Lemon Meringue Mini Tarts with a crisp pastry full of citrus and vanilla, a lemon filling just sharp enough whilst still deliciously sweet and a gently vanilla flavoured meringue that is crisp on the outside and light and fluffy inside. Pure little bundles of joy!
I absolutely adore these cute lemon meringue mini tarts!
The sweet pastry has a great crunch and is strong enough to be baked outside of the tartlet tin once the lemon filling and meringue have been added. It also makes a great alternative to a lemon meringue biscuit base.
Adding orange juice to the lemon filling brings another citrus dimension and a little vanilla extract adds a sweet vanilla hit. The meringue topping is also flavoured with vanilla for some extra flavour.
Every element of these mini lemon meringue pies is just sublime.
Delicious! 🍋🍋🍋
Love a little lemon? This Lemon Victoria Sponge is bursting to lemony goodness!
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Why are these Lemon Meringue Mini Tarts just soooooo great?
Crunchy, citrus pastry cases✔️
Sharp but sweet tangy lemon filling ✔️
Cloud of fluffy meringue with a crisp outer shell ✔️
A perfect lemon meringue pie in miniature! ✔️
Ingredients and Substitutions
Lemons: I advise using fresh lemons and juicing them, the flavour is far better than bottled lemon juice.
Eggs: you will need 4 eggs in total, all separated and the whites ideally need to be at room temperature for the meringue.
Caster (superfine) sugar: or golden caster sugar. You can replace with with granulated sugar, however it may take longer to dissolve in your meringue and therefore a little longer to reach the stiff peak stage.
Icing (confectioner's) sugar: to sweeten our citrus pastry and give it its crunch.
Cream of Tartar: added to stabilise our meringue and ensure that it whips up proper thick and spiky.
Orange juice: again, try to use fresh orange juice with no bits, I used bottled fresh supermarket orange juice. If using an actual orange or juice with bits you will need to strain it first.
Cornflour: thickens our lemon filling and stops our meringue from weeping (when clear liquid seeps from the meringue after baking).
Butter: added to our lemon curd filling to make it super creamy.
Vanilla extract: used in our pastry and meringue, for a tiny vanilla hit.
Plain (all-purpose) flour: for our pastry.
Fine salt: used in our pastry to add flavour.
Instructions
See end of post RECIPE CARD for precise quantities and instructions.
To Make The Pastry Cases
Picture 1: pulse your flour, salt and grated butter in a food processor until breadcrumb-like. Mix in your icing (confectioner's) sugar and then your egg yolk, orange juice, vanilla extract and lemon zest.
Picture 2: pulse until the mixture starts to clump, then remove and bring together into a ball. Wrap in clingfilm (plastic wrap), refrigerate and then roll out and cut out 16 circles.
Picture 3: press into greased tartlet cases, prick the base.
Picture 4: cover with a circle of greaseproof paper and a layer of baking beans. Refrigerate again.
Bake on a preheated baking tray and bake for 12-14 minutes, removing the baking beans halfway through.
Leave to cool in the tartlet tin and then remove.
How to Make the Lemon Filling (lemon curd filling)
Picture 5: mix together your sugar, lemon zest and cornflour. Add your lemon juice, orange juice and water and mix thoroughly with a balloon whisk.
Picture 6: heat until just bubbling and then remove from the heat and mix in your butter until melted. Add your egg yolks and return to the heat.
Picture 7: stirring constantly, bring back to boiling point, then turn the heat down and simmer for a minute, whilst you keep stirring.
How to make the Meringue Topping
Picture 8: add your egg whites and cream of tartar to a large non-plastic mixing bowl and beat until whites are frothy and forming soft peaks.
Picture 9: gradually add your sugar and then beat on a medium setting until the meringue forms stiff peaks. Beat in your vanilla extract and then fill your piping bag.
Picture 10: reheat your lemon filling and fill your pastry cases, until just below the rim.
Picture 11: pipe meringue stars over your tartlets, ensuring all of the lemon is covered.
Bake for 18-20 minutes and then remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.
Top Tips
- To save time, you can make the pastry cases in advance and then fill them when ready with freshly made lemon curd filling and meringue.
- Press your cut out pastry circles into your tartlet tins so that they are just raised above the edge of the tins by a few millimetres, as the pastry will shrink a little when baked.
- To speed up chilling your pastry cases, pop them into the freezer for 10 minutes.
- To extract as much lemon flavour as possible, mix your lemon zest into your sugar and leave for 5 minutes so that the sugar absorbs the lemon oils before using for your lemon filling.
- Sieve your lemon filling once cooked if it contains little pieces of cooked egg white or bits of lemon or orange or any other lumpy bits.
- If your lemon filling is quite runny, mix together 2 teaspoons of cornflour and 2 teaspoons of water and add, keep stirring until thickened.
- Use extra large piping bags, they make life far easier!
Variations
You can use the same quantities and instructions in this recipe to make a full-sized Lemon Meringue Tart. Use a 20cm loose bottomed tin to do so.
You can buy pastry cases instead if you don't want to make your own. These may be just shortcrust pastry, so won't have as much flavour, but will be fine to use.
Did you try this recipe?
Please leave a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating in the Recipe Card below.
Storage
Once cooled, Lemon Meringue Mini Tarts should be kept refrigerated. Only keep out at room temperature for up to 2 hours.
FAQ
Your lemon filling (sometimes call lemon curd filling) needs to be piping hot when you add your meringue topping so that it starts to immediately cook the meringue base when added. This ensures that the meringue sticks to the lemon filling and does not separate when baked.
Your filling needs to be a bit like loose jam, not watery but nicely coating the spoon whilst still easily sliding off.
Your meringue may take longer to reach stiff peaks if the sugar has not dissolved. Sugar has to be added gradually so that each addition has dissolved before another is added. However, don't give up, it will reach the pointy peak stage but it may just take a little longer. Keep stopping and checking for pointy peaks that don't fold back on themselves, as you don't want to miss this critical stage and overbeat your meringue.
Linked Recipes
Below are a few recipes that either encompass meringue, lemon or custard. Three of my favourite things!
Easy Mango Macarons
Easy Mango Macarons with a crisp shell, a pillowy inside and a mango reduction and vanilla buttercream filling. Simply sublime.
Lemon Victoria Sponge Sandwich
A zesty, moist lemon Victoria sponge, with a thick, natural lemon curd and lemon flavoured double cream filling. Totally delicious.
🍋🍋🍋
Custard Creams
Perfect homemade custard creams comprising a custard flavoured shortcake biscuit with a creamy custard buttercream filling.
📖 Recipe
Lemon Meringue Mini Tarts
Here's what you'll need...
- Food processor optional
- Cling film (plastic wrap)
- Rolling Pin
- Zester
- Pastry cutter size 3 inches
- Greaseproof paper (parchment paper)
- Baking beans or rice
- Juicer
- Tea strainer or fine mesh sieve
- Medium saucepan
- Wooden spoon
- Large metal or ceramic or glass bowl if not using stand mixer bowl
- Piping bag and large star nozzle size 1M
Ingredients you'll need...
Lemon Meringue Pies - Pastry Cases
- 200 g Plain flour (All Purpose flour) (1½ Cups)
- ¼ teaspoon Fine salt
- 110 g Unsalted butter (1 Stick or ½ Cup) cold and grated, plus extra softened to grease pastry cases
- 80 g Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) (10 tablespoons)
- 1 teaspoon Lemon zest (from 1 lemon)
- 1 Egg yolk from a large egg cold
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoon Orange juice - fresh cold
Lemon Meringue Pies - Lemon Filling
- 75 g Caster sugar (superfine sugar) (⅓ Cup)
- 2 tablespoon Cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 tablespoon Lemon zest (from approx. 2 lemons)
- 100 ml Lemon juice (7 tablespoons) fresh and strained - weight after straining
- 100 ml Water (7 tablespoons)
- 2 tablespoon Orange juice fresh and strained - weight after straining
- 3 Egg yolks
- 65 g Unsalted butter (5 tablespoons) chopped into chunks
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Lemon Meringue Pies - Merginue
- 3 Egg whites at room temperature
- 150 g Caster sugar (⅔ Cup)
- ¼ teaspoon Cream of Tartar
- 2 teaspoon Cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla extract
Here's what we do...
Pastry Cases
- Add your flour and salt to your food processor and give it a few pulses to spread it out. Or place in a bowl and mix together.
- Dot over your cold, coarsley grated butter and pulse about 20 times until it resembles breadcrumbs. Or rub in with fingertips.
- Add your icing (confectioner's) sugar and pulse a few times to mix in. Or stir in.
- Add your egg yolk, lemon zest, vanilla extract and 2 tablespoons of your orange juice and pulse about 15 times. If the mixture is still quite dry add another tablespoon of orange juice. Once the mixture starts to clump together a little, is soft and you can easily press it together it is ready.
- Tip out onto a very lightly floured surface and bring together into a ball, no need to knead it. Flatten it out until it is about an inch deep then wrap in cling film (plastic wrap) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, to allow the butter to set.
- Using your pastry brush, coat your tartlet cases with some softened butter, making sure you get right into the groves.
- Heat your oven to 180°C Fan/200°C/390°F/Gas mark 6 and place your baking tray onto the centre shelf to heat.
- Roll your pastry out to a depth of 5 mm.
- Cut out circles and then press them into your tartlet cases, pressing into the groves and pushing up the sides so that the pastry just comes over the edges by a few millimetres.
- Prick the base with a fork and place a circle of greaseproof (parchment) paper over the base over the tartlet (the base of a large piping nozzle is usually about the right size to use as a template), add a layer of baking beans, or a few layers of rice.
- Refrigerate for 20 minutes, or place in your freezer for 10 minutes.
- Place onto your preheated baking tray and bake for 7-9 minutes, until the edges are just beginning to brown a little.
- Remove the baking beans and the greaseproof paper (be careful the tins and beans are very hot!) and bake for another 5 minutes, until browed at the top of the sides, the base will not be fully cooked but that's fine.
- Remove and leave to cool in the tartlet tins.
- Once cool, tip out of the tartlet cases and set aside.
Lemon Filling
- Place your cornflour, lemon zest and caster sugar into your saucepan and mix with your balloon whisk.
- Add your strained lemon juice, strained orange juice, vanilla extract and your water. Whisk with your balloon whisk until fully mixed together and no lumps remain.
- Stirring constantly with your balloon whisk, heat the lemon mixture until it just starts to bubble and thicken.
- Remove from the heat, add your butter and stir in until melted.
- Mix your egg yolks together and then add to your lemon mixture, stirring constantly with your wooden spoon (not your balloon whisk this time as you don't want to whisk the eggs).
- Return to a medium heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a gentle boil. Turn the heat down and simmer for a minute, stirring all of the time so that it doesn't stick to the pan.
- The lemon filling needs to be quite thick, but still easily run off the spoon. If your lemon filling is runny see Notes below on how to fix this.
- Set aside whilst you make your meringue filling.
Meringue Topping
- Lower your oven to 160°C Fan/180°C/355°F/Gas Mark 4.
- Cut off the tip of your piping bag and add your star nozzle. Stand it up in a large glass, rolling down the sides over the sides of the glass to make it easier to fill with your meringue
- Ensure your mixing bowl and whisk are spotlessly clean. See Notes below.
- Add your room temperate egg whites and your cream of tartar to your mixing bowl and begin beating on a low setting for about 20 seconds, until the cream of tartar has dissipated.
- Turn your mixer up to medium setting and continue to beat until the mixture is white, frothy and forming soft peaks that gently fold back over on themselves.
- Turn your mixer down to low and add a tablespoon of sugar at a time, leaving the sugar to beat for about 20 seconds between each addition. Once you have added half of your sugar add your cornflour and once that has beaten in continue to gradually add the rest of your sugar.
- Once all of your sugar has been added, turn your mixer up to medium-high and beat until your meringue forms stiff peaks. Stiff peaks do not fold back on themselves, they form a nice point. See Notes below.
- Add your vanilla extract and beat for just a few seconds to mix in.
- Add your meringue to your prepared piping bag.
- Place your tartlets onto your baking tray (this does not need to be pre-heated this time).
- Reheat your lemon filling until it starts to just bubble and then immediately pour it into your pastry cases, leaving about half a centimetre from the rim.
- Immediately pipe stars of meringue onto the lemon filling. Start at the outside first, adding stars opposite each other, then fill the centre and pipe one last larger star on top.
- Bake for 18 minutes, just until the meringue is lightly browned all over.
- Remove to a cooling rack and leave to cool.
Supporting Notes
- Press your pastry into your pastry cases so that it is just raised above the edge by a few millimetres, as it will shrink a little when baked.
- Sieve your lemon filling once cooked if it contains little pieces of cooked egg white or bits of lemon or orange.
- To extract as much lemony flavour as possible, mix your lemon zest into your sugar and leave for 5 minutes so that the sugar absorbs the lemon oils.
- If your lemon filling is quite runny, mix together 2 teaspoons of cornflour and 2 teaspoons of water and add, keep stirring until thickened.
- Your meringue may take longer to reach stiff peaks if the sugar has not dissolved. Sugar has to be added gradually so that each addition has dissolved before another is added. However, don't give up, it will reach the pointy peak stage it may just take a little longer. Keep stopping and checking for pointy peaks that don't fold back on themselves, as you don't want to miss this critical stage and overbeat your meringue.
- Use extra-large piping bags, they make life far easier!
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