Gourmet tutorial: recipe Brittany shortbread with meringue and Menton lemon cream

Preheat the oven to 120°C. Butter the 10 pastry rings and place onto parchment paper covered baking sheet.

In a bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy. Add the sugar little by little, whisking continuously until smooth and shiny and stiff peaks are formed. Gently fold in the powdered sugar with a spatula. Transfer half the French meringue to a pastry bag fitted with an n° 8 plain round tip. Cover a baking sheet with baking parchment; pipe small mounds, in staggered rows onto half the sheet. Spread the remaining meringue onto the second half of the sheet and sprinkle with chopped pistachios. Bake for 1 hour, remove and leave to cool. Break the pistachio meringue into pieces.

Increase the oven temperature to 180°C. Place the ground almonds, soft butter and sugar into a bowl. Grate the lemon peel into the bowl and whisk to combine. Whisk in the egg yolk, add the flour and baking powder. Mix with a spatula. Transfer to a pastry bag fitted with an n° 8 plain round tip. Pipe spirals of Brittany shortbread into the buttered pastry rings. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and run the
blade of a knife around the inside of the pastry rings to release the Brittany shortbread. Cool.

Soften the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water. In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale yellow and creamy. Add the corn starch, combine.
In a saucepan, bring the lemon juice and grated peel to the boil. Pour into the egg-sugar mixture and whisk well. Return to the saucepan and cook over low heat, whisking continuously with a whisk until the cream comes to the boil, immediately remove from the heat and pour the lemon cream into a bowl. Squeeze the excess water from the gelatin leaves, add to the lemon cream, mix to combine. Leave to cool a few minutes, add the butter. Mix with a hand held blender to a smooth homogenous lemon cream, then refrigerate for 2 hours.

Remove peel from the lemons and cut into a julienne. Blanch the lemon peel in a saucepan of boiling water. Change the water and repeat. Bring the water and sugar to the boil for a syrup. Add the blanched lemon peel julienne and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove julienne from the syrup and drain on absorbent paper towel.

Lightly whisk the Menton lemon cream until smooth, then transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a plain round tip. Pipe points of cream onto each Brittany shortbread. Top with 3 small meringue shells and two pieces of pistachio meringue. Decorate with candied Menton lemon peel.

Recipe adapted and translated from the book “L’École de la Pâtisserie” by Le Cordon Bleu® institute and publisher Larousse.