French Lemon Meringue Tart

Lemon meringue tart is a delicious French dessert. The tart crust filled with the lemon confit, candied lemon slices, and lemon cream is decorated with the Italian meringue. It makes an amazing presentation on a table to impress guests. It is simple outside with the "party" inside.

This lemon meringue tart is my second lemon baking project after the LEMON TART. We were planning an Oyster outing trip for a weekend, and I was in search of what kind of the dessert could be a compliment for oysters. I found out that any lemon containing sweet would suit the oysters.

I served the Lemon meringue tart after our trip to an Oyster farm at Samish Bay, Washington, last weekend where we enjoyed raw fatty! oysters. It was my first experience with getting to know oysters, and I really liked it. We hope to repeat the oyster outing trip in the near future, but it will probably be another one - with picking oysters out of the water by ourselves! I will make an effort to get oysters before I eat them:)

I need to admit that this Lemon meringue tart was a worthy completion of our oyster lunch. Yes, it perfectly complimented the shellfish. Once I cut the tart, his lemon layers with the white snow of the Italian meringue have appeared. How beautiful the cut of this tart was! It spoke to us in Lemon language, and we started understanding it. No wonders, it was made out of seven yellow lemons and three limes! The Lemon language was guaranteed!

Total time of making the tart is 2 h 30 min + 6-12 h in the fridge.

Ingredients:

For sugar dough:

• 125 g butter, softened
• 30 g almond powder [flour]
• 120 g icing sugar
• 1 egg
• 1.5 lime (zest) or 2 small yellow lemons (zest)
• 2 g salt
• 250 g flour

For candied lemon slices:

• 100 g very fine lemon strips 2 mm
• 100 g sugar
• 70 g water
• 1 vanilla bean or 1 g vanilla powder
• ½ cinnamon stick

For lemon confit:

• 170 g lemon juice
• 90 g  caster sugar
• 60 g lemon peel (without white)

For lemon cream:

• 75 g butter, melted
• 120 g sugar
• 3 small eggs
• 70 g lemon juice
• 30 g lime juice
• 1.5 green lime (zest)
• 2 sheets of gelatin

For lime meringue:

• 130 g egg whites
• 75 g water
• 260 g caster sugar
• 1 lime (zest)

Instructions:

Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

To make the sugar dough, take the butter out of the fridge 1.5-2 hours in advance. Place the butter in a bowl of the stand mixer and beat it at slow speed. Add the icing sugar and whisk until to get a creamy texture.

Add the citrus zest, then almond powder and whisk again. Then incorporate in the egg...

then the flour and salt previously sifted and mixed. From the moment you have incorporated the flour, the mixture must be whisked twice and very quickly.

Form a "flat ball" from the dough and cover with a food film.

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, better over night. Roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper or plastic sheets to the thickness of 2-3 mm. Butter and flour a tart ring of 18 cm. Spread the dough over the ring: make a circle of 18 cm in diameter (use the tart ring) and cut long strips of the width which is equal to the height of the ring.

Place the dough circle as the bottom of the tart crust on a baking sheet layered with the parchment paper. Then arrange long dough strips along the border of the ring. Pick the dough all over with a fork.

Deposit a sheet of wax paper on the surface with beans, lentils or rice.

Bake the tart crust at 300 degrees F for 30 minutes.

For candied lemon slices, place the fine slices of the lemon in a pan and rinse 3 times (clean water every time).

Cook them in a pan with the other ingredients for about 15 minutes. The slices must be melting but keeping the shape. Don't hesitate to cook a little bit more if you need.

To make the lemon confit, wash the lemons and then, using a peeler, peel the bark of the lemon by leaving the minimum of white, a source of excessive bitterness. Place them into a pan with a cold water, then bring it all to boil.

Empty the pan by passing the lemon peels through a sieve, then repeat the operation two more times. Cook these lemon peels with the lemon juice and sugar, stirring for 40-50 minutes.

Once a few tablespoons of juice is left in the pan, mix it in a robot while the mixture is still hot.

For lemon cream, melt the butter in a pan. Then add sugar, eggs, lemon juice and lime zest while stirring all the time.

Bring this mixture to the limit of boiling. Remove the pan from the fire with the first bubble. Whip a bit more while adding the gelatin soaked in the cold water. Cover the cream with a food film, making the contact with the cream. Let it rest until the lemon cream starts thickening.

For lime meringue, whisk the egg whites till they are foamy. At the same time, heat the sugar with water to 121°C/250 F. Slowly pour the sugar syrup into egg whites and continue whisking. Add the lime zest when the meringue is still hot (for infusion) and whisk until the meringue is cooled down.

To assemble the tart, spread the lemon confit at the bottom of the tart crust with a spoon.

Place the candied lemon slices on top of the confit.

Fill the tart crust with the tempered lemon cream up to the edges, spread it with a stainless steel spatula. Place the tart in the fridge for at least 2 hours.

Decorate the Lemon tart with the Italian meringue and burn it with a blowtorch.

Enjoy!

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Recipe card

The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.

The recipe was adapted from a Facebook page of Philippe Conticini.