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Lemon Tart, garnished with fresh fruit and edible flowers, sits on serving board with lemons in background.

French Lemon Tart

A classic dessert, this elegant French Lemon Tart, with its bright citrusy flavor, is encased in a sweet and crisp buttery pastry. A lemon lover’s delight!
Course Pies and Tarts
Cuisine French
Keyword citrus tart, French Lemon Tart, fruit curd tart, lemon, lemon dessert, lemon recipe, lemon tart, tart
Servings 8
My Island Bistro Kitchen My Island Bistro Kitchen - Barbara

Ingredients

Pâte Sucrée Ingredients:

  • 1 1/8 cups all-purpose flour (or gluten-free 1-to-1 or cup-for-cup baking flour, if required)
  • 1/8 cup fine almond flour
  • 1/3 cup sifted icing sugar (aka powdered sugar or confectioner’s sugar)
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ½ cup cold unsalted butter, diced into ½“ pieces
  • 1 cold egg yolk (egg white is not used so reserve for another purpose)
  • 2 tbsp cold cream (at least 10%M.F.)

Filling Ingredients:

  • 4 large whole eggs, room temperature
  • 4 large egg yolks, room temperature (See Note 1 below re egg whites)
  • ½ cup freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice (apx. 2-3 lemons, depending on size and quality)
  • 2/3 cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar (aka instant dissolving sugar, super-fine sugar, or berry sugar)
  • 1½ tbsp finely grated lemon zest
  • 1/16 tsp salt
  • ½ cup unsalted butter (room temperature), cubed

Instructions

Pastry:

  1. Measure all-purpose flour, almond flour, icing sugar, and salt into medium-sized bowl. Combine with a whisk.
  2. Toss the cold butter pieces into the dry ingredients to coat them. Using a wire-edged pastry cutter, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture resembles the size and texture of coarse rolled oats.

  3. In measuring cup, combine the egg yolk with the cream. Stir with fork or small whisk to break up yolk and blend with the cream. Slowly add mixture to the dry ingredients, stirring with a fork. Mixture will be a shaggy texture at this point. Transfer mixture to a lightly floured work surface and, with hands, bring mixture together to form a disk shape about 5”- 6” in diameter. Do not overwork dough. Wrap dough disk tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 1 hour.

  4. Grease a 9”x1” (22.9cm x 2.9cm) round fluted tart pan (or 13¾" x 4¼“x 1” (34.9cm x 10.8cm x 2.5cm) oblong fluted tart pan) ensuring each crevice in chosen pan is well greased.

  5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll chilled dough to desired thickness and form into a circle, large enough to fit the tart pan (note that not all of the pastry may be required, depending on desired thickness of crust – see Note 2 below). Transfer pastry to tart pan, gently pushing the pastry down to fit into each of the pan’s fluted sides without stretching the pastry. Roll the rolling pin across the top of the tart pan to remove excess pastry and create a tidy edge flush with pan rim. Dock pastry bottom in several places with fork tines to prevent air pockets from forming while the crust bakes. Refrigerate shell for about 1 hour.

  6. While pastry shell is chilling, position oven rack in lower third of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.
  7. Crumple and distress a piece of parchment paper large enough to mold around the inside of the tart pan, allowing enough overhang by which to grasp it to remove the beans or pie weights that will be placed in it for blind baking and which will be removed part way through the crust baking process. This crumpling/distressing procedure will weaken the parchment paper, allowing it to be more pliable for fitting into the tart pan. Depending on the quality of parchment paper, repeat with a second piece of distressed parchment paper, if necessary. The paper lining needs to be strong enough to hold the hot beans when they are being lifted from the tart shell part way through the baking.
  8. Remove the tart shell from the refrigerator and place on a rimmed cookie sheet or pizza pan. Carefully fit the distressed parchment paper inside the tart shell. Repeat with the second layer of parchment paper, if necessary. Add ceramic pie weights or dry uncooked beans, filling the tart pan about 2/3 to ¾ full, ensuring the weights are evenly distributed and placed as far as possible up the sides of the tart pan.
  9. Transfer tart shell to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove shell from oven and carefully remove the parchment paper and pie weights together and transfer them to a heatproof bowl. Be very careful as the pie weights will be hot! As some of the earlier pierced holes in the shell bottom may have filled in during the baking process with the pie weights, further pierce the tart shell in several places, if necessary, to prevent it from forming air bubbles as it continues to bake. Return tart shell to oven and bake for another 18-20 minutes or until pastry has a dry appearance and is lightly golden brown. Cool shell completely in pan on wire rack before adding filling.

Filling:

  1. Set out the eggs and butter to bring them to room temperature. Use the microplane to zest the lemon rind. Extract the juice from the lemons and strain the lemon juice to measure ½ cup. Measure all remaining ingredients.

  2. Whisk the egg yolks and whole eggs together well in a medium-sized heavy bottomed saucepan (See Note 3 below). Set aside. Combine lemon juice, sugar, zest, and salt in a separate small saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sugar has dissolved and small bubbles appear around the edge of the mixture. Do not boil. Remove the pan from the heat and slowly drizzle and whisk the hot mixture into the beaten eggs in the medium-sized pan. Be sure to do this slowly to avoid eggs coagulating.

  3. Place saucepan over medium-low heat and cook until mixture reaches 170°F on a candy or instant-read thermometer. Stir frequently and adjust heat, if necessary, to prevent mixture from scorching.
  4. When the filling is nearly ready, position oven rack in center of oven and preheat oven to 350°F.

  5. Remove lemon filling from the heat and, to remove any stray bits of coagulated egg and ensure a perfectly silky smooth filling, strain mixture through a fine mesh sieve into large heatproof measuring cup or bowl. Stir in the butter until melted and combined with filling. Place tart pan containing the pastry on cookie sheet or pizza pan. Transfer filling to cooled pastry shell and level out and smooth filling with an offset spatula. Bake tart at 350°F for about 8-10 minutes to set. Cool tart completely on wire rack then refrigerate until set, approximately 3-4 hours, before serving.

  6. Carefully remove outer ring of tart pan. Carefully sitting the tart pan on an inverted bowl may make it easier to remove the ring. Slide large bench scraper under tart to remove it from pan bottom and transfer to serving plate or tray or to a cutting board to slice. Slicing the tart in the pan may scratch and damage pan surface (a reason why these pans have removable bottoms to prevent this from occurring).

  7. Top of tart may be decorated as desired or left plain. Dust tart top with icing (confectioner’s) sugar (see Note 4 below), if desired, just at time of serving. Slice tart into wedges and garnish with fresh blueberries or raspberries, lemon slices, edible flowers, and/or a dollop of whipped cream. Keep tart refrigerated until serving time. Tart will keep, refrigerated, for 2-3 days. Freezing tart may result in some deterioration of quality.

Recipe Notes

Yield: 8 servings

[Copyright My Island Bistro Kitchen]

NOTE 1: The egg whites from the 4 egg yolks called for in the filling recipe and the one in the pastry recipe are not required for this recipe as full coverage meringue is not a typical/traditional topping for these types of fruit curd tarts. The egg whites can be refrigerated for up to 3 days and used for another purpose (e.g., Meringues, French Macarons, etc.)

NOTE 2: Not all of the pastry may be required for the tart as amount used will depend on personal preference for thickness of crust. Any leftover pastry may be tightly wrapped in plastic wrap, placed in an airtight freezer bag, labelled, and frozen for another purpose.

NOTE 3: If you don’t have a heavy bottomed saucepan in which to make the filling, the filling can be made in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water to ensure it does not scorch during cooking.

NOTE 4: If dusting top of tart with icing sugar (aka confectioner’s sugar), do not do so until just at time of serving as it may dissolve into the tart top creating a murky appearance. Leave any garnishing of the entire tart or individual wedges until time of serving as some fruits may release their juices and stain top of tart or create a wet appearance (in the case of using lemon slices as garnishes, for example)