As promised, here's my recipe for tarte au citron - or lemon tart. Worth it, seriously. This is a slice on day two, so not quite as photogenic as day one - but still just as delicious. I could live on this stuff.Sweet pastry (make your own - go on, just once, it makes this tart)
340g (2 and a half cups) of plan flour
small pinch of salt
150g (5 and a half ounces) of unsalted butter
90g 9 (3/4 cup) icing (confectioner's) sugar
2 eggs, beaten
Sift the flour and salt onto a work surface and make a well in the centre. Put the butter into the well and work, using a pecking action with your fingertips and thumb, until it is very soft. Add the sugar to the butter and mix together, add the eggs to the butter and mix together.
GRADUALLY incorporate the flour, flicking it onto the mixture and then chopping through it until you have a rough dough. Bring together with your hands and knead a few times to make a smooth dough. Roll into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Roll out the pastry into a circle on a lightly floured surface and use to line a tart tin. Trim the edge and pinch up the edge to make an even border raised slightly above the rim of the tin. Slide onto a baking tray and rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.
FILLING
4 eggs
2 egg yolks
285 grams (1 and a 1/4 cups) of caster (superfine) sugar
185ml thick (heavy/double) cream
250ml (1 cup) lemon juice
finely grated zest of 3 lemons (grate zest before juicing - I beg of you)
Preheat the oven to 190 degrees celcius.
Whisk together the eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Add the cream, whisking all the time and then the lemon juice and zest.
Line the pastry shell with a piece of greaseproof paper and baking beads (or rice, or dried beans, or, if you're like me and have none of those, chuck in a few egg rings!) Blind bake the pastry for 10 minutes, remove the paper and beads and bake for a further 3 to 5 minutes - or until the pastry is just cooked but still very pale. Remove from oven and reduce the temperature to 150 degrees celcius.
Carefully pour the filling into the pastry case. Return to the oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the filling has set. Leave to cool completely before serving.
I dusted this with icing sugar to serve and it was magnificent. Otherwise I'd serve it with some natural yoghurt infused with vanilla beans and maybe some poached raspberries.
Follow your bliss and try this. So. Damned. GOOD!
Ooooh I'm definitely going to do this when I do my three-course French dinner for Skip. It's his fave and this looks soooooo delicious!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing!
he'll love you even more for it!
ReplyDeletewell done!
ReplyDeletealot of people are afraid of pastry. I use that same recipe & it's so easy.
♥
I love pastry Cathie, it's really just a matter of not overworking it isn't it? I found that successful scone making got me in the zone for pastry.
ReplyDeleteOnce you've had the home made stuff it's hard to go back to the bought pastry (that said, I haven't tried puff pastry yet - one day!)
This looks amazing, but... I am SO bad at pastry. So bad. Last time I tried something like this, it crumbled beneath my fingertips (before cooking) and I had to send hubby out for a bought cake to serve for dessert.
ReplyDeleteNoooo, don't say that LIAPF - it's all about minimal working. I have the world's hottest hands so often need to cool them down in cold water first, but keeping any touching to a minimum is the way to go. I actually got this recipe quite confused, but still managed to have it turn out.
ReplyDeleteYum, just as lovely as I thought it would be, but me making pastry - what folly, I will try with the filling though as a start. Hope that is okay.
ReplyDelete