The lemon tart is a fresh and delicious dessert: a crunchy and crispy shell of classic shortcrust pastry filled with a light and delicate lemon cream. Since there was a lot of pastry, I also made some pretty little flowers to use as decoration. Easy and quick enough, the lemon tart will be the perfect dessert for summer. I say quick enough because the pastry needs to rest, but if you make it when you have some extra time and keep it in the freezer, then thaw it in the fridge the night before, making the cream and assembling the tart will be just a moment. The pastry recipe for preparing this lemon tart is the one I always use; let’s say it’s the home recipe, while the cream and tart idea is from Chiarapassion.
Don’t miss:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Cost: Economical
- Preparation time: 40 Minutes
- Portions: 8People
- Cooking methods: Oven, Electric Oven, Stovetop
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: All seasons
Ingredients
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cups sugar
- 1 1/8 cups butter
- 2 eggs
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 untreated lemon (grated zest)
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 cup water
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 oz potato starch
- 2 tbsps butter
- 1 egg
- 1 lemon (50 g of juice + grated zest)
- as needed shortcrust pastry flowers
- as needed edible flower petals
Tools
- 1 Mixer Kitchen Aid Artisan
- 1 Rolling Pin
- 2 Kit spacers for rolling pin
- 1 Pan 25 cm tart pan with removable bottom
- 1 Saucepan
- 1 Hand Whisk
Steps
Place the flour in a mound and pour the sugar in the center. Then add the eggs, egg yolks, butter cut into pieces, grated lemon zest or vanilla, and salt. Knead with your fingertips to avoid warming the dough and work it quickly until you get a nice homogeneous dough. Press it: don’t make a ball because a pressed dough cools down faster and better. Wrap it in cling film and let it rest in the fridge for about thirty minutes. If you have time, prepare the pastry the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight. To prepare the shortcrust pastry with a food processor (or with a stand mixer with a flat beater), you can proceed in two ways: put the sugar and butter in the mixer and blend first, add the eggs and blend again. Add the sifted flour, salt, and flavors and blend until a ball forms. Or blend the butter with the flour first to get many crumbs (this process is called sablage), then add sugar, eggs, salt, and flavors and blend until a ball forms. Then form a rectangular flattened dough, wrap it in cling film, and store it in the fridge.
In a saucepan, mix the sugar with the potato starch and grated lemon zest. Add water slowly and mix well to prevent lumps. Add the butter and bring to the heat. Bring to a boil, always stirring, until it thickens, then turn off the heat, let it cool for five minutes, and add the egg and lemon juice, stirring quickly with a hand whisk; otherwise, you risk curdling the egg. Let it cool slightly.
After the resting time, roll out half of the dough (keep the rest in the fridge) with a rolling pin on a floured work surface or on a sheet of parchment paper to a thickness of about 1/5 inch. Transfer the shortcrust pastry into the mold, prick it with a fork, and fill it with lemon cream. Bake in a preheated oven at 340°F for about 35/40 minutes. Roll out the remaining pastry and cut out flowers. Bake them in a preheated oven at 355°F for 10 minutes, then use them to decorate the tart. Finish with edible flower petals. Let it cool and then place in the fridge as it should be served cold.
