Ottolenghi Tart Meringue!

Lemon weekend torture for you. The twice annual trip to Ottolenghi (in the Guardian)for the superb passion fruit meringue tart is an essential.
Get out at tube stop, High Street Kensington, cross the road (carefully), seek out the almost hidden passage Kensington Church Walk. Turn right, walk to the end of the road to #1 Holland Street et voila! Heaven awaits.

Of course one must make a pretense of eating something sensible before dessert...

And there is certainly a plethora of sensible food here...

La salade...

TA-DA!

This time I got as well the lemon marscaponi tart as well. It was unctously lemony with sugar as a low note thank goodness.

At last, la piece de resistance! This tart does not disappoint. Louise, PLEASE come to London to complete your meringuee etudes. The topping is just the right amount of sweetness with exactly the right texture - not crunchy as you might expect with the toasty look of the meringue. Just enough sugar to contrast the very tart custard below...

I'm salivating just attempting to describe this tart's perfection. The heights have been reached.

I'm a disgrace when it comes to crust :(

But calories have been saved is the positive take on this loss. Still, can one truly experience inner meringuenese (if there is such a thing) by skipping the crust? Perhaps not.Later I met up with Karen of the delightful Pas Grand Chose. I'm addicted to her book reviews almost as much as tarte citron. We stop at Maison blanc to view my menu artwork...

Fortunately there are no meringue tarts on the premises.

In the evening at Piccadilly Prete a Mange for another sensible salad (balance is key) this lemony/gingerbread/cheesecake layered concoction beckons. The spoon must dive deep and then stir things - you feel you've had a hand in the making of it don't you?

This morning a friend mentioned her favorite toffee at Fortnum and Mason. Naturalement I must researche...

Somehow I resisted the toffee and instead went looking for lemon meringue flavors.
Fortunately there were none.

The club's lemony cat, Squeak, is guarding my seat at breakfast so I'll go down and start the day.
Do more lemon tarts await?

BONJOUR LEMON ANYTHING!

Footless in Astoria

They say you should never attempt making French macarons (part trois) when it's damp and pouring cats and dogs outside...

They say (well the recipe says) use SUPERFINE granulated sugar not just plain old granulated sugar with your egg whites. Well it was raining cats and dogs out...

They say you should age your egg whites 1-3 days (whilst others say you can nuke them for 10-15 seconds and get the same effect).

Everyone agrees you should get the measurements correct and use a scale, but if you're semi-dyslexic and read the 1st number instead of the 3rd number...

Photo by Bill Cunningham/NYTimes

Nevermind all that.

Bill Cunningham was saying YELLOW YELLOW YELLOW

Lemon YELLOW macarons were ringing in my ears c/o Jill's Mad About Macarons. Mine looks somewhat similar to the picture doesn't it?

Jill says she likes to take shortcuts. Me too. Course it would help if I knew what the proper shortcuts are...

I didn't shortcut incorporating the whipped eggwhites into the almond-sugar mixture. The lemony zester was supplied by ZestN'est and works very well btw. If only other elements had worked as well...

And I did refer to Jill's demo video

The famous 'molten-lava-ribbon' stage of the macaronage...

But something was wrong. Overbeaten, wrong sugar, too loose :(

I should have paid heed when the cookies spread too much and batter spritz onto the floor. Warning bells were ringing loud. Nevermind :)

'Footless' lemon sugar cookies are not the desired end goal.

Nevermind- I ate too many and tossed the rest.

Neither a lender, borrower or a baker be?

Or should I just try to make plain old macarOOns the old-fashioned way. I have pounds of almond flour sitting in the fridge...

You tell me what to do next!

BONJOUR FOOTLESS!