I am a great fan of tarts. I love fruit tarts, especially the mini tarts from Delifrance. Tarts always look so pretty with a splash of different colours. The instagram photos are making me craving for lemon meringue tarts badly and i have no idea where i've gotten the courage to bake a lemon meringue tart because the process is so tedious. I spent half a day in the kitchen baking my meringue tart. I am not good with tarts and i take forever to press my dough into the tart pans. In future, i am definitely going to bake the tart base the night before. Since i only have 1 tart pan, i baked the rest of the dough in my mini muffin pans. I am still in the midst of mastering the skill of making a smooth lemon curd. Usually, i like my tart base to be really thick. Unlike the other normal fruit tarts' recipe, this tart base recipe yields a pretty dry pastry crust. So you wouldn't want a really thick crust if not it is going to taste really dry. 

Recipe: ( Makes 1 medium size tart and 10 mini tarts, original recipe adapted from BBCgoodfood)

Pastry: 

175g Plain Flour

100g Cold butter, cut in small pieces

1Tbsp Icing sugar

1 Egg Yolk

1. To prepare the pastry, mix the flour, icing sugar well. Rub in your cold butter with your finger tips. Add egg yolk and knead into a dough. ( If you have a food processor, it makes work even easier for you! Just put the flour butter, icing sugar, egg yolk into a food processor. Pulse it so the mix is not overworked, process until the mix starts to bind.) 

2. Tip the pastry onto a lightly floured surface and gather until smooth. Press pastry onto your tart pan or muffin tins. Pastry is pretty rich so just press it back together if it cracks. Prick the base with a fork and line with foil, shiny side down and chill for 1/2 hr - 1 hr (overnight)

3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celsius and blind bake the pastry ( i use rice and it works well) for about 8-15 mins (depending on the size of your tarts), remove foil and bake a further 3-8 mins until the pastry is pale golden and cooked. Set aside. 

Filling: 

1.5 Tbsp Corn Flour

75g Caster Sugar

Grated zest of 2 lemons

125 ml Fresh Lemon Juice

Juice of 1 Orange

85g Butter, cut into small pieces

3 Egg Yolks and 1 Whole Egg

1. While the pastry bakes, prepare the filling. Mix corn flour, sugar and lemon zest in a medium saucepan. Strain and stir in the lemon juice gradually. 

2. Make the lemon juice up to 200 ml with water and strain into the pan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and smooth. 

3. Once mixture bubbles, remove from heat and beat in the butter until melted. Beat the egg yolks and whole egg together, stir into the pan and return to medium heat. Keep stirring vigorously for a few minutes, until the mixture thickens and plops from the spoon. (It'll bubble but it doesnt curdle). Take off the heat and set aside while you meringue.

Meringue:

4 Egg whites, room temperature

150g Caster Sugar

2 Tbsp Corn Flour

1. Put the egg whites into a large bowl. Whisk to soft peaks, then add half the sugar a spoonful at a time, whisking between each addition without over beating. 

2. Whisk in the corn flour then add the rest of the sugar as before until smooth and thick.

3. Quickly reheat the filling and pour it into the pastry case. Immediately put spoonfuls of meringue around the edge of the filling, then spread so it just touches the pastry. Pile the rest into the center, spreading so it touches the surface of the hot filling, then give it a swirl. 

4. Return to the oven for about 18-20 mins until the meringue is crisp and slightly coloured. Let the pie sits in the tin for 30 mins, then remove and leave for at least another 1/2hr-1hr before slicing. Best served on the same day.