A classic lemon meringue pie never tasted so good! Crispy, crumbly shortcrust tart filled with a tangy lemon curd and swirls of torched meringue for the perfect hit of nostalgia. It’s old school, with a hint of sophistication and modernism.

In my humble opinion, what makes a good classic dessert great is nailing individual components to the T. More often than not, they are pretty uncomplicated with few key components so it’s absolutely crucial to make sure we are paying close attention to each of them. Let’s take this lemon meringue pie for instance. There are only three components to the dessert:

• Shortcrust pastry

• Lemon curd

• Meringue

So, to make the most delicious lemon meringue pie that will knock everybody’s socks off, we gotta nail these three components- the best flakey, crumbly shortcrust you’ve ever had, the most delicious lemon curd that’s just the right amount of tang vs sweet and the fluffiest meringue. And if you’ve got those right, I would say you’ve hit the nail pretty spot on. I’m gonna help you do just that.

Let’s break them down.

Shortcrust pastry

If you’ve been following me on IG for a while, y’all know I loooveeee my shortcrust pastry. It’s crumbly, it’s flakey, it’s buttery and bonus- it’s incredibly simple to make. I mean, did we hit the jackpot here or what?!

I have talked about shortcrust in depth before in one of my previous posts, so if you want to learn a little bit more about that, you can get your nerd on right here. Not gonna get into all of that here today, gotta keep it short and simple babyyy…plus we all know how quickly I can go off topic lol

Lemon curd

Now, this is the deal right here. What’s a lemon tart without a good lemon curd? That’s right- nothing! So we gotta make this one count. Lucky for us, lemon curd is extremely straightforward and my all in method makes it that much easier. There’s not just one way to make lemon curd, and there’s definitely no one right way, I just find this way extremely easy and simple. Gotta keep it simple guys, don’t overcomplicate it.

Lemon curd, if you’re not too familiar with, is essentially a set lemon custard. So in terms of texture, it’s incredibly smooth, it’s velvety with a bit of body or ‘weight’ to it in terms of mouthfeel. A good lemon curd, in my opinion, should be tangy with the right balance of sweetness and not overbearingly ‘eggy’. If you’ve had lemon curds that are eggy, you know what I’m talking about. Yeaaa, it’s not pleasant…

Anyhoo, so in this particular method, we are dumping everything right into a bowl and cooking it over a bain marie (to make it extra fail-proof). There are two ways of incorporating butter into your curd that majorly affect the texture and mouthfeel of the curd-

• Cooking the butter with the curd (like how I do it)- this makes the curd a lot lighter and adds more ‘freshness’ while still adding a certain level of richness & velvety-ness to the curd for a more pleasant mouthfeel.

• Emulsifying the butter after the curd is cooked- this method has beautiful mouthfeel, with a super smooth and rich texture. However, that means, it can also be quite heavy and if you don’t emulsify properly, that can affect the texture, flavour and mouthfeel.

If you’ve never made lemon curd before, I strongly recommend using the all in method first. But definitely try the emulsification method, because you gotta keep learning!

If you’d like a video tutorial on how to make your lemon curd, you watch this tutorial right here.

Italian meringue

Last but not the least, the mighty meringue! I have also talked about meringue in great depth with all the nitty gritty of acing your meringue so if you wanna get in on the secret, you can read all about the 101s of a meringue here.

This one is a slightly different meringue, in the sense that the method of making it is slightly different but the principle of aeration remains the same.

Okay, before you get confused and go, ‘What the hell is she talking about?! How many meringues are there?’, let me explain myself. Some of you are baking enthusiasts and probably already know this, but for the ones who don’t, here’s the deal:

There are three types of meringue. Well, actually three different styles of making meringue, I should say.

• French meringue: this is the most generic and widely used meringue. It’s a simple process of adding castor sugar to your egg whites and whipping them to get a stiff meringue. Super basic, straightforward and quite effective in most cases. However, it’s not the most stable.

• Italian meringue: this is also the one we are making today. In this technique of meringue, a hot sugar syrup boiled to 118C is added to slightly whipped egg whites and the two are then whipped together to get a stiff glossy meringue. This is kinda the most popular meringue method amongst professional bakers as it is quite shiny & glossy, and most stable out of all the three meringues.

• Swiss meringue: In a swiss meringue, the egg whites and sugar are whisked together over a double boiler to reach 60C and then whipped to stiff peaks. It has the best mouthfeel amongst the three meringues, and a lot smoother and silkier. Not super common for meringue alone, however, it’s gorgeous to use as a base for buttercream.

Italian meringue is the most stable of all and that’s why it's an excellent choice to decorate tarts. It’s a simple method, however, please do be careful while dealing with the hot sugar syrup.

Well, that was the rundown of what’s going down today. How are we feeling? Excited?! Hell yeah!

Okay, let’s get right into it. Get your aprons out and get in the kitchen. We’re gonna make some delicious shit :D Happy baking and bon appetite! xx

Recipe

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

For the shortcrust pastry:

• 100g unsalted butter, cold and cubed

• 67g icing sugar

• 167g plain flour

• 20g almond meal

• pinch of salt

• 33g eggs

• 1 egg, for eggwash

For the lemon curd:

• 90ml lemon juice

• 60g castor sugar

• 3 egg yolks

• 2 whole eggs

• 100g unsalted butter

For the Italian meringue:

• 100g castor sugar

• 40g water

• 40g egg whites

• pinch of salt

Method

For the shortcrust pastry:

• Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, rub the flour, almond meal, icing sugar and salt together with the cold, cubed butter until all the flour is completely coated with butter, and the mixture resembles like wet sand.

• Add in the egg and mix until the dough just comes together.

• Transfer onto a work surface and use your hands to shape the dough into a disc. Cover with cling wrap and chill for at least an hour or preferably overnight.

• To line the tart- on a lightly floured surface, roll out the chilled pastry to a 3-4mm thickness, ensuring the pastry is larger than the tart case. Brush off the excess flour and roll the pastry on a rolling pin to lift and line the tart cases. Refrigerate for 30mins to an hour.

• Preheat oven to 170C.

• Using a sharp paring knife, trim off the excess pastry by holding the knife horizontal to the tart case edge and simultaneously rotating the tart case. To watch a video on how to line a tart shell correctly, click here.

• Line the tart with parchment paper and fill with pie weights or beans. Blind bake the tart for 15-20 mins or until the edges are golden brown.

• Carefully remove the pie weights and the parchment paper and return the tart to the oven for another 5-10 mins or until the bottom is golden brown as well and the tart is completely baked through.

• Eggwash the baked tart and bake for another 3 mins. Let it cool completely.

For the lemon curd:

• In a medium bowl, mix together all the ingredients for the curd and place the bowl over a double boiler.

• While continuously whisking the curd, cook until it is thickened and started to leave lines when you lift the whisk~ roughly 4-6mins.

• Strain the curd and let it cool completely. It will get thicker and set as it cools down.

• For a video tutorial on how to make the lemon curd, you can watch this tutorial here.

For the Italian meringue:

• Place the egg whites in the bowl of a stand mixer along with a pinch of salt. Using a whisk attachment, start whipping the egg whites on medium speed.

• In a small saucepan, heat together the sugar and water. Boil the sugar syrup to 118C.

• Once the sugar reaches 118C, reduce the speed of your mixer and slowly pour in the hot sugar syrup onto the whisking egg whites.

• After all the sugar syrup is in, increase the speed back to medium-high and whisk until the bowl is no longer warm to touch and the meringue is now glossy and shiny with stiff peaks.

• Transfer the meringue onto a piping bag fitted with a nozzle of your choice. Keep aside.

Assembly:

• Fill the cooled tart shells with the cold lemon curd. Flatten the top using a palette knife.

• Pipe the meringue on top and use a blow torch to toast the meringue.

• Serve immediately.

Notes:

• The tart shells and lemon curd can be prepared a day in advance and the meringue can be prepared at the time of serving.

• Alternatively, you can assemble the tarts, along with the meringue and refrigerate for upto 3 hours. Blow torch to service.
  

If you enjoyed that and tried it at home, please tag me at @myyummyspatula on Instagram so that I can see all your bakes! For more BTS stories, updates and fun, you can follow along here: