Dolester Miles’s Lemon Meringue Tart
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus chilling and freezing
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
Yield:10 to 12 servings
- 1½cups/191 grams all-purpose flour
- ⅔cup/82 grams confectioners’ sugar
- ½teaspoon kosher salt
- ½cup/113 grams cold unsalted butter (1 stick), cubed
- 2egg yolks
- 4large eggs
- 1¼cups/252 grams granulated sugar
- Zest from 2 lemons
- ½cup plus 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½cup/113 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into large pieces
- 4ounces white chocolate, finely chopped
For the Tart
For the Filling and Meringue
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (12 servings)
389 calories; 21 grams fat; 12 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 6 grams monounsaturated fat; 1 gram polyunsaturated fat; 48 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 34 grams sugars; 5 grams protein; 115 milligrams sodium
Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.
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- Step 1
In the bowl of a food processor, place flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt, and quickly pulse to combine. Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs, then add egg yolks and pulse until the dough comes together. Form the dough into a disc, wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour.
- Step 2
Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Step 3
Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface to a thickness of ⅛ inch, then transfer it into a 9½-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, then trim it by rolling your rolling pin over the top of the tart pan edge. Pierce crust all over with a fork and freeze for 30 minutes. Remove from freezer, place tart pan on a baking sheet, and bake for about 20 minutes until golden. Remove tart from baking sheet and let pan cool slightly on a rack.
- Step 4
Meanwhile, prepare the filling: Separate the eggs, saving 3 of the whites to use in the meringue. In a small saucepan, stir together ½ cup/101 grams sugar, the lemon zest and juice and the egg yolks. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly, until quite warm. Stir in butter and continue to cook, whisking to prevent burning, for about 7 to 10 minutes or until the mixture becomes thick. Remove from heat and stir in the white chocolate until it melts into the mixture.
- Step 5
Pour lemon mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into a medium bowl and use a spatula to press until just the solids remain. Discard the solids. Spoon mixture into the prepared tart shell and chill for 4 hours.
- Step 6
Make the meringue: Set up a double boiler and bring the water in the bottom pan to a boil over medium-high heat. Combine the 3 egg whites with ¾ cup/151 grams sugar in the top of the double boiler and whisk constantly until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot.
- Step 7
Pour the meringue mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whip at medium-high speed for about 2 minutes then increase speed to high and whip for about 4 to 6 minutes more or until the mixture is stiff. Spoon meringue over tart and spread with an offset spatula.
- Step 8
Using a kitchen torch, brown the meringue lightly, holding the torch about 2 inches away from the tart. Alternatively, place tart under a preheated broiler with the oven rack placed 8 inches from the heat source. Broil 30 to 45 seconds, watching carefully so the meringue turns golden brown and does not burn. Remove tart ring and serve immediately.
Private Notes
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Cooking Notes
Rachel
Sometimes when you make the lemon custard you get little thick bits of cooked egg, so straining will make sure it's perfectly smooth. Plus, the zest. Heating the whites and sugar makes a more stable, smoother and denser meringue than simply beating the whites and adding the sugar when nearly stiff. Since the meringue in this tart isn't baked, it's also probably safer to have heated the whites before beating them.
Joanna
Heating the whites and sugar is a Swiss meringue - or Italian, I never remember the difference. But I always use it as it holds up better and has a shine to it.
Andrew
If you would have had the privilege of tasting this in person, you would truly know. It’s a thing of beauty.
BW
How is it possible to have so many ratings and no notes? I'm highly suspicious. I gave the recipe 5 stars because it is nearly identical to one I've baked previously, except for the white chocolate, which could only add more yum. Way to go Ms. Miles!!
Elizabeth Malloy
The recipe says to prick the crust with a fork. These small holes will vent steam. As a former professional pie maker, it is my experience that if you prick your empty pie shell with a fork before baking, you do not need pie weights.
Barbara
Pricking the crust to allow air to escape keeps the crust from sliding down the sides of the pan when blind baking. I always blind bake this way. Works better than pie weights. Don’t forget to prick the sides, too. Also, Italian merengue is made by beating hot simple syrup into the whites as you whip them up. Both Swiss and Italian make a creamier merengue. More like a marshmallow, not airy like American merengue.
Megs
Turned out great for a first go at lemon meringue. The white chocolate made it too sweet for my taste (prefer more tang), so will leave out this ingredient next time.
RB
The crust for this tart is very good; however, the whole thing is far too sweet, tooth-achingly sweet. If I ever make this recipe again, I’ll reduce the sugar, say, by half or more so it isn’t so candy-like.
John Golden
As I thought it would, baking the pastry blind without weighing down WILL make the dough shrink in the pre-baking even if you freeze the pie shell as instructed before baking. Luckily I had some pastry scraps leftover and attached them to the half shrunken shell. Then covered the pastry case with parchment and filled to the brim with sugar to weigh it down. I keep a tin of sugar on hand to use for this purpose and you can use it over and over again.
MJ
Because it was frozen.
MDelia
I've never seen the suggestion of using sugar for the weight in a blind bake! Think this is brilliant. We need a chapter on the blind bake. Pricking the crust all over never worked for me, mine always shrank.
Mary
If you prick it all over with a fork before you freeze it, say 30 or so stabs, it won’t shrink or bubble up. Weighing it down reduces the flakiness and you get a different texture. Plus less browning.
SharonATX
Wow, yum. However, the dough was a nightmare to work with, and I'd recommend running the machine to get it to come together or else you'll be pulsing to kingdom come. Also let it sit out at room temperature for a few minutes before rolling. We loved the addition of white chocolate in the lemon filling (genius), but that flavor got lost with the ocean of meringue on top, so maybe only apply a thin layer of it instead of the whole amount. Overall, though, fantastic!
Susan
I could not get the crust ingredients to stick together. So, I add a tablespoon of cider vinegar and a tablespoon of water. Worked out fine.
Thecookandthetraveler
I find it a little off putting that the meringue ingredients are listed with the filling as opposed to having them listed under a separate "meringue" list of ingredients. I mistakenly added all the sugar to the filling ingredients. After all the tart is comprised of three components: crust, filling and meringue.
Canafornian
I just don’t feel like the recipe makes enough curd! Have made it 2x now & each time disappointed with the amount of curd. Otherwise - delicious & beautiful!
Denise
I agree with others who thought this quite sweet. After making the filling, I added a tablespoon or so to make it a bit more tart. Also, better explanation on the desired thickness of the filling would have been helpful. Often other recipe sites, like King Arthur, will describe thickness in terms of creating a ribbon or thickly coating the back of a spoon. Finally, I made the crust as written with the addition of a tablespoon of vodka. I had no trouble rolling it out and the was crust to spare.
Jared
This got rave reviews at the party I brought it to. However, a few notes: the dough (for me) did not form a cohesive mass in the food processor. However, I was able to press it together into a disc on the countertop. It cracked readily during the rolling out process but was easily patched with excess scraps. I didn't find the filling overly sweet -- I'm curious if others might have accidentally used white candy melts rather than bar white chocolate.
Christine
A fussy recipe that was just ok. The addition of white chocolate broke in the custard, adding it off heat. Custard was too thick to push through fine mesh sieve so I poured the mess into the shell and hoped for the best. The amount of custard was not enough in my opinion. Finished tart was good but not worth the effort. Will go back to an old lemon meringue pie recipe next time.
Natalie Tippets
Made this tonight, it was sheer perfection! I lowered the amount of sugar in the curd by about 1/4, it balanced out nicely with the sweetness of the white chocolate. I cannot wait to make it again!
Rita
The cooking times on this website…. 45 minutes plus chilling? Took me the whole afternoon. Be realistic. Making a pie crust, a filling and a topping will never take only 45 minutes (not counting the chilling times).
Ferguson
Like others I had some tearing with the dough but I just patched it up. I baked the crust for 15 minutes with dried beans for pie weights and 5 minutes without to brown it up. The end results were delicious and the tart was easy to slice without crumbling.
Mark Robb
I know this is a stupid question but would you rather eat a lemon meringue tart or lemon meringue pie? I am familiar with my mother's lemon meringue pie. But it may be easier to make with a tart crust instead of a pie crust. Do you have a preference?
Laura Perry
That isn’t a stupid question at all! In principle, a tart shell should be a bit stronger, since it’s served out of the pan, while a pie shell, cut in the pan, can be crumblier, that is, more tender. In practice, I usually use Dorie Greenspan’s Rich Sweet Tart Dough for any sweet pie/tart, and ATK’s All Butter Pie Dough for savory pies/tarts. Or whatever the recipe writer recommends. Or whatever I feel like making-Parmesan-mustard crust for appetizer tartlets, semolina dough for rustic tarts/pie!
Barbara
Delicious result! The crust dough was a little difficult to work with. It took longer to bake than 20 minutes and cracked, but the final product is crisp and buttery so it must be very forgiving. The filling is perfect and the cooked meringue is worth doing as it is stable, doesn’t weep, and survives travel and refrigeration.
Frustrated
A note in the ingredients list that the sugar for the meringue and filling is to be divided would be helpful for those of us baking with little kids and other life distractions
Jona
I made this with a shortbread crust in a rectangular tart pan and lightly browned the meringue in the broiler. I used callebaut white chocolate callets and heated the egg whites to 160 Fahrenheit in the double boiler before whipping in the mixer. Looks impressive!
Rita
The lemon mixture for this is one of the best things I have ever cooked, but the meringue tastes like a marshmallow, far too sweet for me. Next time I will do it with a drier, less sweet meringue.
Thecookandthetraveler
I find it a little off putting that the meringue ingredients are listed with the filling as opposed to having them listed under a separate "meringue" list of ingredients. I mistakenly added all the sugar to the filling ingredients. After all the tart is comprised of three components: crust, filling and meringue.
Richard
I guess that's what happens when you try to cook and travel at the same time!
Jennifer
News Year's Eve dessert, huge success! I would increase the amount of meringue next time, but otherwise perfect! I agree that the white chocolate is genius. I did up the zest, figured why not?
Shellie
Delicious. The addition of white chocolate to the lemon filling is really wonderful. The Swiss meringue is perfect, although I recommend weighing the egg whites (100 grams). The Swiss meringue did not weep even after two days of refrigeration. Made this recipe twice (once as one large tart and once as 6 small tartlets) and both times to rave reviews. Making it again next week for a lemon lovers birthday. This is my new go to Lemon Meringue Tart recipe.
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