Lemon tart: Add some zest to dessert time. Image: Supplied.
Lemon tart – Delightful sweet bite with a zesty zing
Weekend baking plans sorted with this decadent dessert recipe!
Lemon tart: Add some zest to dessert time. Image: Supplied.
Love a sweet treat with a zesty feel to it? This lemon tart is delightfully sweet with a lemony zing to break the sweetness. It is a recipe perfect to try out over a weekend as it involves a bit of a labour of love to prepare the pastry base, but the end result is all worth it!
This lemon tart recipe contains a generous quantity of lemon zest and lemon juice for that strong lemon flavour many of us love so much.
The secret to getting the pastry base perfect is to allow the dough to rest twice. The first time, chill the dough wrapped in cling wrap for 45 minutes. And then after you have rolled out the dough and pressed it into a tart dish, place it in the fridge for a further 45 minutes before baking the crust.
It is also important that you allow the lemon tart mixture to rest in the fridge for 30 minutes before warming it up slightly and pouring it into the baked pastry base.
Enjoy this zesty lemon tart as a special sweet treat for the family.
Lemon tart recipe
Course: DessertCuisine: GlobalDifficulty: ModeratePrep time
30
minutesCooking time
1
hour10
minutesResting Time
120
minutesTotal time
3
hours40
minutesIngredients
- Pastry base
120 g 120 salted butter, cold
80 g 80 icing sugar
3 3 egg yolks
250 g 250 cake flour
25 ml 25 cold water
- Lemon tart
8 large 8 eggs
240 g 240 castor sugar
250 ml 250 double cream
2 heaped tablespoons 2 grated lemon zest
125 ml lemon juice
Method
- Pastry base
- Place the cold butter, flour and icing sugar into a food processor and blitz until a fine crumb consistency has formed.
- Add the egg yolks and blend.
- Give the processor a good scrape and blitz again to ensure all the dry ingredients are properly mixed.
- Slowly add cold water until the dough comes together. It should be smooth and soft.
- Wrap well in cling wrap and place in the fridge for 45 minutes.
- Grease a 24 cm tart tin or ceramic tart plate.
- On a floured surface, roll the refrigerated pastry dough into a circle about 25 cm in diameter and roughly 4 mm thick.
- Use a rolling pin and line your pastry base or tart tin and press into line the bottom and sides.
- Leave the edges rough but neat and prick the base with a fork.
- Refrigerate for a further 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C.
- Line the pastry base with tinfoil and fill with baking beads or rice/ beans and bake for 10 – 12 minutes.
- Remove the foil and beans and bake for a further 20 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and brush the entire surface with beaten egg.
- Reduce the heat to 140°C and return to the oven to bake for 2 minutes.
- Remove and cool.
- Lemon tart
- Beat the eggs and sugar together.
- Add the lemon juice and zest. Mix well.
- Add the double cream and mix until incorporated (it might be slightly lumpy).
- Refrigerate the mixture, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
- When the pastry base is ready, remove the mixture from the fridge and heat gently in a heavy-bottomed saucepan on a stovetop until just warm.
- Place the pastry base close to the oven and pour the liquid into the base.
- Carefully place into a preheated oven at 150°C.
- Bake for 40 minutes until just set.
- Remove and allow to cool at room temperature. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours prior to serving.
- Dust with icing sugar and serve.
Notes
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