Bake these lemon tarts for the lemon lover in your life. The balance of flavours and textures in them are what make them so special. The crust is slightly sweet, almost cookie-like, with the crunch of poppyseeds. The lemon curd is more like a billowing silky lemon cream. The sweet meringue topping balances the ultra-tart lemon cream.
Tarts are one of my favourite things to bake. I always feel like a professional pastry chef when I whip out my mini tart pans and piping tips. I added some poppyseeds to my favourite pâte sucrée (sweet pastry dough) recipe from Jim Dodge’s classic tome, American Baker . This book was written in 1987 and has stood the test of time. It’s an excellent resource book.
In order to avoid soggy bottoms, you need to blind bake the tart shells. I keep a jar of dried beans in the pantry and use them as weights, so that the pastry does not puff up when I bake it. It’s worth taking the time to pre-bake the tarts, so that you end up with a beautiful, almost cookie-like pastry shell. The dough is rolled quite thin, about 1/8 inch in thickness. If you struggle with rolling dough evenly, like I do, invest in a set of these. They changed my tart game immensely.
The lemon curd for these tarts is a bit unusual in that it is finished in the blender, turning it into a billowing silky lemon cream. I learned this unique technique from Lynne Rossetto Kasper of thesplendidtable.com. Making lemon curd is a bit of a delicate procedure, but I walk you through it, step by step, in the recipe. An instant read thermometer is very useful. Once you master lemon curd, you can play with all sorts of fruits. How about rhubarb curd?
The sweet meringue topping balances the ultra-tart lemon cream. There are several different methods for making meringue to top a pie or tart. The most basic is a French meringue, which is uncooked. Egg whites and sugar are simply beaten to firm peaks. I would not recommend using this method for pies or tarts, as it is not very stable and the meringue will begin to weep after about an hour of sitting on the tart.
I used the Italian meringue method, whereby a sugar syrup is heated to the firm ball stage (248°F) and then slowly poured into the mixer once the egg whites are at the soft peak stage. This results in a stable meringue that is ultra smooth. The finished tarts held up in the fridge for about 2-3 days.
I got to try out my new piping tip. So easy to use but looks so professional. Here’s a link to a video to show you how to use it.
If you want to brown the meringue, a kitchen torch is fun to wield, or you could just put them under the broiler for a quick minute.
Yesterday was my birthday and I began the day by baking my own cake. Now don’t go feeling sorry for me. I have been baking my own cake for many years now. When I was younger, my sister had a friend who worked at a bakery. Every year she would bake and decorate her own birthday cake. We always thought it was the saddest thing. However, now that I’m grown up, I think that baking your own birthday cake is a joyous thing to do. Think about it. No having to be gracious and pretending to be thrilled when someone brings you a chocolate cake, when what you really wanted was carrot cake. 