It’s hard to believe, but today marks the second anniversary of @storeboughtisfine! What started as a joke, has grown into something I look forward to every day. I’m so thankful for all the amazing people whom I’ve met since starting – you’ve been a constant source of encouragement and laughs. I hope you’re in this for the long haul because I’m not ending any time soon – I’m only 408 recipes into her nearly 1,100 recipes and that doesn’t include any additional books Ina releases.
To celebrate two years of cooking almost exclusively Ina, I decided to finally attempt her Lemon Meringue Tart. It’s such a beautiful dish, but I’ve always found it a little intimidating – three major elements, any of which I thought I’d easily mess up: tart crust, lemon curd and meringue.
Having made a number of pie crusts in the past two years, the tart crust was relatively straightforward. What really made me nervous was the lemon filling — there were a ton of reviews on Food Network online about it not setting properly and being a liquid-y mess when you cut into the tart. After mixing all the ingredients, I poured the mixture into a saucepan and began heating it. I knew that I needed to get it to 175 degrees and not let it boil, so I kept my instant-read thermometer in the pan. The numbers slowly started ticking up and as it approached 140 degrees … my thermometer battery died. OF COURSE IT DID!!!! So I had to wing it for the last 35 degrees. Once I thought it was close, I removed it from the heat, place it in the refrigerator and hoped for the best.
Once the filling cooled, I poured it into the tart shell (everything looked good so far) and began making the meringue. Meringue isn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be: I quickly mixed in my KitchenAid, poured it in my piping bag and piped in on the tart. I’m still working on perfecting piping, but overall it looked pretty good. I baked for 5 minutes until the meringue browned and removed it from the oven.
Once it cooled to room temperature, the moment of truth arrived. We held our breath and cut into the tart. Praise Beysus and her lemon blessings, it had set!
One word of warning — make this tart as close to when you are eating as possible! The meringue and lemon filling begin to interact and the tart will begin to “weep”. If this starts, don’t stick it in the refrigerator (it apparently accelerates the weeping).
Book: Barefoot in Paris
Episode: Cooking with Tess
Rating: 5/5
How Easy Is That: Hard
Store Bought Is Fine: Unsalted butter
Good Ingredients: Lemons
