This stunning Lemon Tart has a sweet shortcrust pastry base and is filled with bright and zesty lemon curd. Topped with fresh berries and beautiful edible flowers it's a showstopper dessert.
a medium-size saucepan and heatproof bowl (for the bain-marie)
Ingredients
For the shortcrust pastry
200gplain flour
50glardor Trex
50gunsalted butter
25gcaster sugar
2tbspcold water
For the lemon filling
170gunsalted butter
juice of 4 lemons
zest of 2 lemons
150gcaster sugar
4largeeggs
2large egg yolks
Instructions
To make the shortcrust pastry
Preheat the oven to 180ºC/160ºC Fan/Gas 4/350ºF
Add the flour, butter and lard (or Trex) to a large mixing bowl and use your fingertips to rub the fat into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Mix in the caster sugar.
Add the ice-cold water and use a butter knife to cut the mixture together.
Lightly flour a surface, then bring the mixture in the bowl together with your hands and tip it out on to the floured surface. Knead it a few times until it forms a dough. Wrap it in clingfilm and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Turn the chilled pastry out on to a lightly floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it into a circle bigger than your pie tin. Transfer the pastry into the pie tin. Repair and tears with spare pastry. Use a sharp knife to trim the edges of the pastry. Use a fork to prick the pastry all over.
Cut a circle of parchment paper slightly bigger than your pie tin. Place it on top of the pastry and fill the tin with baking beans or uncooked rice. Bake in the centre of the preheated oven for 15 minutes.
To make the filling
Fill a medium-sized saucepan with approximately 4 inches of water and bring it to a simmer. Place a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan, but make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't touch the water.
Add the butter, lemon juice, lemon zest, caster sugar and eggs into the bowl. Whisk until the mixture thickens and is holding its shape. This will take around 10 minutes using a bain-marie or 2-3 minutes if you have a heavy-based saucepan over direct heat.
Place a sieve over a clean bowl, pour the lemon curd into the sieve pushing it through with a rubber spatula. This creates a silky smooth filling.
Pour the lemon curd into the baked pastry case and put it back in the oven for 6 minutes. Put the lemon tart into the fridge for two hours, this will allow the filling to completely set in the tin before removing to decorate and slice.
Video
Notes
The pastry is very short and crumbly and not the nicest pastry to work with but it can be easily patched up with spare pastry if it tears.
If you have a very heavy-based saucepan then you don't have to use a bain-marie although please be warned that if your eggs overheat this will cause them to scramble. So use a saucepan with caution!
Keyword french lemon tart, lemon tart, tarte au citron