A bright and delicious tart with a lavender lemon curd and toasted Italian meringue makes everything better! Everybody loves lemon meringue pie, and this mini lemon meringue tart version is perfect for entertaining! This is a great dessert for warmer weather or all year around, and it is easy to make. We know you will love these delicious Lavender Lemon Meringue Tarts!
Lavender Lemon Curd
Making homemade lemon curd is quite easy and great to have in your fridge for a variety of desserts, or even pancakes, French toast, or other pastries. This version with a hint of lavender is one of our favorite flavor combinations! It has the perfect balance of bright lemon flavor with a floral hint from the lavender. Make sure you use dried culinary lavender for this recipe for best results.
You can find the full lavender lemon curd recipe HERE as well as linked in the recipe card below. The recipe calls for Meyer lemons, which are a hybrid of lemon and mandarin. You can use regular lemons if you are unable to find Meyer Lemons for this recipe.
We recommend that you make the Lavender Lemon Curd in advance and store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. This is especially helpful with busy schedules when you don't have time to make everything on the same day.
The lavender lemon filling in these tarts with its zesty lemon flavor combined with the sweet citrus pastry tart crust and luscious meringue makes a delicious addition to any dessert table!
Sweet Citrus Pastry Dough
This sweet pastry dough for the lemon tart crust has the perfect hint of lemon from lemon zest to complement the vibrant curd and silky meringue! A buttery crust like this is ideal for a variety of tarts, but we especially love it with our lavender lemon filling.
For best results, we recommend rolling out the dough to the thickness you prefer for your tarts (we like ours to be about ⅛ inch thick), then placing it on a baking sheet and freezing it for about 30 minutes before forming your tarts. Freeze the formed tarts again for about 20 minutes before blind baking.
Why Blind Bake the Crust?
Blind baking helps the crust to bake perfectly and prevents it from getting soggy. Since this recipe doesn't require the filling to be baked, the blind baking is done to bake the crust before adding the egg wash and continuing to bake to give it a bit of a sheen. You want the crust to completely bake and cool before adding the filling and meringue.
This results in a nice golden brown crisp crust perfect for the lemon curd and meringue filling.
You do not need pie weights if you are making these smaller tarts, but if you decide to make one large lemon lavender tart instead, you may want to blind bake with pie weights and adjust the cooking time as needed. We prefer mini tarts for entertaining or dinner parties.
Italian Meringue
We opted for Italian Meringue here over a French or a Swiss style meringue. If you want to read more about the differences in these three styles of meringue, check out THIS post. Generally Italian meringue is best as a frosting, or frosting base, or on top of pies or tarts like in this recipe.
Italian meringue is made by first making a sugar syrup and heating it to 240°F. This is then slowly whipped into the already beaten egg whites and continuing to beat until fully incorporated into a fluffy meringue.
Recipe developed in collaboration with Chef Vanessa Wilson-Watson
Looking for more recipes like this? Check these out:
- Meyer Lemon Olive Oil Cake with Bavarian Cream & Raspberry Agrodolce
- Chocolate Raspberry Red Velvet Trifle
- Apricot and Pistachio Tartlets
- Strawberry Basil Cheesecake
📖 Recipe
Lavender Lemon Meringue Tarts
Ingredients
Sweet Citrus Pasty Dough
- ¼ cup (100g) cold butter (salted butter is best here)
- ½ cup (60g) powdered sugar, sifted twice
- ½ lemon zested
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 3 eggs yolks
- 1.5 cup (200g) all purpose flour
Lavender Lemon Curd
Italian Meringue
- 5 egg whites, room temperature
- ¼ cup (100g) water
- 1.5 cups (300g) granulated sugar
Instructions
Sweet Citrus Pastry Dough
- In a large bowl of a stand mixer combine and cream butter, powdered sugar and lemon zest with paddle attachment until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolks to the sugar mixture one at a time, scraping the sides of the bowl when needed. Add vanilla and mix until combined.
- Once combined, add the flour. Mix just to combine, don’t over mix.
- Roll out in-between two silicone pads, or lightly floured pieces of parchment paper to about ⅛ inch thick. Transfer to a baking tray, and place in the freezer for 30 mins.
- After 30 minutes, cut the tart to fit your 3-4 inch tart pans. You can use whichever pan you prefer here, or use a perforated or regular ring mold and cut the base and strips for the sides to fit. Cut any extra dough off the top for even edges. Dock the dough using a fork to poke small holes in the bottom. If using the non-perforated ring mold or a tart pan, spray the pans with baking spray before adding your dough. Freeze the dough in the pans again for 20 mins more.
- Preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Once your oven is preheated, place your tarts on baking sheets and place in the oven to blind bake for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and lightly brush with egg wash and return them to the oven for another 2-3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely before filling them.
Lemon Lavender Curd
- Follow the instructions to make 1 recipe of Lemon Lavender Curd. You can use regular lemons for this recipe if Meyer Lemons are not available.
Italian Meringue
- In a small saucepan add sugar and water, bring to 240°F (118°C)
- While the syrup is reaching temp, begin whipping egg whites in a clean dry mixing bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment or with a hand mixer to achieve stiff peaks.
- When the syrup has reached 240° F, slowly pour the syrup into the mixing bowl while it is running along the side. Continue to whip on high speed until your meringue forms stiff peaks
Assembling Your Tarts
- Once the dough and the curd is completely cooled add the curd into the tart shell almost to the top.
- Pipe meringue on top in whichever design you like.
- Finally, toast the meringue with a kitchen touch to add texture and color. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
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