Lemon Tart
Invigorating and inviting, this French tart recipe uses a sweet tart crust to balance the sharpness of the lemon filling. Making a large tart, there’s enough in this recipe to either share, or spoil yourself with.
What you’ll need:
For the tart:
1 1/2 cups flour
5 tbsp powdered sugar , sifted
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp butter cut into cubes
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
For the filling:
1 tbsp lemon zest (1 lemon's worth)
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 1 – 2 lemons)
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup lemon sugar (plain white sugar is fine, but this adds more depth)*
12 tbsp butter
3 whole eggs large
3 egg yolks
The process:
Create the tart dough first as it needs to rest.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add butter cubes to dry ingredients and mix together with finger tips until a fine, sand like consistency. Add egg and vanilla and mix together until combined. Once mostly combined, use hands to work together.
Once together, turn out onto a clean work surface and knead until a soft ball of beautiful dough is formed. Wrap ball dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge for around 30 minutes while you work on the rest of tart.
Preheat oven to 400f degrees. Once chilled, remove from plastic wrap and on a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Scrap to carefully lift dough off of surface and place on top of a tart pan. Carefully press into tart pan corners. Once in all nooks and crannies, remove excess, I use my rolling pin to a nice, even finish. Using a fork, prick bottom of the tart dish all over to prevent bubbles. Place baking beads, beans or rice to hold dough in place (its probably smart to add parchment paper between your tar and weights but I did not).
Bake for 13 minutes, remove from oven and remove weight (this would be easier with beads or parchment paper present), bake for another 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. If you do not let cool completely, you will have a sad, soggy tart. No one wants a soggy tart.
For the filling:
Turn oven down to 350f degrees.
Add all ingredients to a sauce pan or nonstick pan. On a medium/medium low heat, whisk all ingredients together constantly as butter melts. Continuing to whisk almost constantly, cook until thick enough that a little mountain form holds when all pushed to one side of the pan, 5ish minutes. Continue to cook past 5 minutes if the filling doesn’t seem thick enough.
Get yourself a bowl and a mesh strainer. Put strainer above bowl. Put lemon filling into the mesh strainer and push through the strainer using a baking spatula to get any chunks of lemon zest ect. out and create a silky smooth filling.
Add filling to tart shell. Smooth surface. Bake for 5 minutes. The filling should be soft but not watery.
Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving. Fresh fruit or whipped cream pair wonderfully to balance the acidity in the tart.
The custard in the filling is soft, but holds its shape for a lovely presentation
None of the nonsense
What you’ll need:
For the tart:
1 1/2 cups flour
5 tbsp powdered sugar , sifted
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 1/2 tbsp almond flour
1/4 tsp salt
7 tbsp butter cut into cubes
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
For the filling:
1 tbsp lemon zest (1 lemon's worth)
1/2 cup lemon juice (from 1 – 2 lemons)
Zest of 1 lemon
3/4 cup lemon sugar (plain white sugar is fine, but this adds more depth)*
12 tbsp butter
3 whole eggs large
3 egg yolks
The process:
Create the tart dough first as it needs to rest.
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add butter cubes to dry ingredients and mix together with finger tips until a fine, sand like consistency. Add egg and vanilla and mix together until combined. Once mostly combined, use hands to work together. Once together, turn out onto a clean work surface and knead until a soft ball of beautiful dough is formed. Wrap ball dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge for around 30 minutes while you work on the rest of tart.
Preheat oven to 400f degrees. Once chilled, remove from plastic wrap and on a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/8 inch thickness. Scrap to carefully lift dough off of surface and place on top of a tart pan. Carefully press into tart pan corners. Once in all nooks and crannies, remove excess, I use my rolling pin to a nice, even finish. Using a fork, prick bottom of the tart dish all over to prevent bubbles. Place baking beads, beans or rice to hold dough in place (its probably smart to add parchment paper between your tar and weights but I did not).
Bake for 13 minutes, remove from oven and remove weight (this would be easier with beads or parchment paper present), bake for another 8-9 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely. If you do not let cool completely, you will have a sad, soggy tart. No one wants a soggy tart.
For the filling:
Turn oven down to 350f degrees.
Add all ingredients to a sauce pan or nonstick pan. On a medium/medium low heat, whisk all ingredients together constantly as butter melts. Continuing to whisk almost constantly, cook until thick enough that a little mountain form holds when all pushed to one side of the pan, 5ish minutes. Continue to cook past 5 minutes if the filling doesn’t seem thick enough.
Get yourself a bowl and a mesh strainer. Put strainer above bowl. Put lemon filling into the mesh strainer and push through the strainer using a baking spatula to get any chunks of lemon zest ect. out and create a silky smooth filling.
Add filling to tart shell. Smooth surface. Bake for 5 minutes. The filling should be soft but not watery. Allow to cool completely before cutting and serving. Fresh fruit or whipped cream pair wonderfully to balance the acidity in the tart.
*Lemon sugar is easily made by adding peeled lemon rind to sugar and letting meld together for a week or two. One lemons rind to one cup of sugar. Put in a jar in the fridge, shaking or stirring every day or two to distribute the lemon oil.
