This past weekend I had a little fun in the kitchen. My brother-in-law and his wife gave me some fun kitchen tools for Christmas, including these lovely quiche dishes and my personal favorite, a kitchen torch. I’ve been waiting for things to finally settle down after the holidays so that I could take them out for a spin, and over the weekend I had my chance. With all my favorite citrus in season right now, I really wanted to make a pie…but instead of a traditional lemon meringue pie with a pastry crust, I went a lighter route using a cookie crumb crust and a delightful, lemony yogurt filling. When I took my first bite of the finished product, I was surprised at how much it tasted like cheesecake even though there’s no cream cheese involved. Also, while I used a torch to brown the tops, you can easily throw yours in the oven for a few minutes if you don’t have one. I hope you’ll give these a try!

For the crust:

• 2 1/2 cups vanilla cookie crumbs
• 5 Tbsp butter, melted

For the filling:

• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
• 1 tsp lemon zest

For the meringue:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 tsp cornstarch
• 1/2 cup cold water

To make the crust, stir together the cookie crumbs and melted butter until moist.

Press into the dishes (mine are 5″ quiche dishes). Place the dishes in the freezer to let the crust firm up a bit while you’re making the filling.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Whisk together the yogurt and sugar until well-combined. Beat in the eggs and then the lemon juice and zest.

Pour the filling into the crusts.

Bake 25-30 minutes or until the centers are set. Let cool to room temperature, and then chill in the refrigerator.

In the meantime, make the meringue. If you’ll be using your oven to brown the meringue, preheat it to 350 degrees. In a small sauce pan, whisk together the sugar and cornstarch. Stir in the water.

Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens and begins to boil. Boil 1 minute, continuing to stir, and then remove it from the heat. Place the mixture in the freezer for 10 minutes to cool.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the egg whites and salt until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar and cornstarch mixture until stiff peaks form.

Pipe the meringue on to the cooled tarts.

Bake 10-15 minutes to brown the meringue, or use a kitchen torch to brown the tops.