strawberry meringue tart

sorry for the absence. i tried to blog but it is just too hot, my fingers get sticky and stuck on the keyboard. not to mention the fact that my brain boils and nothing coherent comes out...

since strawberries have been all over the place last week (and we got company coming yesterday) i finally decided to try the strawberry meringue tarts from anna olson's cookbook fresh.

i was aiming for this (picture from the book)







for the crust, flour, unsalted butter, white vinegar, egg yolk, cold water







the dough looked a bit sticky but wasn't...







...easy enough to roll into a log (kept mine in the fridge overnight)







i was quite hesintant to make these as it required heating the oven twice, first for the crust and then the meringue. the indoor temperature at 9.00 am was +25C, which made rolling the dough a bit challenging. the recipe says it makes 6, well, i got 7 and i thought my crusts were a bit on the thick side. i think this recipe might actually make 8, and there would be enough filling and meringue for 8, as well







pricking before oven







at this point the smell was amazing. there is something in the baking buttery smell...







the filling, i first quartered the berries, added only half the sugar the recipe calls for (it was still quite sweet, almost too sweet for my taste, if you can believe!), then strained the juices after 20 mins...







..and cooked the juices with cornstarch to thicken...







...cooled the thickened juices before folding the berries in







i had plenty of filling for 7 tarts (in fact, had to eat the rest as is because there was too much of it...) at this point the tarts went into the fridge to cool







the meringue then, i almost used only four egg whites but for some strange reason i did as the recipe said (which later proved would have been a good idea, one should learn to trust instincs again)







on a hot day i do appriciate my machines







i did my best to use all the meringue i had, and ended up with these humongous meringue clouds on the tarts. i did consider piping the meringue to make it look prettier but it was too hot to fuss like that...







this might have been the prettiest, not too shabby compared with the picture from the book, if i say so myself.







will i make these again? definitely, maybe with other berries (raspberries might be equally tasty). but, i will aim for 8 crusts as there is plenty of filling and meringue for at least that amount. i did check my tins and they were the 9cm like the recipe in the book calls for. fortunately i have a set of 12 tins so one or two extra won't be a big deal