Tarte au Citron Meringuée
Ingredients
- Crust: flour, almond flour, powdered sugar, salt, butter, 1 egg
- Lemon curd: whole eggs, sugar, lemon juice and zest, butter
- Italian meringue: egg whites, sugar, water
This French take on lemon meringue pie starts with a pâte sucrée base enriched with almond flour, blind-baked until crisp, then filled with a tangy lemon curd cooked over a bain-marie. It's topped with a billowing layer of Italian meringue, piped or swirled and lightly torched or baked to a golden finish.
Method
Make the crust by creaming butter and powdered sugar, adding the egg, then mixing in the flour, almond flour and salt just until combined; chill, then roll out and line a tart ring.
Blind-bake the crust until golden and fully crisp; cool.
Make the lemon curd over a bain-marie: whisk sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice and eggs, and cook over simmering water, whisking constantly, until thickened; whisk in butter off the heat.
Pour the curd into the cooled tart shell and chill until set.
Make an Italian meringue by cooking sugar and water to a syrup and pouring it in a steady stream into whipping egg whites, then whipping until glossy and stiff.
Pipe or spoon the meringue generously over the set lemon curd.
Toast the meringue with a kitchen torch, or briefly under a hot broiler, until golden in spots.
