One of the ingredients I use most in my baking is sugar, so I was delighted to be sent a box of various cane sugars from Tate & Lyle.
Tate & Lyle is proud to be the first sugar company in the UK committed to making all their retail sugar bags Fair Trade certified. They have an informative website, 'Taste & Smile', which also includes a recipe section. Facebook pages for products, companies and blogs are popping up daily, and there is an active Tate & Lyle Facebook page called "We Love Baking", where you can discuss baking, show off your own recipes and post photos - I spotted some wonderful looking cakes!
I was fascinated to learn that the Tate Gallery was named after Henry Tate, who in 1889 donated his collection of 65 contemporary paintings to the Government, on the condition that a gallery dedicated to British art was built. The Tate & Lyle sugar refinery is still in the original location, on the banks of the Thames in East London. The sugar that is transported by ships can be unloaded directly into the refinery, thus reducing the carbon emissions associated with long road journeys.
Using Tate & Lyle sugars, I made some little lemon meringue tarts, perfect for an afternoon tea party. If you read this blog regularly you will know that I love making pastry, and my favourite sweet pastry recipe is Dori Greenspan's - a tender, crisp pastry that, when baked, is actually good enough to eat naked! Pastry cases can be stored in an airtight container for a number of days until needed, as can the meringues. Lemon curd can be stored in the fridge for several weeks. All that is needed is a quick assembly of the tarts before serving.
These meringues are the crisp, crunchy kind, but you can use soft meringue or substitute whipped cream if you prefer
Cute!
Lemon Meringue Tartlets
The amount of pastry depends upon your tartlet size, as does the meringue and lemon curd.
Lemon Curd - I used Delia's recipe
Sweet Tart Dough
Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan
8oz plain flour
2oz Tate & Lyle's icing sugar
4oz butter, cut into cubes
pinch salt
1 large egg yolk
Using a food processor, blend the flour, icing sugar and pinch of salt with the cubes of butter until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk and pulse gently until the pastry comes together. If the pastry is not binding properly, your egg yolk may not have been big enough, so add a little water or milk, a teaspoon at a time until it does come together.
Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface, roll it out fairly thinly and cut out rounds to fit your tartlet tin. Prick the pastry bottoms with a fork and put the tartlet trays into the freezer for at least 30 minutes before baking.
Preheat the oven to 375ºF and bake for about 15-20 minutes until nicely browned.
Meringues - or substitute wipped cream
2 egg whites
100 g Tate & Lyle's caster sugar
Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment or non-stick baking paper.
Whisk the egg whites until stiff, add the sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time, whisking well for about 1 minute after each addition.
Pipe or spoon the meringue mixture into little conical shapes onto the non-stick paper.
Bake in the oven at 110ºC (225º F) for about 1 hour (they may need more), changing the position of the trays half way through the cooking - don’t let them brown.
Cool on a wire rack.
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The granulated sugar makes a fabulous caramelized sugar topping on a crème brûlée or in this case, rice pudding
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This content belongs to Nicisme at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2010 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
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This content belongs to Nicisme at Cherrapeno. All writing and photography copyright N Fowers © 2007-2010 unless otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.
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26 comments:
They look beautiful, lucky you to get a bunch of sugar.
Every time I make lemon curd it is runny. Should check out Delia's reipe.
These look absolutely delicious!!!
Lemon..a fav flavour of mine...great post
these are simply adorable!
Fabulous meringues - they look like smurf's hats!
Lemon meringue pie is my ultimate pie..tiny one bite pies would be perfection.
You always make the cutest sweet things. It almost always seems a shame to bite into your little works of art.
Your Lemon Meringue Tartlets are lovely!
They are beautiful. Do you deliver to West London by any chance?
those are some big ol' meringue hats--awesome! :)
These are ever so cute and pretty. Loved the background to Tate and the connect to the gallery; charming in a sweet way. Lucky you Nic. They were right to send you the product. You always make the most delicous stuff! Mmmmm
Beautiful meringues. Surely you can't eat just one though, yum.
I'm sending you an email tomorrow!
Interesting that Tate is that Tate! Your little tarts are gorgeous. I love the meringue tops.
Hey, these are cute! I'm so hungry right now, so looking at sweets probably isn't the smartest thing to do. Lemon is my weakness too!
I'm loving the bite sized desserts for one that seem to be doing the rounds these days. These have been added to the list ;0)
wow that looks absolutely amazing! You have an amazing blog, and now have a new follower!
xo
Those are the cutest tarts ever;love them, Nic :-)
Those tarts are so cute! Ooh, I like the idea of making the meringues separately from the tarts. It's much more convenient for storing the tarts if uneaten.
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They look very cute Nic. Great recipes too.
I love that the separate elements can be made ahead and then assembled.
So cute! And that is just the right ratio of meringue to lemon tart, in my opinion. Mmmmmm meringue.
My goodness, this blog is awesome. Only just discovered you but am already salivating.
What delicious little bites, miniature lemon meringue pies. I've been looking for a new lemon curd recipe and will try yours.
You have a wonderful blog and it's a treat to come for a visit.
Thanks everyone, your comments mean a lot to me!
If you just found my blog, welcome and thank you for following! Hope to visit your blogs soon.
Oh Nic, those are just ADORABLE!! I made lemon meringue petit fours before - it's such a classic flavour combo. I was also amazed that the Tate & Lyle factory (which I can see from my house!) has been inthe same place for so long. Sometimes, when the wind blows just the right way, you can actually smell the molasses-y smell of the factory!
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