Shortcrust pastry is used as the base of tarts, sweet and savoury alike. It is most commonly used in quiche, lemon meringue tarts, apple pie etc. Most basic recipes call for a 2 part flour to 1 part fat ratio. The fat is then rubbed into the flour, essentially creating a waterproof jacket for the starch particles, preventing it from developing gluten.
The different types of meringue
The two basic ingredients for meringue are whipped egg whites and sugar. The three types differ in the ways they are prepared.
First, French meringue is the easiest out of the three types to prepare. Egg whites are whipped to soft peaks, gradually adding sugar until the mixture reaches stiff peaks. French meringue is used in soufflés and can be even piped to create cookies. It needs to be baked.
Next, Swiss meringue is made by adding sugar to egg whites over a double boiler until it reaches 71 Celsius. It is then whipped at high speed so that it forms stiff peaks. This type of meringue is mostly used as frosting on cakes.
Finally, Italian meringue is the most difficult to prepare. It requires heating sugar to 115 Celsius. The sugar syrup is then poured into the egg whites whipped to soft peaks, continuing whipping until stiff peaks. This type of meringue can also be used as decoration as it is considered to be the more stable meringue of the three.
Documentation of the making process
This time around, we had a lot of obstacles we ran into when baking. First, the crust was quite thick, and would have benefited from rolling into a thinner sheet before molding. We also made the Italian meringue too early which resulted in it collapsing over time, leaking liquid. After research, we realized that the liquid was denatured protein from adding the hot sugar syrup. The deflated meringue can be revived by whipping it up again.
Baker’s Note: double the amount of lemon filling in the video! The amount made in the recipe is not enough to fill all the tarts!
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