Raspberry Meringue Tart

Another berry bake - raspberry this time round.

Raspberry Meringue Tart

I first saw this lovely pink dessert on Belle's blog here and knew that I would make it (someday). What can I say, I'm a sucker of pretty aesthetics. I made it in April (wow, that's quite a while ago), with frozen packaged raspberries. I loved how the raspberry curd was a vibrant gorgeous pink shade - would totally love it as a lipstick colour...

Years of baking tarts has considerably improved my tart-making techniques. I loved the tart crust for these as it was perfectly crisp and buttery, with a tinge of sweetness from the vanilla bean. The raspberry curd was just a right balance between sweet and sour, but I did thought that the cornflour taste was a lil too present, if you know what I mean.

I managed to capture a video of me torching the meringue (posted here on Instagram previously). Which also taught me a lesson that one shouldn't pipe the tips of the meringue too high, as the tips tend to catch fire easily (refer to torched tips in above photo). Ha!

I decorated one of the four tarts with fresh raspberries and dusted some snow powder atop it, which on hindsight, was a bit too much rather than just 'some'.

Raspberry meringue tartelettes (adapted from here)
(makes four 4.5" tartlets)

Pate sucree tart crust (adapted from here)
420g plain flour, sifted
50g almond flour, sifted
250g butter, cut into small pieces, slightly softed
180g icing sugar, sifted
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 vanilla pod

Sift the flour and almond flour together in a bowl. Set aside.
Combine sugar, salt and butter in a food processor.
Scrape out the seeds from the vanilla pod and add them to the processor.
Pulse everything for a few seconds to mix, then add the eggs one at a time, pulsing another 20s or so each time to work the eggs into the dough.
Add 1/3 of the flours, pulse for 30s, repeat twice with remaining flours until you get a homogeneous dough.
Gather dough into a ball, wrap in cling film and refrigerate at least one hour.
Lightly butter four 4.5" tart tins with removable bottoms.
Roll out the dough to 2-3mm thick, line the tart tins with the dough. Trim off the excess of the dough. Refrigerate for at least an hour (or overnight).
Preheat oven to 180°C. Line the dough with baking paper, fill with pie weights.
Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, until light golden brown.
Transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Raspberry curd
250g frozen raspberries, thawed
25g cornflour
40ml cold water
1tbsp lemon juice
55g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
25g unsalted butter, cubed

Place the raspberries in bowl and mash with fork till it's a homogenous puree.
Combine cornflour and cold water in a bowl, stir to combine.
Place raspberry puree, cornflour mixture, lemon juice and caster sugar in a saucepan. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon for 3-4 minutes or until thick.
Add the egg yolks, one at a time, whisking well after each addition. Add the butter and stir until melted. Remove from the heat.
Strain the raspberry mixture through a sieve into a bowl. Allow the raspberry mixture to cool completely, then refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready to use.

Meringue
45g egg whites
100g caster sugar
25g water

Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat on low heat. Stir to dissolve sugar (stop stirring once small bubbles start to appear at the side of the saucepan.
Beat egg whites with an electric mixer until firm peaks form.
When sugar syrup reaches 120C, remove from heat and start pouring in a thin stream into the egg whites, all the while mixing with the electric mixer.
Continue beating till mixture cools down, and becomes thick and glossy, about 7 minutes. Place in piping bag with piping tip attached.

Assemble
Divide the chilled raspberry curd equally among the cooled tart shells.
Pipe the meringue on top of the raspberry curd. Torch the meringue with a blowtorch. Serve immediately.
Or store in airtight container for about one or two days. (I don't recommend storing them for too long as the tart shells may turn soggy and the meringue may weep after sitting out for a prolonged period)