Meyer Lemon Curd Tart

Meyer lemons have always been something I've wanted to use, but I never seem to get around to it. With a little extra time my hands I decided that this would be the year that I tackled what seemed like an intriguing citrus, which is reported to be a cross between a lemon and a mandarin orange.

I am so happy I did.

While Meyer lemons are still a very tart fruit, the tartness is a little more subtle than a regular lemon. That flavor difference is apparent in the Meyer Lemon Curd Tart I made recently.

I used the Cooking Light recipe for Meyer Lemon Curd Tart with a few changes.

First, because I didn't have the ingredients for the original crust recipe, I instead used the sweet pastry crust recipe from Joyofbaking.com.

Once the crust was in the oven, I started on the curd. I doubled the curd recipe, because I'm a huge fan of lemon curd and realized early that the recipe wasn't going to produce much curd.

Once the curd was chilled and the crust was cool, I assembled the tart. I assembled the meringue according to the recipe, however; the meringue didn't turn out as creamy as it was supposed to. I suspect that I either didn't whip the whites enough or I whipped them too much, or because my thermometer was acting up, my syrup was not the right temperature. Or a mixture of all three.

Nonetheless the assembled tart tasted fantastic and the meringue wasn't a huge issue. I'm normally a fan of lemon desserts, but sometimes I'm overwhelmed by their tartness. However, the meyer lemon tart had the perfect balance of tart and sweet, perfect for me.

I still have a pound and a half of Meyer lemons in my fridge waiting to be turned into panna cotta using this recipe and if I have enough left, maybe some curd. And who knows, maybe we'll pick some more up to make marmalade. Dan was hinting at that idea recently. Expect a few more Meyer lemon posts to come.

How have you been enjoying the surplus of winter citrus? If you're looking for ideas or recipes on how to use it up, check out my my Pinterest board dedicated to citrus.