

So here's the thing. I love desserts. One of the biggest challenges though is that we do not own a stand mixer or even a hand mixer. And so note that any mention of mixing of whisking here I do manually. If you have a stand mixer though, your life will be exponentially easier.

Pastry Handful of almonds (~15 almonds)

4 tablespoons of sugar 100g of unsalted butter, diced and chilled 3/4 cup of flour 1 medium egg

Pinch of salt

(4 tablespoons of chopped rosemary and thyme or herbes de provence)

Lemon curd

Juice of 6 lemons

Zest of the 6 lemons (or a splash of orange juice)

5 eggs

1/3 cup of sugar

125ml of Greek yogurt

15ml of heavy cream

Swiss Meringue

Egg whites from 5-6 eggs

3/4 cup of sugar (fine confectionary caster sugar if you have)

Pinch of salt

Make the pastry:

Blitz the almonds and sugar in a food processor or blender. Put the mixture with the rest of the dry ingredients into the bowl and mix with a wooden spoon. Add the cold butter and continue mixing until the mixture looks like fine breadcrumbs. Beat the eggs in a separate bowl. Now add to the flour and butter mixture and mix until just combined. I find it useful (if you are doing this by hand and not a hand mixer) to use your fingertips to gently crumble the butter and flour together to make the "breadcrumbs". Use your fingertips so that the butter doesn't melt and avoid over-working the dough. Once this is done, push the dough together to form a rough disc shape. Wrap the dough in cling film and rest the dough in the fridge for at least an hour.

Lightly flour your work surface and roll the pastry out to an even circle. You want the pastry to be about as thick as a pound coin or about 3mm. Roll the pastry onto the rolling pin and gently lay it out on your tart tin. Press the pastry gently into the tin. You want to leave some of the pastry hanging over the tin. Once this is done, chill the pastry for at least another hour.

Preheat the oven to 150°C (no fan) Trim the excess pastry but leave about 1cm hanging over the tin. Reserve the excess pastry for later. Use aluminium foil to line the tart case for blind-baking. I use plain old red beans to fill the tin for blind-baking.

Bake the tart shell for 1 hour. Remove the pastry case from the oven, remove the foil and beans. Use a pairing knife to shave the edges of the tart shell until it is level with the tart ring and even all around. Or keep it as is if you want it rustic. Use a stick blender to blend the reserved raw pastry trimmings with a little beaten egg to form a liquid pastry or just mix it up old fashion. Brush over the tart case or use a small spoon to plaster the case, filling any cracks and smooth out the edges. Return to the oven for another 10 minutes, then remove and set aside to cool.

Lemon Curd Preheat the oven to 115°C Mix the ingredients together in a heatproof medium-sized bowl (e.g. Pyrex). Over a bain-marie pot of gently boiling water, cook the filling while stirring constantly with a whisk or spatula until warm-hot to the touch.

Place the prepared tart case in the oven, then pour in the filling. Bake for ~20 minutes, or until it's just set with a slight wobble in the centre. Your lemon curd will crack if overcooked. Take the tart out and completely cool it before decorating.

Swiss Meringue To make the Swiss meringue, mix all the ingredients in a bowl then heat over a bain-marie, stirring constantly until the mixture is warm to the touch.

Take the bowl off the heat. Whisk until the meringue becomes thick and glossy and starts to ball up in the whisk. Here you can do either of 2 things:

1) Transfer the meringue to a piping bag fitted with a French star piping tip (it's important to use the meringue straight after making it). Pipe the meringue onto the lemon tart. Or,

2) Just plonk it on.

Then char the meringue by lightly blow torching it using gentle, sweeping motions. What I did though was to put it under the grill for a couple of minutes. There you have it! And of course, best eaten fresh but feel free to keep it in the fridge.