Ingredients
Method
- Make pastry: pulse flour, icing sugar, and cold butter to breadcrumbs. Add egg yolk and cold water until dough just comes together. Wrap and chill 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 200°C / 180°C fan / Gas 6. Roll pastry to 3mm. Line a 23cm tart tin. Prick base. Chill 20 minutes. Blind bake with beans 15 minutes, remove beans, bake 10 more minutes until pale golden and dry. Trim edges. Reduce oven to 180°C / 160°C fan / Gas 4.
- Whisk cornflour and cold water in a pan until smooth. Add lemon juice, zest, and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring, until boiling and thickened — 1 minute at a rolling boil. Remove from heat. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add butter. Stir until smooth. Pour immediately into pastry case.
- Whisk egg whites to stiff peaks. Add caster sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Fold in cornflour. Meringue should be thick, glossy, and smooth.
- Immediately spoon meringue onto hot filling. Spread to pastry edges all the way around. Create peaks with a spatula.
- Bake 15–20 minutes until peaks are golden. Cool at room temperature 1 hour before refrigerating. Slice with a hot, wiped knife.
Notes
Blind bake the pastry properly — pale golden and dry before filling goes in.
The filling must reach a rolling boil to activate the cornflour.
Apply meringue to hot filling — not cold.
Spread meringue to the pastry edges all the way around — no gaps.
Cool at room temperature before refrigerating — never refrigerate warm.
Best eaten on the day it is made.
