Mango Meringue Tarts For The Win!

I've been really busy lately trying to use these mangoes up, if you read the last post you know I scored a deal on some mangoes and I was trying to think of other ways to use them. I decided to make a Mango Meringue Tart. The tart came out beautiful, I haven't tried it just yet because I haven't eaten dinner. I just popped them back in the fridge to chill.

This little tropical flavored Mango Meringue Tart

I'm thinking next week I'm going to be making lemon things, so you may see a lemon cream tart or something like that. Ok back to this mango meringue tart. I used the mango curd that I made a couple nights ago using my Mango Curd recipe. I also ended up making another batch of mango curd to fill my 4 tart shells. So if you want to fill 4 (4.75in) tart shells or 1 (9in) tart shell you need to double that mango curd recipe.

I also used a graham cracker crust for these little tarts ( I was lazy and didn't want to make pastry crust last night) but feel free to use any type of crust you want.

Lets get started with the ingredients

Mango Meringue Tarts

• 2 cups of Mango Curd
• 1 1/4 cup ground graham crackers
• 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
• 1 stick of unsalted butter
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar

Start by mixing the graham cracker crumbs, coconut, and sugar in a mixing bowl

Take your butter and melt it in the microwave, should take about 1 minute

Pour the melted butter over your graham cracker+coconut mixture

Mix it all up, your mixture will resemble like crumbly sand

Preheat your oven to 350F

Spoon the mixture into each of your tart shells

Spread your crust mixture all along the sides of your tart pan and press down

Bake these for 8 minutes, then remove from oven and set on counter to cool down

They turned a nice golden brown

Once cooled down scoop about 1/2 cup of your mango curd into each tart shell

pretty mango curd

Make sure you flatten the curd with a butter knife or spatula, so you have an even surface like this

Now I let these set in my fridge over night, but a few hours would be fine.

Ok once the tarts have set, gently remove them from the tart pan (be gentle the graham cracker+coconut crust is crumbly)

so crumbly, but they held up well

So we are making Mango Meringue Tarts, so we need to whip up some meringue right. I decided to go with an Italian Meringue, which is basically making a sugar syrup first. They heat that over the stove and pour it into your beaten egg whites. If you don't want to do that, you can make some classic French Meringue and just beat one egg white slowly then gradually build up speed and pour sugar into the mixture till stiff peaks form.

If you want to skip meringue all together just put a dollop of whip cream on top, do whatever you like, but here's how to make the Italian Meringue

Italian Meringue

• 30g of room temperature egg whites
• 17g of granulated sugar
• 75g of granulated sugar
• 25 g of water

Now take your other 30g of egg whites and place them in your stand mixer on low until they start to get foamy.

When your egg whites get foamy add in the 17g of granulated sugar slowly and mix on medium speed until soft peaks form

Keep your egg whites beating on low speed 

Now take your 75g of granulated sugar and 25g of water  and place it in a saucepan on medium heat. 

Let this boil until the temperature on your thermometer hits 240F

Carefully take your sugar syrup and pour it down the side of your stand mixer ( in a slow steady stream) while the egg whites are whipping.

Continue whipping this mixture until your bowl cools down and stiff peaks form so about 10-15 minutes you should have a very glossy, shiny merengue, flip the bowl over and it shouldn't move.

Now place your Italian Meringue in a piping bag with whatever tip you would like, I used a small round tip to pipe little dollops around some mango tarts, and I then used a metal spatula and smeared meringue all over the top to cover the curd on other tarts.

cute little mini mounds of meringue 

I tried to make little peaks with my spatula

Ok now I took out my kitchen torch and slightly toasted the meringue on each tart ( if you don't have a torch you can also place them back in the oven at 400F for about 5 minutes just watch them so they won't burn)

toasting them lightly

trying not to burn them

At this point you can stop and enjoy your tart but I wanted to make them more beautiful and add a bit more flavor. I toasted a little coconut with cinnamon in a small pan and topped each tart with that ( I was going with some Caribbean flavors) I also grated a little lemon zest on each tart for color and crushed pistachios for additional texture.

too pretty to eat

So tropical