Lemon Meringue Tartlets

I made these gorgeous tartlets last week! super cute and super yummy! I used this recipe from Masterchef. However I did cheat, i used pre-made cases, but they were still super yummy!
I have a blowtorch, but its out of the liquid stuff, so i popped them in the oven, but left it for a bit too long, so it ended up being basically lemon tarts with meringue on top! but they were still super yum!

Ingredients

Sweet dough


90g unsalted butter


50g caster sugar


1 pinch salt


1 vanilla bean, seeds

scrapped and bean discarded


1 egg


20g almond meal


160g plain flour



Lemon curd filling


30g pouring cream


Juice and zest of 1 lemon


2 egg yolks


30g caster sugar


30g butter, diced



Meringue


2 egg whites


140g caster sugar



Method

Sweet Dough

1. Cream the butter, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add vanilla bean seeds and beat until fluffy. Add egg and mix to combine. Add almond meal and flour and mix until mixture forms a dough.

2. Place between two sheets of cling wrap, flatten and refrigerate for 2 hours to rest.



3. Flour bench, lay pastry on top and dust again with flour. Roll to a desired thickness and prick well with a fork. Cut rounds with a 12cm cookie cutter and lay into 10cm diameter tartlet cases. Gently press into tins to fit and roll over tartlets with a rolling pin to trim edges. Refrigerate for 1 hour.



4. Bake at 160°C for approximately 20-25 minutes or until golden.




Baked Lemon Meringue Tart



1. Preheat oven to 90⁰C.

2. Pour cream, lemon juice and zest into a small saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat.



3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl, add half the cream and juice mixture and whisk to combine. Pour back into the saucepan with remaining cream and cook, whisking until mixture comes to the boil and thickens.



4. Pass through a fine sieve and whisk in butter until thick and glossy. Allow to chill for 30 minutes. Spoon into a piping bag and pipe into baked tart shells.



5. For meringue, beat egg whites to soft peaks. Gradually add caster sugar, beating well between each addition until dissolved.



6. Pipe meringue onto the filled tartlet cases and brown with a blow torch.



7. Garnish with candied lemon and orange zest and dried and crystallised lemon peel.