LEMON TART
Maybe my favourite dessert in the world.
First things first, this lemon tart is an homage to The Godfather of modern cuisine, the great white, Marco Pierre White. I met Marco briefly a few months ago which was a wonderful way of the universe speaking to me in such a coincidentally special yet slightly weird way.
Anyway, I got particularly giddy after posting this video of a recipe that was heavily inspired by him, to see that he had liked and reposted it himself!
So, from now on I won’t be taking any criticism hahaha - Just kidding.
In all seriousness, I think this is my favourite dessert in the world. It has everything I look for when picking a dessert from a menu. Elegance, refined yet bold flavours and a simplicity that can often be misinterpreted as boring or plain. But the flavours speak for themselves. It’s bright, sharp, punchy and incredibly moreish - It’s the best.
I’ve not got a massive sweet tooth so naturally I like fruiter desserts, often bitter or acidic with citrus so hence the lemon tart being a favourite of mine. This tart in particular is so lemony you can feel it ever so subtly at the back of your throat and dancing on the tip of your tongue - the perfect balance between sweetness and bitterness.
So here is how to make it.
Full video on my Instagram for reference:
Ingredients
Fresh juice of 4 lemons (120ml)
2 lemons for zesting
150g caster sugar
120ml double cream
4 large eggs (+ 1 for egg wash)
Pinch of salt
Short crust pastry (1 sheet of shop bought is fine)
200ml double cream
2 tbsp elderflower cordial
Handful of green cardamom pods
1 tbsp icing sugar
Method:
Pastry, blind bake, tart case prep
Feel free to make your own pastry, it will be more rewarding if you can do your own sweet/short crust pastry. But to save time and effort, shop bought works perfectly.
Get a tart case with a removable base. This recipe is using a 25cm tart case. A perforated tart case used in professional kitchens is even better so if you have one of those, great.
Using the tart case as a guideline, cut out a circle shape giving enough extra pastry to fill the middle and about half a centre metre up the sides of the tray and covering the entire base. Then cut out 3 ribbons that are thick enough to line the entire circumference of the sides and all the way up to the top. Ideally so the pastry falls over the sides ensuring they’ll cover the whole wall of the tart case with any excess you can trim off later.
You can roll these out slightly to have a thinner pastry but be careful to not break it. I’d just be safe and use the thickness the pre rolled sheet as is.
Grease the tray evenly all over with a thin layer of butter and then fill with the pastry. Making sure to press into the tray and all around. Leaving no gaps or holes and ensuring the pastry is firmly in place. Score the pastry with a fork, lightly. Then using some baking beans, fill the tart. Making sure it’s lined with parchment paper. If you haven’t got baking beans, using uncooked rice and parchment paper works fine.
Heat oven to 180c and bake for 15 minutes. Then remove the beans and parchment, brush the pastry evenly and lightly all over with an egg wash and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove and let cool slightly.
Lemon filling
Get a large mixing bowl and crack in four eggs. Beat until fully mixed together. Then add your sugar and mix until fully combined. Then 120ml of double cream and mix again. Don’t over mix as this will create air bubbles. We don’t want this.
Squeeze in 120ml of fresh lemon juice (around 3-4 lemons) and the zest of two of them. Mix this until all is combined. Add a pinch of salt and mix in. Gently pour this mixture into a saucepan over a really low heat and stir until all the flavours have bloomed and infused. DO NOT scramble the eggs. Then after 5 minutes, take the mixture off the heat and into a bowl to whisk a tiny bit more to cool it down.
Pass the slightly cooled mixture through a strainer and into a jug that’s ready for you to pour into the baked tart case. Pre heat the oven to 140c before pouring the mixture into the tart case and filling it as close to the top as you can, without the risk of overspilling.
You can use a blowtorch to remove any bubbles of air that rose to the surface before baking. Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. I baked mine for around 27 minutes. It may take a little longer if your oven is old or temperamental.
Once baked, take it out of the oven and leave in its baking tray to cool. Then leave in the fridge to set for a few hours at least. I left mine over night to fully set.
Cream
Pour out the rest of your double cream into a large mixing bowl ensuring the bowl and the cream are both cold before whipping up with an electric whisk. Whip to soft peaks. If you’re only using a small amount of cream, feel free to hand whisk as it won’t take as long. It depends on the portion size. This recipe has a lot of cream to comfortably portion out about 8 tarts with, plus some extra just in case.
In a pan throw in a handful of lightly crushed cardamom pods and a few tbsps of the elderflower cordial. Gently heat up and allow them to bloom for 2-3 minutes.
Once cooled, sieve it into the cream and slightly whip it again a little bit further so it’s a tad firmer.
Serve
Gently remove the tart out of the fridge and from its baking tray. Slice elegantly using a sharp warm knife. Quenelle or rocher the cream and serve on the side. Or if you aren’t feeling fancy, just dollop a bit on the side. It all goes down the same.
I have plenty of recipes coming out and videos on my Instagram. So please make sure you’re following on there and subscribed on here - any support is massively appreciated <3
Enjoy! Love Fin :)
I made this and it was amazing!! My entire family loved it! And not difficult at all
Yum.. made this morning and the family loved it. Simply spectacular recipe.