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

I would love to hear your comments. To get regular updates on recipes, please click on the link ‘Follow’ at the end of the blog. I will soon update on my Paris travelogue as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Petit fours

So, a delayed update of my personal baking challenge- that is to bake something from each of the GB Bake off series competition, I made the petit fours for round of patisserie recipes episode. Petit fours are small desserts, mostly bite sized, which are served with coffee at the end of the meal.

I decided to make mini chocolate éclairs, crème patissière filled shortcrust tartlets with raspberries and orange-caramel macarons.

I love making choux pastry, they are delightfully light to eat and fun to make. I toyed with the idea of make choux pastry swans but mini éclair seemed cuter idea to make. I decided to fill it with chantilly cream, which is basically vanilla flavoured whipped cream and topped it with chcocolate ganache. The recipe for chocolate ganache I used is one I found in Mary Berry’s book and it works wonderfully for the eclairs as it is not too runny, though I would not use it to top cakes. You will find the recipe for choux pastry here.

I thought shortcrust tart would be a more interesting tart idea to do than the conventional tart recipe plus I have wanted to make crème patissière for ages. So this was a good excuse to learn a new technique as well. I top the filling with raspberries- always a good idea to use fresh, I used frozen as I did not have fresh ones at the time I was making and they were so soggy! Just sift icing sugar on the top for a dramatic presentations ! You will find the recipe for the shortbread tartlets here.

As for macarons, I have been obsessed with them for months, to perfect them. I have finally found a recipe and technique that works for me. For the filling, I made caramel and added it to the buttercream icing with orange zest. And here is my macaron recipe.

So, finally my petit fours all together. They did not last very long, since they are small in size, that gives me an excuse to eat more of them!

Thanks for stopping by and I would love to hear from you.

Crème Patissiere or Pastry cream

I had wanted to make crème patissiere for a very long time! So finally I decided to make it for tart filling, one of the petit fours I was making.

This recipe has been adapted from joyofbaking.com.

For ½ a cup of this delightfully light custard like filling, you will need:

150 ml milk
½ tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ egg yolks
25 g granulated white sugar
10 g plain flour
10 g cornflour

This recipe is enough to fill about 18 mini tartlets but it can also be doubled if required.

1. In a heat-proof bowl mix the sugar and egg yolks together.
2. Sift plain flour and cornflour and add it to the egg mixture and mix it till it forms a smooth paste.
3. In a saucepan bring the milk to a boil, only till it foams up and then remove it from the heat.
4. Now slowly add it to the egg mixture whisking it constantly.
5. Then put it into a saucepan and cook over gentle heat-whisking constantly – till it boils. Wait for another minute after that, the mixture would be thick and creamy by now.
6. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract.
7. Store in a bowl, put a cling film right on the surface of the crème patissiere to prevent formation of skin.  Once cooled, you can store it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Here is the full recipe for shortbread tarts filled with crème patissiere.

Shortbread tartlets

A perfect recipe for petit fours, for parties, these tart shells are easy to make and can be frozen as well. They melt in your mouth, dainty and tender, they can be filled with a variety of fillings from cream cheese to chocolates. I have filled them with crème patissiere. You can then top them with any fresh fruits you want.

Ingredients
113 g unsalted butter
27 g icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100 g plain flour
15 g rice flour or cornflour
1/8 th tsp salt

Unlike shortbread cookies they contain cornflour or rice flour which gives them the melting taste like in cornflour cookies. 

This recipe makes 18 small  2” tartlets, you can easily double the recipe.

1. You can do this by hand as well, or using a hand mixer beat the butter till smooth. Do not over beat because you do not want to incorporate air.
2. Then add the icing sugar and beat it in just till it is incorporated in the butter.
3. Next mix in the vanilla extract. Then combine the plain flour, cornflour and salt. Mix it in the butter mixture. Do not over beat, just only till all the flour is incorporated.
4. Just a couple of tips, now since the butter I had used was too soft my dough was really sticky to work with. So you can keep it in the fridge for 20-30 mins so that it is easier to handle. If your butter is not too soft, your dough will be soft but not too sticky.
5. Now prepare the tart tin tray by greasing the tin with butter. Take a tablespoon of the shortbread dough and press it in the tin with your fingers along the base and sides. To prevent it to puff up, cover the tart tin tray with cling film and put it in the freezer for 15 minutes.
6. Pre heat the oven to 170 ˚C fan oven. Remove the tray from the freezer and remove the cling film. Bake the tarts for 15-20 mins till the tarts are golden in colour. In between check the tarts, if they are puffing up just poke the tarts with a fork.
7. After they are baked , take them out and cool completely in the tin on a wire rack. The tarts are tender and crisp so carefully take them out of the tin. They should not stick to the tin but if they have just run a knife around to loosen them up.
8. Pipe your filling in the tart and decorate as desired.

Check out recipes for more petit fours here.