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Eat WellGut Health

The best lemon curd meringue tart you’ll make is also gluten-free.

14 December 2021August 22nd, 20221 min read
Reviewed by Chef Shen Tan

Dairy-free, gluten-free, and with the perfect balance of sweet and tart. This light and airy lemon curd tart is a crowd pleaser, so make extra.

by Hello Pomelo

Key Points

 

Shen's Lemon Curd Meringue Tart

Chef Shen Tan
Print Recipe
Course Dessert

Ingredients
  

Lemon Curd

  • 4 large egg yolks save the whites for meringue topping
  • 135 g sugar
  • 10 g lime zest
  • 80 g fresh lemon juice plus 0.5g salt
  • 85 g extra virgin olive oil preferably an extra virgin olive oil with citrus notes

Meringue

  • 4 large egg whites
  • 90 g sugar
  • 1 g salt

Tart base

  • 90 g icing sugar
  • 230 g gluten free flour
  • 30 g almond flour
  • a pinch salt
  • 110 g olive oil
  • 1 large egg

Instructions
 

To make the tart

  • Sift together dry ingredients (gf flour, icing sugar, almond flour and salt)
  • Place ingredients in a food processor, drizzle olive oil in and process until you reach a sand-like consistency.
  • Slowly add beaten egg, and form it into a ball.
  • Place the pastry between two pieces of parchment paper and roll it out - 2mm thick.
  • Freeze for an hour. Then take the dough out of the freezer.
  • Taking a perforated tart ring, cut out 8 circles. This will form the bottom of your tart.
  • Carefully move the dough circles with the help of an Offset spatula and place them into the rings one by one. If at any point the dough gets too warm to work with, pop it back into the freezer for 5 minutes. You might need take the dough in and out of the freezer many times depending on the temperature of your kitchen. It is extremely important to work with a dough which is cold enough to be able to handle (so not sticky) but not too cold which would result in breaking it.
  • Cut 8 long strips out of the dough, this will be the side of the tart. Carefully place the strips into the ring one by one. Press each strip onto the ring so it sticks to it.
  • Place the perforated tart ring with the pastry dough in them into the freezer for an hour. Pre-heat the oven to 160C / 320F.
  • After an hour, trim the top of the pastry with a sharp knife. Bake for 30 min, then carefully remove the rings and bake for another five to 10 min until golden brown.
  • At the 30-min mark, the pastry should be already somewhat baked; it will contract within the ring. If the pastry feels stuck into the ring, bake it for another 60 to 120 seconds. Let the pastry cases cool on the perforated "air" baking mat before filling up with the lemon curd.

To make the curd

  • Add all ingredients for the curd except the olive oil into a Bain marie/double boiler.
  • Using a handheld mixer, whisk and cook for about 10 minutes, until it reaches the consistency of mayo. Slowly drizzle the EVOO olive oil while whisking.
  • Remove from heat and chill the curd until ready for use. Pipe the curd into the tart shells. Dollop on the meringue and torch it.

To make the meringue

  • Using your mixer, whisk egg whites until foamy.
  • Add the salt and increasing the speed (top speed). Add 1 tablespoon of sugar at a time. Whisk until glossy and aerated. 

My grandmother Mae was notorious for her sweet tooth. How she lived to 97 on a diet that included daily jelly donuts I have no idea.

She loved to bake and one of her favorite things to make for us was lemon meringue pie. I still remember the magic of that whipped meringue topping that went into the oven like soft cloudy pillows and came out firm and golden brown.

Taking that first bite? Cutting into the light billowy meringue, scooping up that buttery lemon filling? Sigh.

Now as much as I loved my grandmother’s lemon meringue pie, she left no record of her recipe. So I had to reverse engineer it from memory and put my own spin on it with a couple of twists.
This version rocks because it’s not only dairy-free but gluten-free too, so sensitive guts like mine, don’t need to suffer just to have a sweet note.
The extra virgin olive oil stands in for the traditional butter to make this curd, dairy-free. To enhance the lemony flavour, look for an extra virgin olive oil with citrus hints.
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