Clementine Day’s Passionfruit Meringue Tart
We share Clementine Day’s first recipe created for Hunter & Folk: passionfruit meringue tart.
Words: Hande Renshaw | Recipe & Photography: Clementine Day
Clementine Day’s passionfruit meringue tart. Photo: Clementine Day
Self-taught home cook and author of Some Things I Like To Cook, Clementine Day. Photo: Jessie Webb
Clementine Day from Some Things I Like To Cook celebrates the joy of food and drawing a meaningful connection between people, food and play.
Perhaps best-known for her breathtakingly beautiful and decadent cakes, it’s hard to believe that Clem is a self-taught cook. Last year, she self-published her first cookbook Coming Together, a collection of recipes centred around six long lunches. Clem wrote the recipes, styled the tables and took all the photos herself. An amazing feat!
Clem is joining us in the coming weeks to share her favourite recipes for the summer season, all created for us. We couldn’t be more excited!
This week, we’re kicking things off with her incredible passionfruit meringue tart - the perfect long weekend baking recipe.
“This tart is so bloody great – I know it looks like a lot of effort, and it kind of is, but you can space it out over a couple of days so that it doesn’t feel like too much.”
PASSIONFRUIT MERINGUE TART
This tart is so bloody great. I know it looks like a lot of effort, and it kind of is, but you can space it out over a couple of days so that it doesn’t feel like too much. Prepare the curd a couple of days in advance, make the tart shell the day before, and then on the day all you need to do is top with meringue and toast! You can use any jam, I’ve used my own homemade passionfruit jam which uses the passionfruit skins and is the most beautiful purple colour. A lovely tart raspberry jam or sour cherry jam would be excellent as well. Don’t feel that you need to make your own jam – just buy a yummy one and go for it.
INGREDIENTS
For the base:
220g plain flour
50g caster sugar
Pinch of salt
125g unsalted butter, cubed and chilled
1 egg yolk
40ml cream
For the curd:
6 eggs
6 extra egg yolks
350g unsalted butter, cut into chunks
1 cup passionfruit pulp
¼ cup lemon juice
1 ¼ cups caster sugar
¼ cup cornflour
For the meringue:
100g caster sugar
25ml water
50g egg whites
To assemble:
200g of your favourite tart jam
Edible flowers (optional)
METHOD
For the base:
Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add in cubed butter and using your fingers, pinch the butter and flour together, treating it as if it’s hot (moving quickly), rubbing until the butter chunks are no bigger than the size of a pea and the flour develops a yellowed mealy consistency.
Lightly combine your egg and cream and then pour into the bowl. I start to use a spoon now, helping me to combine everything. Once no obvious wet patches of egg and cream remain, change back to your hands and squeeze the mixture to help bring it together. Once it’s holding together, flatten into a round disc about 3cm tall and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes.
Remove your dough from the fridge and roll out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll as evenly as possible, until it reaches about 35cm wide and 4-5mm thick.
Carefully lift and place into a 25cm loose based tart tin. Using your fingers, help the pastry sink into the inner corners of the tart, whilst lifting the sides to support it. Trim off excess pastry from the top of the tart tin and place in the freezer for 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 180 C.
Fill tart shell with baking beads or line with baking paper or foil and fill with dry beans, rice or sugar.
Bake in the oven for approximately 45-60 minutes or until a nice golden brown colour. Rotate the tin a couple of times during cooking, to account for any uneven patches of heat in your oven.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool enough until you can handle it before removing the beads.
Keep the tart shell in an airtight container until ready to use.
For the curd:
Into a medium saucepan, add your lemon juice, passionfruit pulp, eggs, extra yolks, cornflour and sugar. Cook, while whisking, over medium/low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved and just starts to simmer.
Turn heat to low and begin to add your butter, one or two blobs at a time, whisking constantly. Wait for each couple of blobs to melt before adding the next.
Once all butter is added, continue to cook and whisk until it starts to really thicken, another 5-10 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and cover the top with plastic wrap, pressing it right against the top of the curd so that it doesn’t form a skin. Place in the fridge for at least 4 hours or up to 3 days before assembly.
For the Italian meringue:
Place egg whites into the bowl of your stand mixture and start to beat very slowly, with whisk attachment, until just starting to foam.
Combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and over a medium heat, stir until the sugar dissolves completely. Then stop stirring and keep mixture over heat until a thermometer reads the mixture at 120 C.
Slowly pour the sugar mixture into the egg whites, with the beaters running on slow/medium speed. Pour it against the edge of the bowl rather than directly into the middle of the egg whites.
Once it’s all added, turn the speed to full and whisk for a further 5-8 minutes or until the mixture reaches room temperature and has nice stiff peaks.
To assemble:
For assembly, place your tart shell onto your chosen serving plate. Spread your jam evenly into the base of the shell.
Top with the curd, smooth out the top and chill for at least 3 hours or overnight.
Top with your Italian meringue – you can do this with a spoon or a piping bag, there is no right way – do what feels good to you. Toast meringue using a kitchen blow torch. If you don’t have one of these, preheat your oven to 180 C again. Place the tart into the oven for 5-10 minutes until the meringue toasts slightly.
Decorate with flowers, if doing so and enjoy!