Tarte au citron (Lemon tart)

After my recent first trip to Paris, I have been on a non-stop Parisian-food-hangover!! It was an amazing gastronomic trip. I managed to visit quite a few of the famous patisseries but almost all the patisseries around the city were a visual delight, my eyes were popping out of my head and I was drooling shamelessly standing at their window displays. I went to Jacques Genin’s but it was closed on the day (sob sob!). I had read so much about his amazing caramels and also that his tarte au citron is quite the best. So, I found a recipe for his tart online but he uses limes for the tarte au citron. I did not have limes at hand but had lemons. So I made his pastry recipe and used Pierre Herme’s recipe for the tart filling. The pastry is definitely THE best I have tasted! It was so easy to roll out really thin, came out crisp with a lovely colour. I also froze a few tart shells and later used them to make chocolate tarts. The filling is light and creamy with a very good kick of citrus.

Ingredients:
For  the sweet pastry

120 g butter, softened
85 g icing sugar
20 g almond flour
40 g whole egg
½ vanilla pod (I used 1 tsp of vanilla extract)
2 g salt
210 g plain flour

For the Filling:
226 g caster sugar
zest if 3 lemons
4 large eggs
177 ml  (3/4cup) lemon juice
300 g unsalted butter at room temperature cut into pieces
This recipe can make a 9” tart or about 6-8 small tarts.

For the tart shell, using a hand held mixer or by hand, mix the softened butter, icing sugar and almond flour. Add the egg and mix again. Add in the flour and mix gently. Pat into a dough and wrap in a cling film and keep in fridge for an hour and a half. After that roll it out on a floured surface, I sometimes roll it out in between cling film or parchment so that it does not stick. If it is still a little sticky, roll out, cover and refrigerate for another hour before lining the tart tin. Now cut the dough the size of your pan + sides+ 1cm. Line the tray, wrap in cling film again and refrigerate preferably overnight. Next day, bake the pastry at 180˚C for about 20 mins or till it is golden brown in colour.

Sweet pastry tart shells

For the filling:

1. In a bowl (which you can put over a pan of simmering water), add the lemon zest to the sugar and rub it in the sugar with your fingers for a minute or two. This will infuse wonderful flavours into the sugar.
2. Now whisk the eggs into the sugar followed by the lemon juice.
3. Put the bowl over simmering water without the bottom of the pan touching the water, and whisk till the mixture reaches 180˚F, I used a cooking thermometer to check the temperature. Whisk constantly else the eggs will scramble. The mixture will become foamy and then bubbly. This can take about 10 minutes so keep patience.
4. Take the lemon cream off the heat when it reaches 180˚F and let it cool to 140 ˚F. Now add the lemon cream to the food processor, with the food processor on slowly add the butter to it, till all the butter is added (make sure you stop and scrape couple of times in between), and everything is incorporated.
5. Pour the mixture out into a container, i use jam jars, cover the mixture and refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.
6. Spoon into the tart shell.

Note: When I made this filling, I noticed that the temperature of the lemon cream and the butter is very important. The first time I tried, my butter was too cold and hence the mixture after setting in the fridge was more like lemon whipped buttercream than lemon filling for tart. So make sure that your butter is well softened and also that your lemon cream mixture is still hot (about 140 ˚F).

more like lemon buttercream than tart filling!

Lemon tart filling

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