Blueberry Lemon Meringue Tart – Tarte au Citron Meringuée aux Myrtilles

This is one of my favorites ! Nothing beats the taste of real lemon curd inside a crumbly butter crust with a dreamy meringue piled on top. Here, to bring more color into the desert and change things up a bit, I’ve added one of my favorite fruits, blueberries.

I grew up in a small town called Nacogdoches, which is the oldest town in Texas. Every summer its quaint downtown brick streets are lined with vendors during its annual Texas Blueberry Festival, where all kinds of local blueberry specialties are served up, most notably being blueberry pancakes. I also have fond memories of accompanying my father early in the morning to the blueberry farm just outside of town, then coming home and making blueberry muffins…….yum!

Lemon tarts are also a staple in French pastry. Every bakery in France have them in their displays, and often you have the choice, with meringue or without.  Now, I know that some people don’t like meringue but I think that this is because of their bad experiences eating pies which had raw meringue on top. Often people want an impressive pie so they pile the meringue as high as possible but then struggle to cook it through. After browning the meringue, the meringue begins to “weep”, meaning that the egg white collapses and returns to liquid form. The result is not very appetizing; in fact, in the South, I’ve heard it many times called “calf slober”!  To learn more about the 3 different types of meringues, their techniques, troubleshooting, etc, check out my recent blog post here!

In this post are some pictures from a series of classes taught in the US; this tart was a popular choice!

Disclaimer: I like a very tart lemon tart; you may find the curd too tart for your palette. If so, an easy fix is to add heavy cream which will calm things down. The cream can be simply stirred into the cooked curd, or to lighten up the texture, you can fold in whipped cream when cooled.

Pâte Sablée – French Butter Crust

230g all purpose flour

5g salt

80g sugar

113g unsalted butter

1 egg

70g water

Rub the flour, butter and sugar between your hands until the mixture looks like grated parmesan and then make a well in the center. Put the egg, water and salt in the well, incorporate them into the flour and butter mixture then knead until the dough pulls away from your work surface.  The dough is easier to work with if chilled before using but, if needed, can be immediately rolled out.  Roll out the dough on a floured surface and place in a tart mold or in a buttered pastry ring. I prefer making individual ones, but up to you!  Line the molds or rings with parchment paper filled with dry bean or baking weights and cook at 450F until golden brown. (The cooking time will depend on the size of the tart.) Halfway through the cooking, remove the parchment paper and weights.

Blueberry Coulis

250g blueberries, preferably fresh

150g sugar

80g water

25g cornstarch

Juice of 1 lemon

Reserve a few blueberries for decoration. In a small saucepan, cook the blueberries, sugar and water over medium heat for 10m. In a small bowl, stir together cornstarch and lemon juice before adding it to the blueberries.  Continue cooking until the mixture thickens. Allow to cool.

Lemon Curd

25g cornstarch

150g fresh squeezed lemon juice

150g egg (yolk or whole egg)

150g sugar

75g butter

In a medium size pot, bring to a boil half of the quantity of sugar and the lemon juice. In a medium size bowl, whisk together remaining sugar and cornstarch, then add egg.  Pour hot lemon juice mixture over the egg mixture, whisking all the while, then pour everything back into the pot. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until thickened.  Remove from heat and whisk in butter.

Italian Meringue

3 egg whites (90g)

180 sugar

30g water

Cook sugar and water in a small saucepan until a cooking thermometer reads 230F. At this point, begin whisking egg whites on high speed in a stand mixer. Continue cooking sugar until thermometer reads 245F. Turn down the speed of the mixer to medium and gently pour the cooked sugar syrup over the egg whites. Turn the mixer back on high speed and continue beating until the mixer’s bowl reaches room temperature. Use immediately.

Blueberry lemon meringue tart structure:

Cover the bottom of blind-baked tart shells with a layer of blueberry coulis, then fill the tarts with lemon curd. Using a pastry bag with a large tip, pipe large dollops of meringue on top of the tarts. Decorate with a blueberry and brown with a torch.