Yuzu Meringue Tart
Lemon meringue is one of my favorite pies / tarts, and this upgrades it by making ... a yuzu meringue tart. Inspired by the yuzu meringue pie recipe in Japanese Patisserie. Looks complicated but surprisingly not that difficult to make, if you ignore all the more complicated steps like making the yuzu gel and sesame / orange tuiles. Quite a showstopper, especially if you let your guests blowtorch. The hardest part is probably figuring out where to get yuzu, Japanese grocery stores or large co-op supermarkets known for their produce variety (e.g. Berkeley Bowl) are probably your best bet.
Active Time: 2 hr
Total Time: 3 hr
Ingredients
sweet shortcrust pastry:
> butter (112g)
> sugar (75g)
> egg (1)
> all-purpose flour (216g)
yuzu pie filling:
> yuzu juice (1/2 cup)
> sugar (150g)
> lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
> lemon zest (1/2 lemon)
> eggs (6)
> heavy cream (3/4 cup)
meringue:
> egg whites (100g)
> sugar (200g)
Instructions
sweet shortcrust pastry:
1. Cream together butter and sugar until well combined (don't need to mix too long)
2. Add egg, beat until smooth and fully incorporated.
3. Gently fold in the flour until just combined. Do not overmix.
4. Form the dough into a ball / disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to cool.
5. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured surface to the appropriate thickness. Cut into appropriate size squares, and line the tart pans as neatly as possible. Trim away untidy edges and let cool in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
6. Par-bake the tart shells with baking beans at 400F for 12-15min, until golden and cooked through. Remove baking beans, and set aside.
yuzu pie filling:
1. Make the yuzu pie filling by whisking together lemon juice + zest, yuzu juice, sugar, egg, and heavy cream until well mixed.
2. Pour the mixture into the cooked tart cases and bake at 270F for ~20-30m, or until just set.
3. Remove from the oven, and when cool enough to handle transfer the tarts to the fridge to cool as quickly as possible to room temperature.
meringue:
1. Put the egg whites into a stand mixer and beat at high speed for just a few minutes or until foamy, ~3-4 min.
2. Cook sugar in a saucepan with a small amount of water (just enough to make a wet sand consistency) until it reaches 121C / 250F, stirring occasionally.
3. Reduce the speed on the mixer to low, and gradually pour the hot sugar syrup into the stand mixer.
4. Return the speed to high, and whip the whites to soft peaks.
5. Reduce the speed to low again, and mix for a few more minutes until the meringue is cool.
6. Scrape the meringue into a piping bag fitted with the St Honore tip and set aside.
putting everything together:
1. Pipe the meringue over the top of each tart.
2. Heat the meringue gently with a blowtorch to caramelize the top of each (alternatively, you can do this under a broiler)
Notes/Tips:
> Make sure your butter is room temperature, or at least somewhat spreadable before attempting to make the pastry. Otherwise, it'll be impossible to mix.
> The St Honore tip makes for a nicer presentation; it makes for "ribbons". But it's not really that important, and if you don't have it like me, just use a standard medium flat tip, kind of like what you'd use to make macarons.
> I discovered the hard way that yuzu has very little juice. According to google, "zest is key" for yuzu. In order to get 1/2 cup of yuzu, you'd probably need like ~20 yuzu or so, which is pretty wasteful. In the future, I will probably try to adjust the recipe to use the yuzu zest in addition to the juice, and add a bit of extra acidity with a bit more lemon juice.
> The ingredient amounts are a little bit different from the amounts suggested in Japanese Patisserie, to adjust for the amount I actually used in practice to make everything. And to make it easier for myself (e.g. to use exactly 1 stick of butter, instead of a small fraction more).