Mini Lemon Meringue Pie

These Mini Lemon Meringue Piesare simple tartelettes that will please both the lemon and chocolate lover with its perfect bite of lemon tartness and chocolate sweetness.

I had originally planned on miniaturizing lemon tarts from Desserts by Pierre Herme not Lemon Meringue Tarts. I ended up scratching that plan, since I couldn’t execute the lemon crème curd. With that, I scratched the pate sucre as well and went with a traditional tart shell, kept the ganache portion and added the meringue for an almost traditional lemon meringue tart.

Luckily, I made a double batch of curd when I made the pear cake, knowing I just may need it for a back-up to this recipe.

As the saying goes, third time is a charm but that third time for the lemon crème curd will have to wait. I have to pump out 200 of these little babies for my very first order.

A few notes:
1. See my previous Baking Basic post for tartelette shell recipe, along with tips and tricks on making them.
2. You can build this dessert in pieces. I made the tart shells and froze them until ready for use.
3. Same thing with the curd, except I didn’t freeze it. I just kept it in a jar in the fridge. I like having it around to eat with toast.
4. If you don’t have a torch, you can use your broiler to finish your meringue. Although, I pefer a torch because it allows for control. The broiler will most likely only catch the tops of the meringue.
5. I torched my meringue on a cookie sheet. A quick warning: Don’t torch with parchment underneath, even though the paper can take high temperatures I still managed to set it on fire.

Lemon Meringue Bites

Ingredients:

Tartelette Shells:
Click here for tips and a how-to pictorial on making the tartelette shells.

Chocolate Ganache:
12 ounces of bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small pieces
1 cup of heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons of unsalted butter

Lemon Curd:
5 lemons
5 limes
2 cups sugar
8 large egg yolks
2 whole eggs
1 ¾ sticks unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Meringue:

4 large eggs (room temperature)
1/8 cream of tartar
1/3 cup sugar

INSTRUCTIONS:

Chocolate Ganache:

1. Place the chopped chocolate into a medium bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the cream and butter in a saucepan over low heat and gently stir. Heat cream and butter until bubbles start to form around the edges of the pan. Remove saucepan from heat.
3. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let the mixture rest for 3 minutes. Then gently stir until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.

Lemon Curd:

1. Place 1/2 cup lemon and 1/2lime juice, sugar egg yolks, whole eggs, and butter in a saucepan. Whisk until combined. Cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until it begins to boil (approx. 7 mins.).
2. Push curd through a chinois or strainer. Refrigerate for an hour or overnight.

Meringue:
1. Beat eggs and cream tartar on medium speed until soft peaks form.
2. Slowly add sugar and beat on high. Meringue is ready for piping when stiff peaks form.

Assembling:
1. Place ganache in pastry bag and squeeze a small dallop into every shell. Then place a tablespoon of lemon curd on top, pipe some meringue next and then finish with torching it or placing the Lemon Meringue Bites in the broiler.

Other lemon recipes to tempt you:
Lemon Champagne Mousse
Triple Citrus Bars