Recipe: Individual lemon meringue tarts

Makes 12

Prep: 35 minutes

Baking: 25 mins

Pastry

  • 125g butter
  • 125g caster sugar
  • 1 medium egg
  • dash vanilla
  • 250g plain flour

Lemon curd

  • 3 medium eggs
  • 150g caster sugar
  • 175ml lemon juice
  • 150g soft butter
  • Meringue
    4 medium free range egg whites
    120g caster sugar
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 10g cornflour
    pinch cream of tartar

Method

  • For the Lemon curd, place the eggs, caster sugar and lemon juice into a heatproof bowl and whisk together.
  • Place this bowl over a pot of gently simmering water and whisk until the mixture thickens up. This can take up to 10 minutes.
  • Once the mixture is nice and thick, remove from the heat and with a hand blender, add the butter and blitz until smooth.
  • Place a layer of cling film directly on top to stop a skin forming and pop in the fridge for a minimum of 4 hours (preferably overnight)
  • To make the sweet pastry, in a mixing bowl, cream the room temperature butter and sugar together until light and creamy.
  • To this add the egg and vanilla, mix.
  • Finally add in the flour and mix until a soft dough is reached.
  • Wrap & chill the pastry for 30 minutes.
  • Once rested, grab a 12 pan deep cupcake /muffin tin and grease and flour all 12.
  • On a floured work surface, roll out the pastry and cut out 12 x 14cm discs. You may need to reroll the trimmings to get all discs of pastry.
  • Line each muffin tin and pop back into the fridge to rest for 20 minutes.
  • Preheat your oven to 180C / 160C fan / 350F / Gas 4.
  • Line the individual pastry cases with parchment paper and baking beans and blind bake for 10-12 minutes, remove the beans and return to the oven for a further 8-10 minutes until lightly golden brown all over.
  • Remove and allow to cool.
  • For the meringue, place the egg whites in a clean dry bowl and whisk until soft and frothy (soft peak), add the cream of tartar and gradually add the caster sugar. Keep mixing until thick.
  • To this add the icing sugar and cornflour and continue to whisk until thick and glossy.
  • Place the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a large round nozzle.
  • Spoon some cooled curd into the base of the tart shells and pipe the meringue on top.
  • You can use a blow torch to colour the outside of the meringue or alternatively place in a hot oven set at 200C for a few seconds to colour.
  • Tuck in & enjoy.

Top Tip: If you fancy mixing it up, make a delicious lime curd instead of lemon, it will have all ur family guessing!