The Ultimate Milk Tart Recipe

The Ultimate Milk Tart Recipe

The Ultimate Milk Tart Recipe

Milk Tart is just the most delicious South African dessert EVER. It is a staple in every single South African grocery store, coffee shop, bakery, café etc.

Having a barbeque at a friend’s house? You buy meat, drinks and a Milk Tart.

Hosting a family dinner at your house? You buy the ingredients to make a Milk Tart.

Having tea at your Gran’s? You buy nothing, because she’s probably already baked a Milk Tart!

I was so obsessed with Milk Tart as a kid that it was my birthday cake of choice for quite a few years (And I had a phase where I loved wearing my dad’s shirts! I’m the one with the white headband).

My gran was also an avid baker! We would go visit her very often in our childhood years.

My sister and I were HUUUGE fans of her baking. My sister’s favourite tart was Lemon Tart and mine was, of course, Milk Tart so we would have to take turns choosing the “tart of the weekend”… Apparently we couldn’t have both… Something about overeating.

There was also an incident in the small town of Tulbagh where our health conscious little family of four finished off a Milk Tart the size of a pizza in one go. Fun times.

Milk Tart is essentially a custard tart (with cinnamon) inside a pastry base which can be eaten warm or cold. It was derived from a recipe brought over by the Dutch settlers in the 1600’s. The Cape Malay folks (creators of Bobotie) adapted the recipe and added some spices. More on the history of Milk Tart.

Milk Tart has come a long way since the 1600’s and we now even have a National Milk Tart Day every year! 27 February is still some time away, but I thought I’d share my recipe for Milk Tart NOW so that you can be prepared and make a delicious one of your own for the 27th 🙂

Different Milk Tart Techniques:

As with other custard tarts there are a few different approaches to making Milk Tart. Some folks prefer a flaky puff pastry base. Others prefer a crunchy shortcrust pastry.

Some even take a shortcut and use crushed cookies for the base. There are instructions for this in the recipe as well. When you use crushed biscuits for a base you can whip up this Milk Tart in 30 minutes!

The custard itself also has different approaches. It can either be baked in the oven or cooked on stove-top and poured into a pre-baked base.

Personally, I do not like puff pastry with this dessert. The crisp, buttery-ness of shortcrust pastry just works SO much better with the smooth custard filling.

I also prefer the stove-top Milk Tart custard over the baked custard. The stove-top custard is just smoother and silkier – yum! Some of the custard methods can be super tedious – whipping egg whites and folding them in, then baking the tart after the custard had been on the stove as well!

Too much unnecessary effort. If you can get amazingly silky smooth milk tart with less effort, I don’t see the point in making it laborious.

Milk Tart | The most delicious South African dessert EVER! Golden, buttery shortcrust pastry with a super smooth and creamy milk custard filling and cinnamon - what is not to love? It's a staple in every single South African grocery store, coffee shop, bakery, café etc. Try this ultimate Milk Tart Recipe to see what all the fuss is about! #milktart #southafricanfood #milktartrecipe

Some recipes also call for condensed milk inside the custard. Although this approach also yield a lovely texture, the overall flavour becomes too sweet. For this reason I really prefer using regular white granulated sugar. It dissolves completely without you even needing to think about it.

I also really prefer to eat Milk Tart at room temperature – not hot or cold. Goldilocks had a point.

 

Milk Tart Recipe Introduction:

Shortcrust pastry is a breeze to make in a food processor. However, if you do not have a food processor you can make the pastry by hand as well. I particularly love this pastry recipe because it doesn’t require heaps of resting, but delivers incredible results.

Custard requires your full attention. Do not leave the stove. It’s a super easy custard, but be fully present while you make it so that it doesn’t catch and burn or turn out lumpy.

Ultimate Milk Tart Recipe

INGREDIENTS:

FOR THE PASTRY:
170 g Flour
40 g Icing Sugar
110 g Salted Butter
1 Tbsp Ice Cold water

EASY ALTERNATIVE BASE (if you don’t have time to make pastry):
200 g Digestive Biscuits (Graham Crackers), crushed
80 g Unsalted Butter, melted

FOR THE FILLING:
800 g Milk (4-5% fat)
100 g Cream (around 35% fat)
2 eggs (110 g)
120 g Granulated White Sugar
40 g All Purpose Flour
40 g Corn Starch
Pinch of Salt
2 Tbsp Salted Butter
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 Tbsp Ground Cinnamon

INSTRUCTIONS:

FOR THE BASE:
1. Visit my post on Shortcrust Pastry for the pastry method.
2. Make the sides of the base about 3,5 cm high.
3. The quick & easy route: Swap the pastry for 200 g crushed Digestive Biscuits (Graham Crackers) mixed with 80 g Melted Unsalted Butter. Stir together thoroughly and press the mixture firmly into a 25 cm (10 inch) pie/tart dish OR a 25 cm x 17 cm (10 x 7 inch) rectangular dish. Refrigerate while you make the filling.

FOR THE FILLING:
1. Preheat your oven to 70˚C (158˚F). You’re not going to bake the filling, you’re just going to leave the tart in a warm-ish oven while it starts setting so it doesn’t crack.
2. If you’re using an electric stove to make the filling, preheat one stove plate on medium heat. No need to do this if you’ve got a gas stove.
3. Place the milk & cream in a large microwavable bowl. Microwave until hot – about 4 minutes, but watch it so it doesn’t boil over!
4. In the meantime, place the eggs, flour, sugar and salt in a medium heatproof mixing bowl. Stir with a whisk until combined and smooth. Do not whip the mixture. We do not want to incorporate air.
5. Now the egg mixture needs to be tempered before it can be added to the pot. Scoop half a cup of the hot milk out and very gradually and vigorously whisk it into the egg mixture. Continue gradually whisking in half a cup at a time until about half the hot milk has been whisked into the egg mixture.
6. Pour the remaining milk into a large pot. Pour the egg mixture into the warm milk in the pot as well, whisking the milk all the while. Be sure to scrape in each last bit with a spatula.
7. Place the pot on your stove on medium heat. Whisk constantly – it can catch and burn on the bottom of the pot. The custard will thicken and very large bubbles will start to break to the surface. Keep cooking and whisking the custard for another minute to ensure all the flour is cooked through.
8. Remove from the heat and whisk the butter and vanilla in thoroughly.
9. Transfer to your pre-baked pastry OR crushed biscuit base immediately. Smooth out the surface. Be sure to push the custard against the sides of the pastry so that the two adhere to each other. Failure to do so will result in the custard pulling away from the pastry as it cools.
10. Turn off your oven and place your milk tart inside it – leave the door slightly open. Letting the milk tart set inside a warmer environment initially, helps it not to crack on the surface.
11. After 1 hour, remove the tart from the oven and put in your fridge till completely cool and fully set – about 3 hours.
12. If you used pastry for a base, remove the tart from the tin. The pastry is very stable, so you can push the whole tart onto a flat serving plate or cake stand if you wish. I recommend pushing onto a cake board first and then placing it on your serving dish.
13. Dust the tart with ground cinnamon. You can just dump it on, but I like to use the rim of a doily as a stencil. It creates quite a pretty finish. I use a little tea sieve to dust on the cinnamon – it gives a finer dusting.
14. Milk Tart is delicious served cold, but I prefer room temperature. Let it stand at room temperature about 30 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Milk Tart is the most delicious South African dessert EVER! Golden, buttery shortcrust pastry with a super smooth and creamy milk custard filling and cinnamon - SO GOOD! Try this ultimate Milk Tart Recipe to see what all the fuss is about! #milktart #southafricanfood #milktartrecipe

Thanks for reading! If you give this Milk Tart a go, tag me on Facebook, twitter or Instagram @philosophyofyum because I would LOVE to see!

Chat soon!

Aurelia 🙂

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)

Shortcrust Pastry – Quick & Easy Recipe

Shortcrust Pastry – Quick & Easy Recipe

Shortcrust Pastry – Easy & Quick Recipe

Shortcrust pastry used to SCARE me. I saw it as this shrinking, complicated fragile nemesis only to be conquered by professional chefs. In reality it’s so incredibly easy! It is really even easier to make than any cake.

It’s super quick and in a few moments you have a crisp, golden, buttery piece of heaven! Not to mention all the possibilities for fillings and flavours!

Egg or No Egg:

I’ve tried a few different recipes over the years; some with egg, some without, some with only egg yolks. I prefer not to involve eggs because they can diminish the buttery flavour of pastry and make the pastry less short.

I think eggs work extremely well in cheesecake pastry because you need that extra structure to carry the weight of the heavy cheesecake. I only use eggs inside pastry for practical purposes and when absolutely necessary.

Blind Baking:

I used to dismiss recipes as soon as I read the words “blind bake”. BUT it’s not a big deal at all! It’s so easy and straight forward.

We need to blind bake pastry to keep it in the shape we want it. ALL shortcrust pastry WILL shrink during baking when water evaporates from the dough. All shortcrust pastry WILL change shape while baking, but we can minimize this with blind baking the RIGHT way.

Important notes on blind baking that make it a breeze:

  • Use heavy weight foil, NOT baking parchment. It yields the best results and can handle the weight of baking beans etc. Remember to place the dull side of the foil (and spray it with non-stick spray) on the pastry as it has non-stick properties. Always cut a generous piece of foil so there’s enough to wrap around the upper edges of the tin – otherwise the exposed pastry will cook faster than all the rest under the foil. When you’ve frozen your pastry solid, press the greased foil directly onto the pastry in the tin. Don’t leave any air gaps between the pasty and the foil!
  • Use lentils or rice for “baking beans”. Lentils are smaller, so they get into those edges a lot better than large baking beans can.
  • When you’ve finished blind baking the shortcrust pastry, remove the lentils/rice by scooping them out into a bowl. If you try to lift everything out in one go, the foil will tear.
  • Once you’ve removed your blind baking geat, brush the inside of your pastry thinly with egg white. Return to the oven and bake till golden. The egg white seals your pastry so that a wet filling won’t make the pastry soggy.

shortcrust pastry | shortcrust pastry recipe | easy pastry recipe

Shortcrust Pastry Recipe Introduction:

This is my go-to recipe for shortcrust pastry. There’s no “rest for 2 hours or overnight” thing going on. You merely chill it for 10 minutes, roll it out (no resting in between), freeze it for 5 minutes, smooth it out, freeze it for 10 minutes and then bake it!

I’ve also included step by step photos of the method I use to painlessly transfer the pastry to a tin.

You’ll need a 9″ loose bottom cake tin. I like to use a cake tin because I like a straight, smooth finish on my tarts, but you are welcome to use a fluted tart tin as well.

I love using Salted Butter in pastry. Most people prefer to use unsalted butter so that you can control the amount of salt that goes into your bakes. This makes a lot of sense and I actually agree, but with pastry, salted butter is just incredible.

If you insist on using unsalted butter, then add 1/2 tsp salt to the recipe.

You can find the instructions for MINI TART SHELLS after the main recipe!

5.0 from 1 reviews
Shortcrust Pastry
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 170 g Cake Flour
  • 40 g Icing Sugar
  • 110 g Salted Butter, ice cold
  • 1 Tbsp Ice Cold water
Instructions
  1. Place flour in a food processor. Cut the butter into a 1 cm dice and add to the food processor. Try to distribute the cubes of butter evenly in the flour so that they don’t stick together.
  2. Process on high speed until resembling fine bread crumbs.
  3. Add icing sugar and process for about 10 seconds on high speed.
  4. Add the water and process on high speed for about 15 seconds. The pastry will not form a ball inside the processor.
  5. Pour the crumbly mixture onto a work surface – do not add any extra liquid! Press all the crumbs together and work the pastry till smooth and silky. This should take only about 3 minutes. Form the pastry into a ball and squash it flat to a 2 cm thickness.
  6. Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate it for 10 minutes.
  7. Cut a 30 cm x 30 cm square of non-stick parchment paper. Place the chilled pastry directly on the paper. Flour only your rolling pin and roll out to a 3 mm thickness roughly in a circular shape by turning your pastry 90 degrees after every second roll or so. The parchment paper makes it super easy to turn the pastry when rolling!
  8. Spray/butter the inside of a 9 inch tin. Place the loose bottom face side down onto the pastry. Cut around the sides of the tin’s bottom and also at 12, 3, 6 and 9 o’clock to divide the excess pastry into 4 strips.
  9. Remove the strips one by one and place to one side. Press down on the tin’s bottom so that the pastry squishes out slightly underneath. I find this little lip of pastry helps to combine the pastry on the sides with the pastry on the bottom.
  10. Flip the parchment paper and tin’s bottom. Peel away the paper.
  11. Drop your tin’s bottom back into your tin and fill in the sides of the tin with your pastry strips using your fingers. I make the edges about 1 inch high. You will use all the pastry. Do not worry about a smooth finish just yet.
  12. Preheat your oven to 180ᵒC/350ᵒF.
  13. Place your tin in the freezer for 5 minutes. Remove from freezer and smooth the edges and bottom with a metal spoon. Return to freezer for a further 10 minutes or until frozen solid.
  14. Line the entire tin with heavy weight foil (enough to go up over the sides. Leave no pastry exposed). Grease the dull side of your foil with non-stick spray and smooth the foil onto the pastry. Don't leave any air gaps between the foil and the pastry. Fill the cavity with baking beans (I prefer lentils because they sink into the nooks and crannies extremely well).
  15. Bake in the center of your oven for 30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to stand for 5 minutes. If you are planning to bake a filling inside the pastry, blind bake for 20 minutes, turning after 10 minutes.
  16. Remove the baking beans and then the foil. Prick the bottom of the pastry with a fork. Egg-wash the inside of the pastry with egg white only. This creates a nice seal on the pastry so that it doesn’t go soggy when holding a wet filling.
  17. Return to the oven and bake for a further 10 - 15 minutes, turning after 6 minutes. The pastry should be very lightly golden.shortcrust pastry easyIf you are planning to bake a filling inside the pastry, bake for 8 minutes, turning after 4 minutes. It won't be golden.
  18. Leave to cool completely and transfer to a cake board or special plate/stand if you wish – the pastry is stable enough to handle the transfer.

 

Mini Tart Shells

You can also use this recipe to make 10 perfect little tart shells in a regular muffin tin!

  1. Spray a standard size, non-stick muffin tin‘s holes thoroughly.
  2. Divide the pastry evenly between 10 holes. About 34 g of pastry each.
  3. Press it out evenly in each hole. Chill in the freezer for 5 minutes.
  4. Carefully smooth out the top and inner edges with a teaspoon. Freeze for 10 minutes till the pastry is hard.
  5. Line each pastry shell with heavy weight foil and fill the cavity in the foil with rice. Make sure your pastry is rock solid before you do this!
  6. Bake one notch below the middle of your oven for 8 minutes. Rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 8 minutes.
  7. Remove from the oven. Remove blind baking gear. Lightly brush the inside of each tart shell with egg white to create a seal. Return to oven for another 8 minutes, rotating halfway through.
  8. When they reach an even golden brown colour, they are done! Allow to cool completely before removing from the muffin tin.

Thanks for reading! I’m quite confident that this shortcrust pastry recipe will become your go-to recipe as well.

I’ve used it in my Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie recipe as well as in my Milk Tart recipe.

Chat soon!

Aurelia 🙂

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)

Perfect, Fail-Proof Lemon Meringue Pie

Perfect, Fail-Proof Lemon Meringue Pie

Perfect, Fail-Proof Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie is HEAVENLY, but it can be a VERY tricky dessert to make…

The 3 different components (pastry, filling and meringue) require perfect execution. 

One of the biggest challenges, for me, was developing a recipe that isn’t so blindingly sweet! Sheesh.

After eating a slice of lemon meringue pie you often hear that heroic phrase booming in your head “I’m NEVER eating anything sweet again!” Ha. Well, at least that’s the sentiment for the next 30 minutes post-dessert.

So, what makes the perfect Lemon Meringue Pie?

I want the slice to hold, have a zingy and buttery flavour with smooth, soft and crunchy textures going on.

No weepy liquids anywhere. Definitely no runny filling, but also not a borderline yellow rubber experience either. Crispy, buttery pastry is an absolute must!

My Journey with Lemon Meringue Pie

I avoided making Lemon Meringue for YEARS!

Someone would try to order it, but I would always find a way to unfortunately be “out of town” or “fully booked” on those days.

Truth is, I was petrified of making Lemon Meringue pie! This fear stemmed from watching The Great Australian Bake Off Season 1.

Every week the bakers had a technical challenge and in week 2 it was the humble Lemon Meringue Pie. One contestant n particular was super excited about the challenge – Bliss. She baked these pies for her Mom all the time!

On this day however, her pie was a total disaster…

My husband and I were watching the show together and we were just cringing all the way through the episode! 

Thing is, MOST of the contestants were having so much drama with this challenge! I think only a quarter of them didn’t have a runny filling.

Needless to say, Lemon Meringue Pie climbed to the top of my chart of “Most difficult things to bake.”

I do believe that Bliss has baked a ton of successful Lemon Meringue Pies for her Mom, but in GABO technical challenges you have to bake the recipe they give you. You may know by now that method matters to me more than anything else when it comes to baking.

I realized however, that the success of your Lemon Meringue pie does ride completely on the quality of your recipe.

I set out on a mission.

For about 1 year I watched EVERY SINGLE Youtube video on Lemon Meringue Pie.

There had to be a recipe that doesn’t waste 8 egg whites or (on the flip side) waste 8 egg yolks.

A recipe that doesn’t require bizarre, temperamental gelatin setting excursions. In short, there had to be a recipe that is user friendly and yields perfect results!

Technical Insights

The Base:

Honestly, the base is really up to you. Some people prefer crushed cookies with melted butter which is really delicious.

I prefer pastry, because I love the crunchier result it gives you. It is also just more buttery and doesn’t crumble apart when you lift out a slice.

Another reason I love this pastry recipe is because it is firm enough to slide the entire pie onto a cake board or another serving platter!

The Lemon Filling:

I tried out all the different recipes I could find for lemon fillings and I must say that cooked lemon fillings are definitely a lot less sweet than uncooked ones. I’ve also found that uncooked filings often do not hold their shape.

So what are the options?

Baking a lemon filling in the oven is too tricky. It can so easily over bake and curdle. NOT user friendly at all. Stove top Fillings are the answer – really!

There are a few different approaches to Stove top Lemon Fillings as well. Some folks have a pure lemon curd approach (Kitchen Conundrums and Gemma Strafford), but I find the flavour is just way too intense and sweet instead of balanced.

These lemon curd fillings contain very little eggs and the only liquid comes from lemon juice which explains why the flavour is just too intense.

A BIG downer with these recipes was also that you had to strain the curd at the end… It is really thick and takes up to 40 minutes of serious elbow grease to force it through a sieve. Absolutely terrible for little, lightweight people like me.

For a while I made a lemon filling that sets with gelatin by Bruno Albouze. While the flavour was quite nice, the filling always started melting when you took the pie out of the fridge for a while! Not cool. There had to be a filling that was not so sensitive to temperature.

The answer came through The Joy of Baking.

Stephanie Jaworski makes the most wonderful Lemon Filling that uses lemon juice as well as water which makes for a balanced, yet tart lemon filling.

There are no weird or tedious methods, so all in all the whole experience is very user friendly. I do add a bit more lemon juice and lemon zest than she does, but her recipe is brilliant as well.

This lemon filling has NEVER flopped or come out on the runny side and it is so easy to make!

Another reason I love Stephanie’s video on lemon meringue pie is that she speaks about another technical issue to help the meringue adhere to the filling. The filling should be warm when you add the meringue on top. This also prevents weeping. So cool!

The Meringue:

The first video I watched on the meringue part of Lemon Meringue Pie was by Kitchen Conundrums. Fantastic video! Thomas Joseph makes all 3 of the different meringue types (French, Swiss and Italian) and tests them on top of Lemon Meringue Pie.

You can see clearly that French Meringue will end up weeping and slide around on top of your lemon filling. This is because the egg whites have not been cooked properly. I find that even when French meringue has been broiled in the oven, it will still weep.

I LOVE Italian Meringue. Some folks prefer Swiss, but my standing mixer doesn’t have a heat proof bowl so I had to revert to Italian meringue. It is such a soft and super smooth meringue – oh my!

To me it is also the least labour intensive meringue because the standing mixer and stove do ALL the work. The only way this meringue can cause weeping is if you over whip the egg whites before the sugar is added.

In Swiss and Italian Meringue the egg whites are already cooked, so you don’t need to return the pie to the oven. I use a little blowtorch to brown my meringue, but you are also welcome to broil it in the oven if you don’t have a blowtorch.

No weepy meringue, a PERFECTLY set lemon filling and a buttery crust. THIS is the PERFECT, Fail-Proof Lemon Meringue Pie! Click through to get the recipe! #lemonpie #lemonmeringue #homebaking #baking

So here we go – this is my recipe for Perfect, Fail-Proof Lemon Meringue Pie 🙂

5.0 from 2 reviews
Perfect Lemon Meringue Pie
 
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 12
Ingredients
Pastry:
  • 180 g Flour
  • 110 g Salted Butter
  • 45 g Icing Sugar
  • 1 Tbsp Ice Cold water
Lemon Filling:
  • 82 g (5) Large Egg Yolks, room temperature (reserve the whites)
  • 240 g White Sugar
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 70 g Corn Starch
  • 390 ml Boiling Water
  • 35 g Unsalted Butter
  • 160 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained to remove seeds and pulp
  • 2 Tbsp Lemon Zest
Italian Meringue:
  • 250 g White Sugar
  • 80 g Boiling Water
  • 4 egg whites
  • Pinch of Salt
  • ¼ tsp Cream of Tartar
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
Pastry:
  1. Place flour in a food processor. Add the diced butter and jiggle it around a bit so that all the butter is covered in flour and not sticking together.
  2. Process the flour and butter together on medium speed until resembling bread crumbs.
  3. Add the icing sugar and process for another 15 seconds.
  4. Add the ice cold water and turn the processor on for another 15 seconds or until the mixture starts clumping in the machine. Do not keep processing until all the dough comes together! It is a firm dough, so it is not as wet.
  5. Dump all the contents (there will be many dry crumbs, don’t panic) onto a work surface and knead the dough until smooth – about 2 minutes. Do not add more water.
  6. Flatten your pastry out slightly until it is about ½ inch thick. Wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.
  7. In the meantime prepare your tin. I use a 9 inch loose bottom cake tin. Spray or lightly butter the inside of your tin, making sure to only grease about 2 inches up the sides if you are using a deeper cake tin.
  8. Remove pastry from the fridge and roll out on a large piece of baking parchment to about 3 mm thick. Rotate the parchment every few seconds so that your pastry is rolled out more or less into a circle.
  9. Place the base of your tin face side down on top of the pastry and cut around the sides of it. Trim off the excess pastry around the base and keep to one side. Place one hand under the parchment paper and one side on top of the base. Flip the pastry in one swift motion.
  10. Fit the pastry covered base back into the tin and fill in the sides with pastry using your thumbs. If you are using a cake tin, only take the pastry about 3,5 cm up the sides.
  11. Freeze the pastry for 5 minutes. Remove from freezer and smooth the surface and edges with a spoon if desired. Return to the freezer for an extra 15 minutes.
  12. Preheat your oven to 180˚C (350˚F). Blind bake the pastry for 20 minutes using foil. Remove the baking beans and foil. Brush the inside of the pastry with beaten egg white and prick holes in the base with a fork.
  13. Return the pastry to the oven until lightly golden brown.
  14. Leave to cool inside the tin.
Lemon Filling:
  1. Place a damp washcloth on your work surface to keep things from sliding around. Add all the egg yolks to a medium mixing bowl and place on top of washcloth.
  2. Place the white sugar and corn starch in a medium sized pot and stir to combine. Gradually pour in the boiling water while whisking with your other hand.
  3. Transfer pot to a medium heat. Keep stirring with a whisk. The mixture takes a while to heat up, but then it thickens very quickly. Let the mixture come to a low boil. Large steam bubbles will begin to form and the mixture will start to become translucent. Keep the mixture on a low boil for another 2 minutes, whisking all the while.
  4. Remove the pot from the heat. Next you need to temper the egg yolks. Dip the whisk into the translucent goo and then whisk it into the egg yolks. Tap your whisk on the side of the mixing bowl to shake off any egg yolk. Dip it into the goo again and whisk into the yolks. Keep going until about half the goo is mixed into the yolks.
  5. Transfer the tempered egg yolk mixture back into the pot with the rest of the goo and whisk thoroughly.
  6. Return the pot to a medium heat once more and bring to a low boil while whisking – same as before. You need to be sure the egg yolks are cooked through, so keep the mixture on a low boil for another 2 minutes, whisking all the while.
  7. Remove the pot from heat. Add the butter, salt, lemon zest, and lemon juice to the pot all at once and whisk to combine.
  8. Transfer the lemon filling to a clean mixing bowl. Immediately place plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the filling to prevent a skin from forming. Start with the meringue immediately after you made the filling. Remember, we want the filling to still be warm when we place the meringue on top.
Italian Meringue:
  1. Place boiling water and sugar into a small, heavy based saucepan and whisk over low heat till the sugar is dissolved.
  2. Bring mixture to a simmer on medium heat. Swirl the saucepan now and then, but DO NOT STIR. If sugar crystalizes around the edges of the saucepan, brush a little bit of water (with a pastry brush) just above the crystallization. The water will run down the sides, bubble into the syrup and the steam will help break down the crystalized sugar.
  3. In the meantime, place the egg whites, salt and cream of tartar in a super clean mixing bowl of a standing mixture. Add the whisk attachment to your mixer. Do not beat together just yet.
  4. Once all the sugar is dissolved, turn the heat up high and insert a candy thermometer in the syrup.
  5. When sugar syrup reaches 100˚C (212˚F), start whipping the egg whites on medium speed till soft peak stage.
  6. When syrup reaches 118˚C (245˚F), remove from heat. Increase mixer speed to high and pour syrup in gradually, in a thin stream, into the egg whites.
  7. Reduce speed to medium and continue beating till the bowl is cool and the meringue is stiff.
  8. Keep mixer running and add in the Vanilla Extract.
  9. Assembly of Lemon Meringue Pie:
  10. Lift out the base of your tin and transfer to your desired serving plate. The pastry can be loosened and transferred easily without any breakage.
  11. Remove the plastic wrap from your lemon filling. Transfer all the filling into your pre-baked pastry and smooth out the surface.
  12. Working from the outside in, dollop a dessert spoonful of meringue at a time on top of the lemon filling. Be sure to cover the top all the way to the edges.
  13. Using the tip of your spoon to dig into the meringue slightly and swirl outward and upward to create beautiful peaks. Do not use the back of your spoon.
  14. Brown the meringue to your liking with a blowtorch.
  15. Leave the completed Lemon Meringue Pie to stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours before slicing and serving.

 

I hope you give this epic Lemon Meringue Pie a try! If you have any questions or issues, please comment below because I would love to help.

Thanks for reading!

Aurelia 🙂

Got a question? Something to add? Let’s chat in the comments section down below! (I respond to every single comment)

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