Pumpkin Spice Choux Cylinders

I've been experimenting more with different choux shapes.  It takes a lot of trial and error with the amount of choux paste needed for the shape you're trying to form as well as with the baking times.  This particular cylinder took 2 hours to bake and only needs about 2 tablespoons of paste.  It's crazy for me to think that that small amount of choux paste can puff up so much.  I had to weigh it down with pie weights, rice and a marble mortar and pestle and the dough still would not be fully contained--lifting all of that weight up.  But, as I mentioned previously through a lot of experimentation, I think I found the sweet spot so that the cake rings won't overflow while baking.  

Since it's pumpkin spice season, and since I made my own pumpkin spice, I decide to fill them with a pumpkin spice pastry cream and then a simple chocolate glaze.  

If you have the time and patience--and are interested in reimagined pastries--I think this would be a fun project.  You can use just about any shape you want but the amount of choux paste and baking times will likely vary with each.  

Happy Baking!

Recipe

For this form, I used a 2" diameter by 3" high stainless steel cake ring.  The following recipe made 14 cylinders.

Choux Paste 

8oz water

4oz unsalted butter

1/8tsp table salt

1T granulated sugar

4oz all-purpose flour

8oz eggs

In a 3 quart saucepan, bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to a simmer over medium-high heat.  Then reduce the heat to low, add the flour all at once and stir rapidly.  A paste will form and once that happens, cook for one more minute, stirring constantly.  Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for about 3-5 minutes.  You want the paste to be hot but not so hot it will cook the eggs.  Start adding the eggs once at at time, stirring until fully incorporated.  It will go from looking slimy and broken up, to looking like a paste again after each additional egg has been incorporated.  Once all of the eggs have been incorporated, transfer the choux paste to a piping bag fitted with a 1/2 inch tip.

Preheat the oven to 335 F.  Line the cake cylinders with silicon cake ring bands and place them on a parchment or silicon mat lined baking sheet.  Pipe 40g of choux paste into each cylinder and with a small spoon that's been wetted with cold water, smooth the batter out as best you can.  Cover the tops of the rings with a perforated silicon mat, then weigh that down with a pan or bowl of pie weights, rice or something heat resistant and heavy.  Bake in the oven for 2 hours.  After the 2 hours, remove the baking sheet from the oven and carefully remove the weights and peel of the perforated silicon mat covering the tops of the cylinders.  Let the cylinders cool until you're able to pick them up without burning yourself and carefully push the formed choux up from the bottom and out of the mold.  Carefully peel off the silicon bands and fill the choux cylinders as desired!

For the filling, I needed 4 cups of basic vanilla pastry cream--so use whatever recipe is your favorite. I added 2 teaspoons of pumpkin spice to it in order to give it that seasonal flavor.  

For the glaze, I needed 1 cup--and still had some leftover.  The glaze was a simple ganache so again, use whatever your favorite eclair or cream puff glaze you fancy--just make sure you have about 1 cup to use for this amount of choux.

Eclair Cage - Pistachio Flavored

 

Eclairs are fairly simple.  The pate choux pastry is one of the easier types of pastry dough to make.  And due to the general nature of the dough, piping it out as eclairs or spooning it out for cream puffs is a rather forgiving task--they'll look rustic and craggy and that's just fine.  But, I've seen a lot of Instagram posts where pastry chefs are making the most perfect looking eclairs that are perfectly cylindrical or capsule shaped.  I saw one post referring to them as eclair cages.  After searching for some recipes and instructional videos--which are not easy to come by--I started experimenting with different "cages" and trying to find a way to replicate some of the ones I've been seeing pastry chefs make.  More than anything it involved figuring out just the perfect amount of choux paste to pipe into each cage so that it wouldn't rise outside of the cage or cower down inside of it.  Eventually, I found a reasonable amount for a few different types of cages that I was using.  The one I liked the best was the capsule shape because it emulated the typical eclair best.  

I filled this one with pistachio pastry cream, topped it with a whipped white chocolate pistachio ganache and a dark chocolate disc with a chocolate transfer sheet design etched on top.

The following is what worked for me.

Pate choux (choux paste):

1c water
1 stick of butter
1/2 tsp salt
1c all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter and salt.  Over high heat, bring the mixture to a boil. Once it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and add the flour all at once and begin to stir it rapidly.  Continue stirring--the mixture will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan and form a sort of dough/paste mass in the middle.  Once this happens continue to cook it while stirring constantly for another minute or two in order to cook off some more of the water.  Then, remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool down for about 5 minutes--before you add the eggs you don't want the dough/paste to be too hot or else you'll cook them too quickly but at the same time you want the dough somewhat warm/hot.  After your 5 minute cool-down, add each egg one at a time stirring after each addition until the egg is fully incorporated.  It might look like the dough is breaking up but just keep stirring and it will come back together.  Once you've added in each egg, let the dough cool to room temperature--or again you can place it in the fridge with a piece of plastic wrap over it.

Once the choux paste is completely cooled, preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.  Line a 7-1/2" x 2-3/4" x 1-3/8" high oval tart ring(s) with a silicone liner and place it/them on a silicone lined baking sheet.  Place the pastry cream into a piping bag and pipe 25g of the choux paste into the tart ring(s) in an even layer.  Place a second silicone mat on top of the ring(s) and weigh it down with a second heavy baking sheet.  Place in the oven and bake for 60-75 minutes.  Remove from the oven and let cool completely before removing each shell from its cage.  Repeat with the remaining choux paste as desired.

Pistachio Paste

 

If you know something about patisserie, you have probably seen the use of nut pastes--hazelnut and pistachio seem to be the two most popular that I see.  And for good reason because they taste fantastic and they're versatile.  You can introduce them into a dessert as is or use them as a flavor in buttercream, mousse, pastry cream or in some other creative way.

Though, there are a couple of problems with them.  For one thing, I notice that they are difficult to find in brick and mortar stores (they're certainly easy enough to find online).  But, the second issue is that they are expensive.  The good news is that they are easy to make on your own.  All you need is a food processor or blender and a candy thermometer.

Ingredients:

125g raw, shelled pistachios (not roasted or salted)

30g almond flour

60g granulated sugar

20 grams of water

1/8tsp of almond extract

1-2T (approximately, divided) flavorless oil such as grapeseed or vegetable

Directions:

First toast the pistachios in the oven.  Set the oven temperature to 300F.  Place the pistachios on a rimmed baking sheet in one layer.  Toast them in the oven for 12-15 minutes.  Make sure they brown a bit but don't burn.  They'll start to smell quite fragrant.  Once done, remove them from the oven and set aside.

Next, place the sugar and water in a medium saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.  Once it starts to boil use a candy thermometer and cook until it reaches 250F.  Once it reaches that temperature, remove it from the heat, pour the toasted pistachios into the saucepan and stir them into the sugar syrup using a wooden spoon or heat-resistant spatula.  The goal here is to ensconce all of the nuts with the sugar syrup.  The syrup will start to crystallize and that is normal and ok.  After the crystallization has occurred, pour the pistachios into the bowl of a food processor (or blender but I prefer the food processor).  

Add to the food processor bowl the rest of the ingredients but just 1 tablespoon of the oil and begin processing the mixture.  It will go through stages where it becomes powdery, then clumpy and finally it will start to smooth itself out.  At this point you need to determine how viscous you want your paste.  If it seems too thick, add another 1/2 tablespoon of oil and then run the processor once more.  Stop and check the processor again to check the viscosity.  Add another 1/2 tablespoon of oil if you want it to be thinner and run the processor again until smooth.  

Once you have achieved the consistency you want, you can store the pistachio paste in a jar or other container for later use.  I usually store mine in the refrigerator and it keeps for quite a while.

Note:  

The amount of oil you need seems to vary--in my experience.  From what I've read, sometimes you really don't need a lot because once you start processing the nuts, the heat generated from the machine will sort of draw the natural oils out of the pistachios and force them into cohesion.  But, that's never happened for me.  So, I usually end up adding enough additional oil until I get the consistency I desire.  Perhaps it's the type of nuts I use or my processor isn't powerful enough--not sure.  Either way, I'm always pleased with the product.

Yellow Cake Taste Test

I bring to anyone reading this my own yellow cake taste test.

The idea of the taste test came from me feeling like I don't always have a go-to recipe for a lot of things--in this particular situation, yellow cake.  I try a lot of different recipes and generally they are all great.  But when it comes time to make, say a yellow cake, I feel like I could use that one or this one or that other one because what's the difference?  I remember liking all of them so it shouldn't make a difference.  But maybe it does.

There are several different methods for making cakes but only about three that are used to make a yellow cake:  the creaming method, the reverse creaming method and the one-bowl method.  And each one is supposed to produce a different end result.  The creaming method should produce a cake that's good for stacking in layers--but still soft and tender.  The reverse creaming method is supposed to produce a similarly sturdy cake that's good for stacking multiple layers.  But, from what I've read it also has a denser crumb--but still tender and soft.  Lastly is the one-bowl method which is probably the simplest of them all.  For one thing--as the name implies--you do all of the work in one bowl. And in my opinion, it produces the best crumb that's soft and pillowy and most similar to a boxed cake mix. They're also usually made with all oil or at least some oil.

My recipe

How to Bake Everything

Cooks Illustrated

The Cake Bible

The Joy of Cooking

King Arthur

So, I made six yellow cakes using all three of those methods.  I picked five of the recipes from different recipe books I had on hand and the sixth one was my own.  I used the same baking pan, same oven and same types and brand of ingredients for each recipe where appropriate.  And lastly, I frosted each of the cakes with the same chocolate frosting.  Essentially I tried to be as scientific as I could.

My recipe

How to Bake Everything

Cooks Illustrated

The Cake Bible

The Joy of Cooking

King Arthur

I invited friends over, had them taste each of the anonymously numbered cakes and then vote for their top picks.  And after tallying up all of the votes, my recipe actually came out on top--which was made using the one-bowl method.  I promise I didn't rig the competition in my favor.  My recipe doesn't necessarily use any secret ingredient.  I think that by using the one-bowl method you do produce a cake that isn't super dense and is lighter.  From what I've read a lot of that might have something to do with the fact that you're using oil.  I don't know the exact science behind that but I'm sure I read about it at some point.  And generally, as I mentioned earlier, you get a cake that's most consistent with a cake made from a boxed mix.  You can take that for what it is--I personally am ok with it because I like the way boxed cake mixes taste.

I still think that all of the other recipes are great.  But now that I've had a side to side comparison I can narrow down the yellow cake recipes in my repertoire and make use of them on an appropriate basis respective of their individual characteristics.

For reference, the recipes I included--in most popular to least popular order--were from Mark Bittman's How to Bake Everything, Cooks Illustrated's classic yellow cake, Rose Levy Beranbaum's all-occasion downy yellow cake from The Cake Bible,  The Joy of Cooking's yellow cake recipe, and King Arthur's classic yellow cake recipe which I found off of their website.

Recipe for my own yellow cake: makes one 9" yellow cake

145g unbleached cake flour
150g superfine granulated sugar
65g unsalted butter melted and cooled
28g vegetable/canola oil
75g (~1 1/2) large eggs at room temperature
2/3c buttermilk at room temperature
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract


First, preheat the oven to 350 F.  Then, butter the sides and bottom of a 9" round cake pan.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, sift in all of the dry ingredients and then using the paddle attachment, mix together everything for about thirty seconds on low.  In a second medium bowl thoroughly whisk all of the wet ingredients together.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry.  Turn the mixer on medium speed and mix for about 1 1/2 minutes until everything is thoroughly combined--the batter will be very thin.  Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake for about 22-25 minutes until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

Let the cake cool in the pan for about 10-15 minutes and then remove it from the pan and let it cool completely before frosting.

Banana Nilla Cookies

I've made cookies from at least two James Beard Foundation award winners.  Both recipes were amazing.  At the same time, both recipes were rather involved--or at least included some extra steps. And, I don't mean that to act as a deterrent to anyone thinking about making something from a JBF award winner.  I mean, there is a good reason why they've won the award.  These cookies from Mindy Segal's Cookie Love were spectacular.  There were a lot of steps involved in the making of these cookies but they weren't difficult steps.  And if you have everything ready and able--or store bought--then it probably won't take you nearly as long.  I didn't, which is probably the main reason I'm bringing this up.  So, don't be like me--be more prepared.  Now let's discuss the actual cookies.

What Mindy Segal has done is created a homemade recipe for Nilla Wafers.  She then used them to sandwich a banana caramel buttercream filling and topped them off with two types of chocolate--a bittersweet and a caramelized white chocolate.  The result is a decadent sandwich cookie that to me--due to the bananas--has a fairly accented fruity flavor--which is a good thing.  The cookies are softer and more pillowy than actual Nilla Wafers and pack a good vanilla flavored punch.  The bittersweet chocolate comes through nicely but I personally didn't think the caramelized white chocolate one did as much.  In truth, I think it's more decorative than anything.  But at the same time, I've been wanting to caramelize white chocolate for a while now and this project gave me a good reason to do so.  And by the by, even though I don't necessarily think it came through with these cookies, caramelized white chocolate is pretty damn tasty on its own--well worth the effort of caramelization.

What I really like about these cookies is the pure fact that they are sandwich cookies.  Basically my philosophy over sandwich cookies is the more the merrier.  Barring the fact--but probably because of this very fact--that sandwich cookies are double the cookie--which means they are double the fat, sugar, refined flour, blah blah blah--they are my favorite type of cookie.  I'll always take an oatmeal cream pie over a regular oatmeal cookie or an Oreo (preferably double-stuffed) over a simple chocolate wafer.  And now I can state, with a clear conscience that I would definitely take a Mindy Segal Banana Nilla cookie over a simple Nilla Wafer.  Yes, they're more decadent and more calories but they're a little more complex and a lot more fun to eat.

Recipe via the kitchn for Mindy Segal's Banana Nilla Cookies (makes about 30 sandwich cookies)

Cookies

1/3c unsalted butter at room temp.
1/3c vegetable shortening
1c powdered sugar
2/3c granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs at room temp.
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/2 T water
3c cake flour
1 T baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes (I used Maldon)

Using a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salts and then set it aside.  Then in a small bowl crack in the eggs and add the vanilla and water and set that aside.  Next in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and shortening using the paddle attachment.  Mix that until they are combined on medium speed.  Add the sugars to the mixer bowl and cream the mixture on medium-high speed for about 5 minutes.  Then add each egg into the fat/sugar mixture one at a time--mixing just until it looks like cottage cheese.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and run the mixer for a minute more just make sure all that side and bottom stuff has been re-introduced into the mixture.  Now add the flour mixture all at once and mix on low speed just until combined.  Next, place a large sheet of plastic wrap flat on your work surface.  Scrape the batter onto the plastic wrap and pat it into a rectangle.  Wrap the batter up tightly and refrigerate it overnight.

The next day when you are ready to cut out the cookies and bake them, get out two baking sheets and cut out pieces of parchment paper to fit them.  Then lay each sheet of parchment paper on your work surface--you're going to roll out your dough directly on each parchment sheet.  Now, remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap it and cut it in half.  Place one half back in the fridge and leave the other one out.  Lightly dust one sheet of parchment paper with flour and place the one half of dough on top of it.  Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness (you can either place an additional sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough and roll or lightly flour the surface of the dough while rolling). Once you've got the dough rolled out to 1/4 inch thickness, place a sheet of parchment paper on top of the dough, ease the sheet of dough onto a baking sheet and refrigerate it for one hour.  Do the same thing for the other half of dough.  Once the hour is up, preheat your oven to 325 F.  Remove one sheet of dough at a time from the fridge and ease the sheet onto a work surface.  Place a silicone baking mat or another sheet of parchment paper onto the baking sheet.  Then with the dough, remove the top sheet of parchment paper and cut out 2 inch circles of dough--re-rolling the dough with the trimmings and cutting once again as needed.  Place your cookie circles on the prepared baking sheet, lower the oven temperature to 300 F and bake for 7-10 minutes or until the cookies feel firm.  Remove the cookies from the oven and let them cool completely before sandwiching.  Repeat with the remaining half of dough.

Banana Puree

2 medium overripe bananas
2 T granulated sugar
1/4c water
1 T freshly squeezed lemon juice

Break the bananas up with your hands into chunks.  Place them--along with the rest of the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook them for about 5-7 minutes or until the bananas are soft and easily break apart when nudged with a spoon.  Once that is done, place the mixture in the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth.  Pour the puree into a small bowl, place a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the puree and let it cool completely.

Frosting

1c unsalted butter at room temp.
1c powdered sugar
Seeds from half of a vanilla bean
1 T vanilla extract
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
All of the banana puree you just made at room temp.
1/2c homemade or store-bought caramel sauce at room temp.

In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium-high until smooth.  Add the sugar and beat on medium-high for about 5 minutes.  Stop the mixer and scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl.  Add in the vanilla bean seeds, extract and salts and mix until fully incorporated and evenly distributed.  Then add in the banana puree and mix in until fully incorporated.  Finally, add the caramel sauce and mix until that is fully incorporated.

Assembly

All of your cookies
Frosting
8oz bittersweet chocolate melted and cooled
2oz caramelized white chocolate melted and cooled (here is a good link to how to go about caramelizing white chocolate)

On your work surface, pair up the cookies with a suitable partner.  Fill a pastry bag with the frosting and pipe a tablespoon or two of the frosting on the bottoms of half of the cookies.  Sandwich each cookie with its unfrosted partner.  Dip each sandwich cookie into the bittersweet chocolate and set aside to set for a minute. Finally, using a fork or spoon drizzle the caramelized white chocolate over each sandwich cookie. Let the chocolates set and then enjoy at your leisure.

Buckwheat Linzer Cookies

Doughs made with buckwheat don't look all that appetizing.  They're the color gray.  Incidentally, I dare someone to name one gray food that looks inviting.  I for one can't think of any.

Luckily when you bake with buckwheat, it browns a bit so the appearance warms up.  But before that--yuck.  For this recipe I had to create this log of gray buckwheat cookie dough to chill so I could slice it up into cookie circles later and bake. As you can guess, the log of gray dough looked less than tempting--like some sort of generic sustenance that would be served to the masses in a post-apocalyptic earth science fiction movie.  It was sticky, wet and of course...gray.  The upside is that the old adage, don't judge a book by its cover, applies here.  The resulting cookies were delicious.

This recipe is another one from Alice Medrich's Flavor Flours.  I've been baking from this recipe book a lot lately--partly because I'm intrigued to see how some of Alice Medrich's gluten free creations turn out.  Also because I've bought just about every flour specified in the book and I'm afraid it's going to go rancid if I don't start using them up faster.  Nevertheless, its been fun.  And the buckwheat linzer cookies--despite their pre-baked appearance--were delectable. They were buttery, sweet and soft.  Aside from the color, the buckwheat adds a bit of a grainy texture to the cookie--which I didn't look at that as a negative attribute.  A little texture is nice sometimes.

But at the same time I feel as though I need to have a traditional linzer cookie at my side in order to properly perceive the differences between the two types of flours.  Plus, in addition to buckwheat flour this recipe calls for oat flour and white rice flour.  Technically, the buckwheat flour is the predominant flour in the blend but I can't help but feel that with the added butter and sugar plus the other flours it might be hard to pick out the flavor of the buckwheat.  Or...maybe my taste buds just aren't that sophisticated.

If anyone has any trepidation about baking with buckwheat, let me be the one to allay those concerns. It may look kinda gross before it's baked but it doesn't taste gross--unless you make it taste gross of course.  I'm assuming, from my recent experience that you could use it to make any number of good baked goods--this recipe being proof of that in fact.  It's different yes.  But certainly not in a bad way--in a good way, a real good way.

Recipe

55g (1/4c + 2 T) white rice flour
70g (1/2c + 2 T) buckwheat flour
65g (2/3c) oat flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp baking soda
100g (1/2c) granulated sugar
60g (1/4c) cream cheese cut into chunks
170g (12 T) unsalted butter at room temp. and cut into chunks
1 T water

1/2c of preserves--I used blackberry

Using the bowl of a food processor, combine all of the dry ingredients and process for about 30 seconds.  Then add everything else and process until a smooth ball forms.  Scrape the dough out of the food processor and divide it in half.  With each half of dough, form it into a log that is about 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Wrap each log tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  The next day when you are ready to get baking, place oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and then preheat it to 325 F.  Line two baking sheets with either silicone baking mats or parchment paper and set them aside.  Next, take one chilled log of dough from the refrigerator and slice it into just a little less than 1/4 inch slices and place each slice on baking sheets at least 2 inches apart.  Make sure you have equal slices on each sheet--it will make the next step a little easier.  Do the same thing with the other log of dough.  Bake two baking sheets at a time for 12 minutes.  Remove the baking sheet from the upper rack.  Place the one on the lower rack into the upper position and rotate it 180 degrees. With the baking sheet that was removed from the oven, use a 1/2 inch cookie cutter to cut circles in the middles of each cookie--the centers may or may not pop out--it doesn't matter whether or not they do.  Place the baking sheet in the lower rack and bake both sheets for another 10-15 minutes or just until the edges start to brown a bit.  Once done, remove each baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies cool completely on each sheet.

Once the cookies are cooled, match all of them up and spoon about 1/2 teaspoon of preserves on the bottom of each one.  Sandwich it with the cut-out top and enjoy.

Lemon Tart with Coconut Crust

In my neck of the woods, citrus is about the only fruit available during the frigid winter months.  And if I really didn't like citrus, I'd probably be mad about that.  Luckily I do like it--quite a bit in fact.  Its got that tart bite that I find refreshing during the bleak winter months--and they're tropical fruits that hint at the warmth from which they are borne.  And I fantasize about that warmth.  My all time favorite citrus dessert is key lime pie.  My ideal one has a tooth-achingly sweet and salty graham cracker crust that cuts up the key lime filling.    

I found a recipe for a key lime tart in Alice Medrich's Flavor Flours.  Unfortunately, I only had lemons on hand and no condensed milk so I couldn't make it.  But, I could use the recipe for the crust. Not surprisingly--since this particular recipe book explores baking using just about any flour other than wheat flours--it doesn't call for my beloved graham cracker crust.  Instead, it pairs itself with another tropical fruit, the coconut. Both shredded coconut and coconut flour join forces to create the base for this tart.  The result is essentially a crust that tastes like a macaroon.  And since the recipe for the crust is just about the same as one for macaroons, it's not all that shocking.  The only difference is that it uses coconut flour. I think macaroons are pretty amazing so eating a crust in the form of a giant one is by no means a chore.  

My only trouble with making this coconut crust was that it wasn't exactly the most structurally sound crust.  Macaroons are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside.  But this crust was just chewy all over.  So when I cut into the tart, it was more pliable than anything else so I never got a clean cut.  I always ended up having to scrape off some of the crust from the bottom of the pan.  Nevertheless, I think that if I baked it a bit longer, that issue would have been resolved.  

In my mind, pairing two tropical fruits like this just seems to make perfect sense.  And truly, they go together well--it was an excellent crust.  I'm not saying I'm going to totally give up on a graham cracker crust for a key lime pie but it's certainly a nice alternative to have in your back pocket.  

Recipe

Crust via Alice Medrich's Flavor Flours

40g (1/3c) coconut flour
100g (1c + 1T) unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
85g (6T) unsalted butter at room temp. and softened
100g (1/2c) granulated sugar
1 large egg white

First, preheat the oven to 350 F and then grease a 9 inch tart pan with a removable bottom.  Next, using a large bowl combine all of the ingredients together until everything is well incorporated. After that, press the mixture into the bottom and sides of the tart pan--making sure that every inch is covered well and that the sides of the pan are thicker than the base.  Place the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake it in the oven for at least 15 minutes.  I baked mine for 15 minutes and I felt that it wasn't done so maybe in the time range between 15-20 minutes depending upon your oven.  I would touch the bottom of the crust and if it seems fairly firm then it will probably be good.  Once, the crust has baked, remove it from the oven and let it cool completely before making the filling.

Filling

100g (1/2) granulated sugar
2T corn starch
1/8 tsp salt
1/2c water
1/4c milk
2 large egg yolks (save the whites for the meringue)
1T unsalted butter
1/4c fresh lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

First, preheat the oven to 350 F.  Then using a small bowl, whisk together the egg yolks until lighter in color and set it aside.  In a medium saucepan, combine the sugar, corn starch, salt, water and milk. Set the mixture over medium heat and whisk constantly until the mixture just comes to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and pour about a third of the mixture into the egg yolks and quickly whisk to combine. Pour that mixture back into the saucepan with the rest of the milk mixture. Set it over low heat while whisking constantly and cook just until it thickens and it starts to slowly bubble. Remove it from the heat and add the butter, lemon juice and lemon zest and whisk to combine.  Place a piece of plastic wrap over the surface of the filling and set aside while you make the meringue.

Meringue

2 large egg whites
50g (1/4c) granulated sugar

In the bowl of a stand mixer using the whisk attachment, start whisking the egg whites on medium speed until they are foamy.  Then slowly start pouring in the sugar.  Whisk the whites on medium-high speed until stiff glossy peak form.  Set the meringue aside while you assemble everything.

Assembly

Pour the slightly cooled filling into the cooled tart shell and make sure it's evenly distributed.  Next, either spread the entire meringue over the tart or pour it into a piping baking with a plain tip and pipe any sort of design you wish.  Once that's done, bake the tart for about 12-15 minutes until it is set and the meringue peaks have just started to brown.  Remove the tart from the oven and let it cool completely before slicing into.