Super-Zesty Tarte au Citron
Ingredients
For the pastry
- 70g unsalted butter, at room temperature an diced.
- 200g plain flour, plus a little extra for dusting.
- 2 tbsp icing sugar
- 2 tbsp rapeseed oil (olive oil makes for a good alternative)
- 2 medium egg yolks (keep the whites for the filling!)
- 2 tbsp cold water
For the Filling
- 3 medium eggs, plus the two egg whites you saved from making the pastry
- 170g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
- the grated zest of 4 medium-sized lemons
- the juice of 5 medium-sized lemons
- 250g creme fraiche
Method
1. In a large bowl, rub all the butter and flour together with your hands until it forms a breadcrumb-like consistency, which should only take a couple of minutes. Get all the mixture off your hands and then add in the icing sugar and mix in completely. Now make a well in the centre of the mixture and add the rapeseed oil (or olive oil), the egg yolks and water. Mix in with a small knife, then get your hands in! Try not to overhandle the dough, so to form it into a nice, well-combined ball should only take about 3-5 minutes.
2. Lightly flour your kitchen surface and tip your dough ball out onto it. Flour the shaft of your rolling pin (no dirty thoughts now!) to keep the dough from sticking to it. Roll out the dough so it's the thickness of a £1 coin, and that it's round enough to fill a 23cm by 2pm tart tin with removable bottom. You could try to roll the dough out on top of the removable bottom, then fold over the edges and place in into the tin, then open up the pastry like a big flower! I find this method a little fiddly but easier in the long run. Make sure you have at least 1cm of pastry overlapping the top of the tin all the way around (as it will shrink when baking). Prick the base with a fork and leave to chill in the fridge for about 10-15 mins. Preheat your oven to 190c / 170 fan / gm 5.
3. To begin making the filling, with a wooden spoon, beat the three eggs and two egg whites together until well-combined. In a separate bowl, sift in the icing sugar, then in three stages beat in the egg mixture. It may be lumpy, but do not worry as beating it with a wire whisk for about 3 minutes should remedy that. Stir in all your lemon zest and juice so all are well-combined. Leave to one side until you need this mixture for number 5 - this will help that lovely rich zesty lemon flavour to develop!
4. Now bake your base! Pop some baking paper inside the casing and fill evenly with baking beads. Blind bake for 18 mins, then remove the paper and beans and bake for a further 5 mins to bake the base. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
5. Beat the creme fraiche in a medium-sized bowl until smooth and then drain the lemon mixture through a sieve on top of it. Mix well for about 3 minutes until thoroughly combined and you have that consistent clear yellow! Pour your mixture into your pastry case and pop into your oven. Now reduce the heat to 150c /130 fan / gm 2 and bake for 30 minutes until you can see the mixture is starting to set but there is still a slight wobble. Do not let it brown, it has to look like mine!
6. Leave to cool for at least 1 hour, then dust with icing sugar (optional). Then enjoy the rich zestiness that will hopefully transport you to a lemon grove in Croatia or Italy with the sun on your face and a lemon-cello spritz in your hand (all pre-Covid of course!)
Tip - It's normal for the filling to begin to crack and separate within 24 hours of finishing making this, so it's advisable to eat this within 24 hours.
J xx
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