Lemon Meringue Bread
I’ve recently been intrigued by a variety of recipes where the addition of meringue gives a traditional recipe a new twist. I don’t know if it’s a trend or if I’m just catching up, but I’m in love with these “fancy” riffs on cakes and breads. It may have all started with the Sweet Potato Tea Cake in Tartine: A Classic Revisited where the loaf cake is topped with vanilla meringue that bakes up crisp on the outside and chewy on the inside. I’ve also seen recipes for meringue-topped flourless chocolate cake, carrot cake, pumpkin loaf and lemon bread, with more than one citing the Sweet Potato Tea Cake as inspiration. I was nspired to tackle the Lemon Meringue Bread first.
Lemon Meringue Cookies
Whenever I see a lemon meringue pie, I picture my mom half a century ago opening the oven door and carefully placing her meringue-topped pie in the oven to toast. Sadly, lemon meringue was never my favorite pie and I stayed far away from that wobbly egg white concoction on top. I don’t remember even trying this pie as lemon and rhubarb were not high on my list as a kid. I’m pretty sure that mom’s lemon pie of yesteryear consisted of cook-and-serve lemon Jell-o pudding. Child me always went for the pies topped with whipped cream over meringue. However, I didn’t realize that not all meringue is created equal! The adult me loves lemon desserts. With spring in the air, I decided to make lemon meringue cookies. This sounded perfect since I didn’t need an entire pie. However, I didn’t pay attention to the meringue part of the recipe until I was whisk-deep into making it. Consequently, it took me three tries to make my meringue.