Method

Lemon Cream

You may have some lemon cream leftover depending on how big and how thick you pipe you spirals for the final plating.

1. Into a large bowl, add the eggs, sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.

• • 150g Caster Sugar
  • Zest of 1 Large Lemon
  • 110g Lemon Juice
  • 4 Large Eggs

2. Place this over a pan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly. Keep whisking until the mixture has thickened. Be careful not to overcook the mixture and scramble the eggs.

3. Immediately pour the mixture through a sieve onto another bowl.

4. Using a hand blender, blend the mixture, adding a few chunks of butter each time. Keep blending until the butter is fully incorporated and the mixture is smooth.

• • 290g Soft, Unsalted Butter

5. Cover the surface with a sheet of cling film and refrigerate for a minimum of 4 hours.

French Meringue Kisses

This will make more meringue than you need, but it can be hard to whisk a very small amount of egg whites!

1. Preheat your oven to 90C/195F non-fan assisted.

2. Into the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites.

• • 100g Egg Whites

3. Whisk the mixture on a medium low speed until it starts to become frothy.

4. Once it is frothy, increase the speed to medium high and start adding the sugar.

• • 200g Caster Sugar

5. Add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time, trying to avoid throwing it on the whisk as otherwise it will throw the sugar all over the edge of the bowl and it won’t incorporate fully. Make sure to let the mixer whisk for 10-15 seconds before you add the next addition of sugar.

6. Once you have added all the sugar, keep whisking on a medium high speed until you have a stiff peak to your meringue. You should be able to rub the mixture between your fingers and not feel any sugar granules.

7. Add the meringue into a piping bag fitted with a 4B or any star tip nozzle.

8. Line a baking tray with a silicon mat or parchment paper and pipe small kisses of meringue.

9. Place the tray in the oven and bake the kisses for 45 minutes. Turn the oven off, then open the oven door slightly and leave them in the oven to cool for a further 30 minutes.

Lemon Sweet Pastry

Note – I used quite a large silicon mat in the video – so the instructions below will guide you on splitting the dough into two balls if you are using regular sized silicon mats- one ball to create the bases for your tart shell, and one ball to create the walls.

1. Into a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer), add the cubed, cold butter, lemon zest and sift over the icing/powdered sugar.

• • 100g Unsalted Butter, Cold & Cubed
  • Zest ½ Lemon
  • 70g Icing/Powdered Sugar

2. With a paddle attachment or with the beaters on a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until it is evenly combined. Scrape down the mixture with a spatula twice during this time.

3. While still beating the mixture, pour in the egg yolks and beat to combine. After about 30 seconds, scrape down the bowl ensuring all the butter is scraped off the bottom of the bowl and then mix for another 30 seconds.

• • 50g Egg Yolks

4. Add in the flour, and mix on a very low speed, until the dry ingredients are just combined. Be careful not to overbeat the mixture, simply mix until no more flour is visible and the mixture is clumping together. It should take about 15 seconds.

• • 200g Plain Flour/All-Purpose

5. Squeeze the mixture in your hand to form two rough balls. Place one ball of dough onto a silicon mat. Place a second silicon mat on top and roll the mixture into a rough rectangle, getting it as thin as possible.

6. Once you have a rough circle of dough, place it into the freezer for 30 minutes. This dough will be for the base of the tart shells.

7. With the remaining dough, repeat the process, rolling it in between two silicon mats, into a rough rectangle shape.

8. Place the sheet of dough in the freezer for 30 minutes.

9. While the dough is chilling, take the perforated tart ring and very lightly grease the inside with some soft butter.

10. Remove the chilled dough from the freezer that you are going to use for the base of the tart shell.

11. Working quickly, peel the dough off of the silicon matt and place it onto your baking tray lined with a baking mat (ideally a perforated baking mat). Press the tart shells into the dough and peel away any excess dough. Arrange the 4 tart shells on the baking tray and place them back in the freezer.

12. Remove the second strip of dough from the freezer that we are going to use for the walls of our tart shell. Working quickly, peel the top of the silicon mat off. Use a knife to cut long strips of dough.

13. Cut 4 strips of dough in total and then quickly place these back into the freezer for 10 minutes. You need to work quickly so the dough doesn’t melt.

*Note – you may not have enough dough here for 4 tart walls depending on how you rolled it. In which case, start by cutting two walls and then re-roll the scraps to make another 2 walls.

14. Once chilled, remove the baking tray from the freezer that has the tart bases on and remove one strip of dough for the walls.

15. Work quickly and take the strip of dough and place it inside the tart ring. Use a knife to cut it to size so that there isn’t too much excess dough overlapping. Alternatively, you can measure a piece of paper on the inside of the tart ring so that it measures perfectly, then cut your strips of dough to this exact length so they fit perfectly when you place them inside the tart ring.

16. Use your fingers to press together the base and the walls. The idea is to slightly push down the base of the wall, so that it meets the dough on the base of the tart shell. Do this all the way around the tart shell so that there are no gaps in between the wall and the base.

17. You have to do this while the dough is cold, otherwise, if it is too warm, as you press the dough it will tear. If it does feel too warm, place it back in the freezer for 10 minutes then try again.

18. Remove the remaining strips of dough for the walls from the freezer and repeat this with the remaining tarts.

19. Once you have attached the walls and the dough, do not try and move the tart shells or lift them up as the dough will have softened and it will tear. Always keep them on the tray. Place the entire tray of tart shells in the freezer for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 175C/350F non-fan assisted.

20. After 15 minutes in the freezer, remove the tray of tart shells. Use a knife to trim off the excess pastry around the top of the tart shell.

21. Then, use a variety of cookie cutters and piping nozzles to cut different sized holes out of the base of the dough.

22. Make sure to keep the disc cut outs and place these on the baking tray too (these may cook quicker than your tart shells so keep an eye on them as they bake as you may need to take them out early).

23. Place the tarts into the oven and bake for around 14-16 minutes until they are nice and golden. Be careful as the underside of the tart that is facing directly onto the tray, will end up being the top of the cage. This will cook quicker as it is in direct contact with the tray, so have a little look underneath the tart shell after about 14 minutes in the oven to see how the colour is. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool completely.

Orange Gel

1. Into a saucepan add the orange juice and the agar agar.

• • 150g Orange Juice
  • 2.5g Agar Agar

2. Whisk the mixture together and bring it to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, cook for 1 minute to fully activate the agar agar.

3. Remove it from the heat and pour in the remaining orange juice, sugar and lemon juice.

• • 150g Orange Juice
  • 5g Sugar
  • 10g Lemon Juice

4. Pour the mixture onto a tray and let it set in the fridge for 30 minutes – 1 hour, or until it forms a jelly-like consistency.

5. Break the mixture up and place it into a blender (or blend in a tall jug with a hand blender)

6. Once smooth, store it in a container in the fridge until you are ready to plate with it.

Final Assembly

1. Remove the lemon cream from the fridge, and scoop it directly from the bowl, into a piping bag fitted with a round tip nozzle. Make sure to squeeze any air bubbles out of the piping bag.

2. Take your plate, and applying even pressure, pipe a spiral of the lemon cream onto it.

3. Next, place the meringue kisses around the outside, and pipe a few more dollops of the lemon cream.

4. Garnish with some freshly sliced raspberries, and the discs of lemon sweet pastry you made from the cut outs. (I also added some fresh vanilla powder, which is simply dried up vanilla pods that I blended into a powder).

5. Carefully place the lemon pastry cage over the top, trying to slot the meringue kisses into the holes.

6. Remove the orange gel from the fridge and place it into a piping bag.

7. Pipe small dots of the gel over the plate and then serve.