Meringue Shells with Lemon Curd

Hi! Nice to see you again! No – I didn’t get my phone fixed but I realized that all this time I coulda been borrowing my daughter’s phone to snap my pics! Yes, I would’ve had to endure the ‘eye rolling’ that comes along with asking “Okay, Min...I need your phone again” – but hey, at age 16, what doesn’t included eye rolling, eh?

So….I made a really fun dessert this past weekend – Meringues with lemon curd (my fave!) and fresh whipped cream and strawberries. I wish I’d have thought to take pics al the way through – but the idea didn’t come to me until these little beauties came out of the oven. Besides…my daughter might have had to miss/wait for the 300 missed calls during that time – for shame!

Anyhoo, I made a simple meringue (recipe to come tomorrow as I don’t have it in my head and I wnana make it exact, of course), and whipped the room-temperature egg whites and everything together until I had absolute stiff, snow white peaks, then put it all in a pastry bag with a big star tip and piped out individual meringues that once done, just begged to be filled with sweet scrumptiousness!Check it out…

Doesn’t that just look like a lovely, delicate yet delectable crown?! These fully baked and cooled meringues look exactly the way they did when they went into the oven –‘cept slightly off-white rather than snow. They baked for 45 minutes at 275-degrees then cooled in the oven – door ajar – for another 45. Truth be told, I thought the length of time was a it much for the temp. I might try 250 next time….and maybe 5 minutes less – just because it’d be so pretty to have these shells remain pure white.

Okay – so…I’d piped, baked and cooled – and while all this was happening, I made the filling. Lemon curd! OMG I love it so! I could live off it – it’s just that damn good. I follow Ina’s Garten’s recipe and it comes out ‘perfection each time’ (again, recipe tomorrow…promise. I just HAD to post without it today ‘cuz it’d just been too long!). I let the lemon curd chill out in the fridge for a few hours to thicken up a but more, but once I was ready to assemble….here’s what I did….

I put a couple of heaping tablespoons – maybe even 3..I said I loved it remember?! – in each meringue shell….

Then topped that with freshly whipped cream – sorry Cool Whip – you got kicked to the curb on this recipe!

Then…..I made sorta the wrong decision on this next part – but hey…live and learn, eh?

I ladled strawberries in syrup over the top. It was delicious, yes….but not nearly as pretty as it would’ve been had I just spooned on a few fresh slices of berries and maybe kiwi.....just like Mom said! Listen to your mother…at least SOME of the time!

All in all it was a fun undertaking – and really….quite easy. It’s nice to know that an elegant, eye-catching dessert can be made without tons of effort or money….just takes a little time.
Give these a try next time you wanna bump up ‘good ol’ dessert’ into something fancy-schmancy!

Recipes tomorrow!

P.S. – it’s nice to be back and thanks to all who said you missed me – right back at’cha ;-)