CLOUDY LEMON TART

 My little woodland cats, 

I wanted to talk to you today about stubbornness... You know, I'm like you and there are times when I just want to give up, because it's not working, because it's getting me drunk, because it's not the way I imagined it, because it's not the way I saw it etc.... The list goes on and on, and not long ago, like yesterday, I wanted to make a lemon meringue tart with beautiful meringue peaks on top like a forest of snow-covered fir trees (a seasonal thing...) but I'm not sure why, but it was horrible, a sort of lemon tart decorated by a six-year-old with clogs for hands... I wasn't very happy, the kitchen modjo had let me down... So whose fault was it? Lack of dexterity? Over-whipped Italian meringue? I don't know, I was really disgusted. Yes, a lemon tart can put me in a bad mood.

And then I made myself a cup of tea, and stared at my bowl for a long time, I'd still managed to make a nice, dense, shiny meringue, I wasn't going to admit defeat, and I turned the problem around and said to myself:

• The perfectly executed lemon tart: it's not me, I'm not the order, I'm the madness, and if you want to see a perfectly executed lemon tart you go to Ladurée.
• I did an express mini brainstorm: meringue, aerial, mousseux, oeufs en neige, montagne, glacier, NUAGE...
• I thought of the lemon tarts that made my mouth water, (they turn your life upside down...) I thought of a monumental du Loir in the teapot...
• I thought of my sister (a meringue addict).

And then I said to myself, try it, all that to tell you, that if I hadn't sat down for two minutes, to think, and make myself a tea (Thank you Mai for this mantra: "make yourself a tea, make yourself a tea, make yourself a tea to be repeated 3 times...) you probably wouldn't have seen this lemon tart around here, it would have ended up at the bottom of our stomachs to the delight of our taste buds. But I'm very happy to have shown it to you, to have photographed it. If it weren't so sticky, I'd want to wallow in it. I like my cloudy lemon tart, it's not perfect, but it looks like me. I think sometimes it's important to let go and do the things we really want to do, even if it's not the way we imagined it. There are no problems, only solutions...

To make this tart, you'll need the shortcrust pastry:

• 125g caster sugar,
• 250g flour,
• 125g soft butter,
• 1 whole egg.

For the lemon mixture:

• 3 lemons, juice and zest,
• 5 beaten eggs, 
• 150g sugar, 
• 15cl whipping cream.

For the meringue:

• 8.5cl water,
• 280g caster sugar,
• 5 egg whites.

First, sift the flour into a bowl, then cut the soft butter into small pieces on top of it, and start working the dough with your fingertips. Then dig a small well in the sanding, and add the egg and sugar to this hole. Continue to knead the dough to make it smooth, but don't knead it too much. Form into a ball, wrap with cellophane and leave to rest for 1 h in the fridge.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, roll out the shortbread dough, place it in your baking dish and bake for 15-20 minutes, using baking balls to prevent the dough from puffing up. Meanwhile, place all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat for a few minutes to obtain a smooth mixture, using an electric mixer. Pour the lemon mixture into the tart shell and bake for 20-25 minutes, until the cream has just set.

While the lemon mixture is setting in your oven, get to work on the Italian meringue! If you have a kitchenAid-type food processor, it's too easy, but if not, ask for help. Let me explain: while you're beating the egg whites with your electric mixer, bring the water and sugar to the boil in a saucepan (regularly clean the sides of the pan with a wet brush). When the mixture reaches 125°C, remove the syrup from the heat and pour the mixture over the egg whites while continuing to beat them. Keep beating for another 10 minutes, until the mixture cools, but it's worth it! 

Once your tart is baked, it's time to decorate it. Use your piping bag if you're feeling like a Michelangelo, or like me, in sugar sniffing mode, use a stapule to carve a romantic cloud... Once the decoration is finished, place your tart under the broiler for just 1 minute at 250°C. And enjoy!