Contents
Tarte au citron: a thin, intensely sour set custard in a crisp sweet shell. It is the sharpest thing in this folder and it is the standard test of a pastry kitchen, because the shell must stay crisp under a very wet filling and the custard must set without a trace of grain.
What makes it work
- The filling is a lemon curd baked in the shell, not a starch-thickened pie filling like lemon meringue pie. Only egg sets it, so the temperature control is exact.
- Bake at 140 °C. Low, slow and gentle. At 180 °C the edges scramble.
- Pour the filling in with the tart already on the oven shelf. A full shell cannot be carried level.
- Strain the mixture and skim every bubble. Bubbles bake into a pitted top and this tart is judged on its surface.
- Take it out at a slight wobble — the middle should shimmer as one piece. It reads about 70 °C at the centre.
- Seal the shell with egg white after blind baking. Without it the base softens within two hours.
Ingredients
One 23 cm tart. Serves 10.
- 1 blind-baked, sealed shell — pate sucree
- 5 eggs plus 2 yolks
- 250 g caster sugar
- 200 ml lemon juice, about 5 lemons
- zest of 3 lemons
- 250 ml double cream
- 2 g fine salt
To finish: powdered sugar, or a caramelised sugar top
Method
Blind bake the shell, brush with egg white, and return it for two minutes. Leave it in its tin on a baking tray.
Reduce the oven to 140 °C / 285 °F.
Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingertips. Whisk in the eggs and yolks — whisk to combine only, never to aerate. Whisk in the lemon juice, then the cream and salt.
Strain through a fine sieve into a jug. Let it stand five minutes and skim off every bubble with a spoon.
Set the tart on the oven shelf and pour the filling in to the brim.
Bake 30–40 minutes, until set with a slight wobble at the centre.
Cool completely at room temperature — three hours. Chill only if it must be held longer.
Notes
- For a brûléed top, dust with caster sugar and torch it just before serving. Under a grill it works but the shell warms.
- Tarte au citron meringuée adds an Italian meringue, torched. Lime, passion fruit, bergamot and blood orange all substitute directly for part of the juice.
- Keeps three days refrigerated, though the shell softens after day one.
Elsewhere on the site
Method and theory: Pie and tart recipes · pies and tarts · pate sucree · lemon
Nearby: lemon meringue pie · chocolate ganache tart · key lime pie