Hello lovelies,
If you’ve been reading my baking blogposts for a while now, you’ll know that I keep my bakes ‘quick & easy’. I try to make each post worthwhile for those of you who are pro’s at baking and those of you who are beginners and lack confidence in the kitchen. I just want my blog to be a place where you can go and you’ll find the perfect bake for you.
Anyway, recently I decided I actually wanted to step up my baking game and push myself harder than I have before. I wanted to see if I could achieve something which was out my comfort zone and be proud of it. And today’s bake is just that!
I’ll be honest, even though today’s bake is harder than the usual bakes I do on here, I still believe if you push yourself like I did, you’ll be able to achieve it! So those of you who are beginners thinking this isn’t for you, don’t click off to fast, read through and see what you think…
I tried my upmost hardest to write the recipe in as much detail as possible whilst keeping it short (ish). So if you’d like to get reading all about this bake, the recipes below:
For Pastry:
- Ready To Roll, Short Crust Pastry
Ingredients For Lemon Curd Filling:
- 3 Large Lemons
- 2tbsp Cornflour
- 100g Golden Caster Sugar
- 75ml Of Strained Orange Juice From One Medium Orange
- 3 Egg Yolks
- 1 Whole Medium Egg
- 75g Of Butter, Room Temperature & Diced
Ingredients For Meringue:
- 3 Egg Whites
- 115g Of Caster Sugar
- 50g Of Icing Sugar
- 1tsp Of Cornflour
How To Make The Base:
- Firstly gather together all your ingredients & equipment and preheat the oven 160C / 325F / Gas Mark 3.
- Secondly, get your ready to roll pastry out the box and place on a lightly floured surface.
- With a rolling pin, roll out the pastry so it’s slightly thicker than a £1 coin.
- Cut the pastry in half, placing one half place into one case and the other half into another case and ease the pastry into the corners. Press the pastry into the cases so it is very slightly raised above the edge.
- Trim the pastry edges and gather together the pastry trimmings and re-roll. Doing the same each time for the next cases, I done 6.
- Once all 6 of your cases have been filled with the pastry, cut the baking parchment sheets to around the same size as the cases and place into them. Then, pour baking beans on top of the baking parchment so that the pastry doesn’t bubble.
- Now it’s time bake. Place in the oven for around 20 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.
How To Make Lemon Curd Filling:
- Firstly, finely grate the zest of two of the lemons and then squeeze all three lemons to give you around 125mls of lemon juice.
- Once you’ve collected the 125ml of lemon juice, strain the juice.
- In a medium sized pan, place the 2tbsp of cornflour, 100g of caster sugar, the grated lemon zest and strained lemon juice.
- Next, squeeze the juice of 1 medium sized orange and try to collect around 75ml of juice. Once you’ve collected the juice put it through a strainer.
- Now, put the 75ml of strained orange juice in a measuring jug and make up to 150ml with cold water and pour into the pan also.
- Put the pan on a medium heat and stir continuously for a few minutes, until thickened.
- As soon as the pan comes to boil, remove from heat and beat in the 75g of butter a piece at a time.
- When the butter has all been added and has melted into the mixture, in a separate bowl beat together the 3 egg yolks (saving the whites for the meringue) and the whole egg really well. Then stir this gradually into the thickened mixture.
- Now return the pan to a medium heat, stirring the curd until it’s very thick. Do this for around 5 minutes. Let it come up to the boil to thicken sufficiently (don’t worry though, it shouldn’t curdle).
- Remove the pan from heat and put to one side.
How To Make The Meringue:
- Firstly, whisk together your 3 egg whites in a large bowl on medium speed to soft peaks. TIP: if you can hold the bowl above your head without the meringue moving, you know it’s done.
- Secondly, add the 155g of caster sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking well between each addition.
- When you have added all the caster sugar, the mixture should be thick & glossy.
- Next, put the 50g of icing sugar and 1tsp of cornflour into a sieve and sift this into the egg whites.
- Fold the icing sugar and cornflour in lightly with a large metal spoon.
- The meringue should now be very thick and shiny. Spoon the meringue into a piping bag, cutting a small piece off the tip of the bag and folding the end of the bag over.
How To Put The Tartlet Together:
- Briefly reheat your curd filling and spoon some into each pastry case. TIP: spoon just enough for it to be below the top of the pastry. Don’t overfill as you need to leave room for the meringue.
- Quickly start piping the meringue over each tart while the filling is still warm.
- Start by piping a big circle all around the outside edge so it touches the edge of the pastry case and work your way in. Piping continuously round and round, building up into a mound of meringue.
- Now, you can sit the tarts on a hot baking sheet and bake in the oven on a low heat for around 10 – 15 minutes, until the meringue is crisp and has taken on a pale colour. OR, you can use a blow torch and torch the top of the meringues.
That’s your lemon meringue tartlets prepared, baked and crisped, ready for you to enjoy!
I can honestly say, when I looked at the final pieces of today’s bake, I was bursting with pride! I don’t mean that to sound big headed in anyway, it’s just this was a bake WAY out my comfort zone yet I pushed through and the final result was everything I wanted it to be. Yay!
I’ve been baking my butt off recently in the kitchen coming up with new tasty treats / snacks for you all to enjoy so I’m pre-warning you, plenty of bakes will be coming up over the next few weeks. I hope that’s okay?
If you didn’t know already, I’ve just started a baking account on Instagram where I’m sharing with you lots of my sweet & savoury bakes and lots of recipes with you. This is going to be something I do alongside my blog and would absolutely love it if you went over and gave me a follow! It’s @ellesbakeoff / https://www.instagram.com/ellesbakeoff/?hl=en
Thank you so much for giving today’s blogpost a read, I hope it inspires you to get out your comfort zone and try something new in the kitchen, you may be pleasantly surprised with yourself!
Sending tons of love & hugs to you all as always,
Elle xo
