Easy Lemon Tart | Tarte au Citron

Lemon Tart or Tarte au Citron looks and tastes great and yet is really easy to make. Simply whisk together your filling ingredients, pour the mixture into a baked pastry case (preferably home-made) et voila, a delicious lemon tart !
Tarte au Citron is always on the summer menu here at the Kitchen Shed as summer is when family and friends come to stay and I like to bake something special for them. As my sister’s most favourite dessert, if Tarte au Citron is on the menu anywhere you can guarantee she’ll choose it. The fresh lemon filling and buttery crisp pastry of Tarte au Citron combine to provide a perfect end to a meal – I usually serve the tart on its own but I have been known to add a few summer berries.
This recipe includes instructions and oven timings for both a large tart or individual lemon tarts.

Easy Lemon Tart | Tarte au Citron

Makes:

8 portions or approximately 8 individual tarts

Ingredients

Pastry:

• 200 g plain flour
• A pinch of salt
• 100 g chilled butter, cut into small cubes
• 4 tablespoons icing sugar
• 1 egg yolk (freeze the white for later)
• Approximately 2 tablespoons water

Lemon Filling:

• 3 eggs
• 150 g caster sugar
• 150 ml double cream
• Zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 50 g melted butter
• Optional: icing sugar to dust

Grease:

• 1 x 23 cm ( 9 inch ) loose bottomed flan tin
  or
• 8 x 9 cm ( 3 ½ inch ) individual tart tins

Preheat oven:

• 200℃ / 400℉ / Gas Mark 6

Pastry:

• Sift flour and salt into the mixing bowl of the stand mixer.
• Add cubes of butter and mix on slow with a paddle attachment until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
• Add the icing sugar and briefly mix.
• Briefly whisk egg yolk and water in a small bowl before adding to the pastry mix.
• Mix on slow until the pastry forms (this shouldn’t take long at all, less than a minute. You don’t want to overwork the pastry)
• Wrap the pastry in cling film and leave in the fridge for 30 minutes until firm but not hard.
• Roll out your pastry to about the thickness of a £1 coin ( ⅛ inch ) making sure the pastry circle is large enough for the diameter of your flan tin plus twice its depth.
• Carefully line your tin with your pastry.
• Prick the bottom of the case with a fork and pop in the fridge for at least 15 minutes.
• Line your pastry case or cases with baking parchment and fill with ceramic beans, rice or dried beans.
• Bake in the oven:
• Large tart – 15 minutes
• Individual tarts – 10 minutes
• Remove from the oven and carefully set aside the paper and beans.
• Pop the back in the oven for 5 minutes to crisp up the bottom.
• Leave to cool.
• After removing your baked pastry case or cases, turn down your oven to:
  180℃ / 350℉ / Gas Mark 4

Lemon Filling:

• Whisk the eggs, sugar and double cream together until blended.
• Add lemon juice and zest and whisk again.
• Lastly, whisk in the melted butter.
• Carefully pour the lemon filling into the cooled pastry case or cases.
• Carefully transfer to the oven and bake:
• Large Tart – 35 to 40 minutes
• Individual Tarts – 15 to 20 minutes
• Leave to cool before removing from the tin or tins.
• Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

 

 

 

I’m entering Easy Lemon Tart | Tarte au Citron into:

• Perfecting Patisserie ( co-hosted by Lucy at Baking Queen 74 & Kevin from The Crafty Larder ) this month over at Baking Queen 74
• The Pastry Challenge created by Jen at  Jen’s Food & Lisa at  United Cakedom, hosted this month by Jen over at Jen’s Food.
• Treat Petite created by Stuart at CakeyBoi & Kat at The Baking Explorer, the host for June is Kat over at The Baking Explorer.

And linking to:

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