Lemon Meringue Tart

Ingredients

1. Baked tart shell (see pâte sucrée recipe)

Lemon curd

1.  240g caster sugar
2. Zest and lemon juice from 3 lemons
3. 200g eggs
4. 300g butter, cubed, room temp

Italian Meringue

1. 100g egg whites
2. 1/2 tsp salt
3. 200g caster sugar
4. 60g water

Instructions

1. (Optional) In a large bowl, rub the lemon zest in the sugar for 1-2 min, to diffuse the lemon flavour into the sugar.
2. In a separate bowl, hand whisk the eggs. Add the eggs into the lemon sugar mixture, and whisk in with lemon juice.
3. Heat the lemon curd on a bain-marie, stirring every min, until it reaches 81C.
4. Remove from bain-marie and allow to cool down to 55-60C.
5. Whisk in butter, one cube at a time. 
6. Handblend the curd for 6 min, then pass through a fine-mesh sieve into a plastic container.
7. Cover the surface of the lemon curd with cling film and chill in fridge for at least 4h or overnight.
8. When ready to assemble the tart, make the Italian meringue.
9. Place egg whites and salt in the bowl of a stand-mixer with the whisk attachment.
10. Place sugar and water in a small pan and boil over medium heat. When the syrup reaches the boil, start whisking the egg whites on medium speed, until soft peaks.
11. Cook the syrup to 118C and pour over the egg whites.
12. Increase the speed and keep whisking until the meringue feels barely warm.
13. Fill a piping bag with the chilled lemon curd and pipe a generous layer of lemon curd into the baked tart shell.
14. Fill a piping bag with the meringue, and pipe on top of the lemon curd. Burn using a blowtorch.