Tarte Au Citron - classic lemon tart

Lemon tart, what's not to like?  crisp buttery pastry, tangy lemon filling, maybe a little cream or yoghurt.... this is one of those classic puddings that is good either warm or chilled, summer or winter.  There are lots of recipes for this tart, but this is one of the simplest which I found in a French Country Cookbook many years ago.   For best results the tart is first "baked blind".  Why?  It takes a bit longer, but otherwise the pastry is soggy, and there's nothing worse than damp claggy pastry!  This tart serves about 8.

Tarte Au Citron

Classic Tarte au Citron

Pastry:

4oz/100g butter

8oz/225g plain flour

pinch salt

1 egg, beaten

Tart:

3 eggs

4oz/100g caster sugar 

3 lemons

4oz/100g butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 200deg C.     Make the pastry (in a food processor, add the butter to the flour and salt, process  until it looks like crumbs, add the egg and cold water as needed to make a smooth dough).    For best results, put the pastry in a ball into the fridge for 20 minutes, then roll out into a 9” loose bottomed flan tin and prick the base lightly.   You can refrigerate it again for another 20 minutes.   

Bake blind – put a sheet of greaseproof paper on top of the pastry, and fill it with dried pasta/rice/lentils.   Try to make sure the paper and pasta comes up the sides of the case as well to support the edges.   Bake for 10 minutes.  Remove the paper and bake the case for a further 5 minutes to dry it out.   Turn the oven down to 160 deg C.

Whisk the eggs.  Grate the rind from all 3 lemons and add to the eggs.   Take 5 thin slices off one lemon and keep for decoration.   Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemons and add it to the eggs.  Whisk in the sugar and the melted butter.

Pour the lemon mixture into the baked case and bake at 160 deg C for 12-15 minutes until the filling is just set.   While it is cooking, cut the pith and pips from the lemon slices (sharp scissors work better than a knife!).  Put the slices in a circle on the lemon tart and put it back into the oven for a further 5 minutes.     The tart shouldn’t be allowed to get brown (but it does happen!).   Cool and chill slightly.    Dust with icing sugar.