I love lemon meringue. It simply screams of spring.
Lemon is so clean and bright, fresh and renewing. Combine it with pillow-y, light as air puffs of meringue and I’m not sure it gets any better. Oh, wait. It does. Case in point: these lemon meringue tarts. Crisp coconut shortbread tart shells are filled with a tangy lemon filling made with fragrant Meyer lemons. The meringue on top is no ordinary meringue, but a refined sugar free Italian meringue that is completely stable and made with honey.
Italian meringues are ideal for tarts that are baked prior to topping. Since hot honey is slowly poured into the egg whites as they are whipped, the egg cooks and doesn’t lose it’s shape once piped out, nor does it leak while sitting on top of a tart or pie while refrigerated, as uncooked meringues do. The meringue is utterly fun to toast once piped or spread on top of the tarts. If you don’t have a Kitchen Torch
, you should. Even if you only use it for the occasional toasting of meringue (crème brulee is another excellent use for them as well), I think it’s totally worth it just to watch those little white clouds puff up and sizzle into a golden brown.
Eat these quickly! The crust tends to lose it’s crispness after the first day.
- FOR THE CRUST:
- 1 cup Coconut Flour
- scant ½ teaspoon Sea Salt
- 4½ tablespoons Maple Syrup or Honey
- ½ cup Coconut Oil at room temperature
- FOR THE LEMON FILLING:
- 3 Eggs
- 4 Egg Yolks
- ½ cup Honey
- ½ Cup Fresh Meyer Lemon Juice
- ¼ teapsoon Sea Salt
- 4 Tablespoons Butter, cut into small pieces
- 2 tablespoons Coconut Milk (canned, full fat)
- FOR THE MERINGUE:
- 1 cup Honey
- 2 Egg Whites
- ¼ teaspoon Salt
- FOR THE CRUST:
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Place the coconut flour and salt in a mixing bowl and whisk together. Add the maple syrup and stir in until the mixture becomes crumbly. Add the coconut oil to the mixture and work into the flour with a spoon or rubber spatula until the a dough forms and there are no pieces of coconut oil remaining.
- Divide the dough into 4 balls and press each ball into a 4" tart pan with a removable bottom. This may take some time - be patient and use the tips of your fingers to press the dough across the pan and up the sides. Place the tarts on a baking sheet.
- Bake the tart shells in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes, or until the crust is lightly golden brown across the bottom.
- Remove tarts from the oven and fill each one to the top with lemon filling.
- FOR THE LEMON FILLING:
- In a saucepan, whisk together the eggs, egg yolks, honey, lemon juice and salt until smooth and fully combined. Heat on medium/high heat, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens and begins to bubble, about 4-5 minutes.
- Remove from heat and whisk in the coconut milk.
- Divide evenly between the cooked tart shells.
- Place tarts back in the oven for an additional 4-5 minutes to set the filling, removing before the crusts get too dark (watch closely - coconut flour browns quickly).
- Remove and let cool to room temperature. Refrigerate until cold.
- FOR THE MERINGUE:
- Place the honey in a small saucepan and heat on medium/high heat to 110 degrees. White the honey is heating, place the egg whites and salt in a bow and beat until they reach soft peaks.
- Once the honey has reached 110 degrees, very slowly pour it into the egg whites as you beat them on medium speed. continue beating until all of the honey has been incorporated. Continue to beat until the meringue cools down, another 3-5 minutes. During this time, the meringue should thicken up quite a bit.
- Top the chilled tarts with the cooked meringue, either with a spoon, or using a piping bag and tip.
- If desired, toast the meringue with a kitchen torch.
- Store in the fridge, covered, for up to 3 days. Crusts will lose their crispness after the first day.
Wow these look stunning! Lemon meringue is my favourite and I love the addition of coconut
Oh my Kayley, these sound divine! And as usual, you have created a beautiful colour scheme and photography that tells a story. Hugely inspirational, keep that wonderful food photography coming 🙂
These are the cutest mini pies ever! You always make your food look super cute and delicious, such an inspiration 🙂 🙂
Anja
Use Your Noodles
I am going to make this next weekend for my daughter and son-in-law… could you convert what is a cup of coconut flour in grams please … thank you
These photos….so so beautiful! And I feel the same way about lemon!
These are such gorgeous sunny tarts!
you are so right lemon and meringue are beautiful together – my favourite combination in the world! Your photos have me sighing wistfully at my computer screen. I have never tried honey in meringue before.
i am totally in love with these little lemon tartes. And love making meringue kisses. When you get the hang of it, it is even a little bit addictive to make them!
These are beautiful. I love these so much, I am a huge lemon meringue fan.
Gorgeous tarts! I am currently obsessed with coconut flour crusts – using them for everything! I had never been a lemon meringue fan until I learned how to make a reallyyy amazing lemon curd, and realized that Italian meringue (with cooked sugar) is so much better than the sad droopy stuff that many bakeries use! Anyway, now this dessert is one of my favs, especially in late winter and Spring =)
These are so beautiful.. almost poetic in its beauty. The pictures are stunning! And you have totally inspired me to try the honey meringues in place of sugar!! Fingers crossed I don’t bungle it up! Xo
At any point do you think you could freeze thede? I’d like to make numerous ones in advance but don’t know how they hold up once defrosted
I wish I could tell you, Debbie, but I haven’t frozen them myself. Let me know what happens, if you try it =)
This looks beautiful! I was looking for a paleo lemon curd dessert, so this is perfectly timed! Can’t wait to make it 🙂
Hello! What a delight! I loved the photos and recipe! Although it totally needs practice, I totally forgot to add the coconut milk!
The comment about the flour “(watch closely – coconut flour browns quickly)” would have been really useful in instruction number 5.
I couldn´t get the meringue to thicken quite enough, I read that for meringue, the bowl needs to be chilled, do you did it that way?
I totally want to give it another try!
PD There are some misspelled words
These look absolutely delicious! Can coconut flour be replaced with normal flour and coconut milk with normal milk?
Coconut flour, unfortunately, is not interchangeable with ap flour, since they are so very different. You can switch out the coconut milk for cream, though =)
I was also wondering about the addition of the butter?
Quick question- when are the four tablespoons of butter added? I do not see any more mentions after the ingredients list