One of my favourite summer tart: a red currant meringue tart. The light and airy pie is made up of a shortcrust pastry is topped with a sweet meringue and red currant that release all their juices as the tart bakes. Yummy.
Just like music, some dishes take you back to a given time and place or remind you of a person. This is the case for this red currant meringue tart.
It reminds me of my summer holidays as a kid. Every year I would go spend a week at my Swiss grandmother’s and she always made sure that the week was memorable: she spoilt me and treated me to all the sweets I couldn’t have back home:-).
If the weather was nice, we would go to the local swimming pool and its adjoining bakery: there we would always get the same two things: a cream cheese and chives roll and a red currant meringue tart.
I love this tart – it’s so light and fluffy that every bite melts in your mouth. I also love that the fruit becomes really juicy after baking, contrasting nicely with the sweet meringue.
But mostly, I love this red currant meringue tart because it reminds me of my grandmother, how close we were and how great these summer holidays always were.
One of my favourite summer tart: red currant meringue tarts. The light and airy pie is made up of a shortcrust pastry is topped with a sweet meringue and red currant that release all their juices as the tart bakes. Yummy.
Combine the butter, icing sugar and almonds in the mixer. Split the vanilla bean down the middle lengthwise. Scrape the seeds of the vanilla bean into the batter. Add the eggs, egg yolk and salt and mix until homogenous. Add the flour in one go and then mix as little as possible, only enough to be able to shape the dough into a ball. Flatten slightly and refrigerate overnight (or at least 1h30).
Roll out the dough so that it's 3mm (0.1 inch) thick. Carefully place the dough in a 24 cm (9.5 inches) diameter pie tin and refrigerate again for 1-1h30. This will prevent the dough from shrinking when baking.
Blind bake for 20 minutes at 180°C (355F), then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Prep the red currants by removing them from their stems. Set aside.
Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and whisk into firm peaks, progressively adding the sugar. Once the meringue is firm and shiny, gently fold in 300 g (3 cups) of the red currants.
Pour the meringue/red currant mix on top of the pre-baked crust and bake again for 15-20min at 180°C (355F). The top of the meringue should be lightly golden.
Remove from the oven and place on a cooling rack. Once the tart is at room temperature, decorate with the remaining red currants.
Jo and I loved this recipe. Thank you!