This tart is one of our family’s favorite desserts, and is the best thing to do when our Meyer lemon tree gives us a huge harvest.
Lemon Tart
Servings: 12
Equipment
- Removable bottom fluted tart pan 9"
Ingredients
Sweet pastry crust
- 7 tbsp butter (3.5 oz) melted
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ¼ tsp vanilla
- pinch salt
- 1 cup +1 tbsp flour
Lemon curd
- 1 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
- ¾ cup sugar
- 12 tbsp butter (6oz) cut into cubes
- 4 large eggs
- 4 large egg yolks
- pinch salt
- grated zest of 2 lemons
Instructions
Pastry crust
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Whisk together dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl. Add melted butter and vanilla and mix thoroughly with a rubber spatula.
- Transfer dough and press into tart pan. It usually works best for me to form the sides first and then press the crust down onto the bottom. Dock bottom crust with a fork.
- Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown. Set aside. Maintain oven temperature.
Lemon curd
- Place a fine mesh strainer over a 4 cup measure and set aside.
- In a medium sized saucepan, heat the lemon juice, sugar, butter, eggs and egg yolks.
- Stir until the butter is melted, then whisk continuously until the mixture thickens and holds it's shape when you lift some of it up with the whisk and it visibly mounds up when dropped back down over the rest of the curd. It should only take a few minutes.
- Pour the curd through the strainer into the measuring cup, scraping with a rubber spatula to press it through. Stir lemon zest into strained curd in measuring cup.
- Pour strained curd into warm tart crust and bake just until curd is set, about 5-10 minutes.
- Remove from oven and rest on wire rack until cool – 1-2hrs – before slicing and serving.½
Notes
I use Meyer lemons from our tree, so I only use ½ cup sugar in the curd. If you’re using regular (Eureka, Lisbon, etc) lemons, use the full ¾ cup sugar.
Docking the crust (poking holes with a fork) helps prevent the bottom crust puffing up excessively.