After weeks of using chocolate as the primary ingredient, I decided to spice things up and use lemons instead. In my mini library, I search for a lemon based dessert that would inspire me. I was weighing the pros and cons between lemon bars or lemon tarts, which now that I think of it are kind of like the same thing just in different forms. Ultimately I made my favorite Lemon Torte, I got this recipe from Heny Sison a celebrated chef here in Manila. I attended one of her class years ago. The first time I made this it turned out perfect and never look for any other alternative for lemon torte because for me this is it. It’s tangy and sweet at the same time with a lot of crunch from the walnuts. It’s one of those, I thought I don’t like lemons, it’s that good! I don’t make this often though because it’s hard to fit 5 pans in my home oven because it’s too small for this and every time I managed to squeeze the lot it, it’s mighty time consuming as well and the dishes! Don’t get me started in the dishes that piles up whenever I make this. Is so exuberant! And I very much hate washing the dishes! But then my heart is not keen on making either the bar or the tart, so torte it is.
I’ve been making this torte since 2006 and ever since then I followed the recipe to the T. However, yesterday was different; I added my own spin to it, stuff that I learned from my previous baking experience like instead of just adding the zest to the custard. I rubbed the zest with the sugar so as to help it release those wonderful lemony aromas and instead of using a quarter cup of lemon juice I use half a cup of it to get that lemony buzz. I even discovered that I love lemon curd! I could eat it as is! Yummy! But of course I had to stop myself from doing so or else my torte wouldn’t have enough filling in them. To create that rich mouth feel for the curd. I added the butter in several intervals and kept mixing and scraping until it’s all thick and creamy with all the butter nicely incorporated. Moreover remember not to overcook it or it will curdle and nobody likes a lemon scrambled eggs. Lastly, do not forget to strain the mixture to catch anything that will mar the creamy filling. All that dirty dishes and hard work is so worth the outcome of this curd. Be sure to cover the curd with cling film and put in the fridge as soon as it’s not too hot anymore to avoid bacteria forming or something. Some people cools it on an ice bath like what you would do for an ice cream custard base, but I found that by the time I finished straining the curd it wasn’t that hot anymore so I could cover it with cling film as soon as possible and put in the fridge. To add a more luxurious look to this, I added vanilla bean paste with the whipping cream. You can see the gorgeous flecks of vanilla on the pure white whipped cream topping.
Ahem, pardon me, but as you can see in my one and only photo, nothing was left behind for me to get any decent picture everything was gobbled up!
LEMON TORTE
From Heny Sison
Meringue Layer:
- 1 ½ cups egg whites
- 1 ¾ cups granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- ½ tsp. cream of tartar
- 2-3 cups walnuts, roughly chopped
Lemony curd:
- 12 egg yolks
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 2 tsp. lemon zest
- ¼ cup lemon juice, around 2-3 pieces of lemons
- ¾ cup butter
- 2 cups whipping cream
- Splash of Vanilla Extract
- Preheat oven to 250 to 300 degrees. Line 5 - 9in round cake pan with a high of ¼ inches with a heavy duty aluminum foil. Set aside.
- In a clean stainless steel or glass mixing bowl put the egg whites together with the sugar, cream of tartar and pinch of salt. Start on the low speed and as you see the foam slowly forming gradually increase the mixing speed to medium until you reach high speed and the egg white mixture is stiff but still glossy not dry.
- While waiting for the egg whites to stabilize, roughly chop the walnuts into pea size pieces. When the egg white mixture reached stiff peak stage, gently fold in the walnuts.
- Evenly distribute the egg white/walnut mixture to the 5 prepared baking pans. Put in the oven and bake for 1-2 hours depending on the oven temp., the higher the temperature the faster it bakes.
- In a clean mixing bowl with a wire whisk, whip the egg yolks with the sugar until pale yellow. Transfer to a double boiler, stirring frequently and add the zest, lemon and butter. Continue stirring until it thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.
- Once the meringue layers are crisp and cool to room temperature, gingerly remove the aluminum foil and put in a serving dish. Dollop a healthy spoonful of the lemon curd and with an offset spatula and evenly distribute the lemon curd on the meringue layer. Top with another meringue layer and fill it with another layer of lemon curd, doing these steps until all the meringue layers are used. The 5th meringue layer should not be topped with a lemon curd mixture because it would serve as the final cake top.
- In a cold stainless steel bowl, whisk whipping cream until stiff peaks. With an offset spatula, cover the whole cake with the cream topping and decorate as you wish. Put in the fridge for the flavors to blend in together to further set the cream topping at least 4 hours or overnight.
- Enjoy!
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