TARTE AU CITRON
The universally loved lemon tart can have many variations but the most well-known version, containing lemon curd in some sort of guise, may not necessarily be the most delicious.
Our Tarte au Citron has a very rich pastry containing four egg yolks and a filling, lemony as always, but with the addition of lemon zest, ground almonds and butter rather than cream giving its gorgeous texture.
It is more fail-proof to make than the lemon curd version and the pastry, using our Revenge No. 2 Gluten-free Almond Plain Flour Mix, is a dream to handle and a taste sensation.
They say that variety is the spice of life. Hope you give it a try.
Rosie
TARTE AU CITRON
Serves 8-10
Pastry
125 gm unsalted butter, softened
100 gm caster sugar
¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
4 egg yolks
325 gm Revenge No. 2 Gluten-Free Almond Plain Flour Mix
Pinch salt
Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add the vanilla then the egg yolks one at a time until incorporated. Add the flour and salt and mix until just incorporated.
Turn out onto a floured board and form into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for 1 hour.
Preheat the oven to 180°C.
In between two sheets of baking paper, roll out the pastry to 5mm thickness. Line a 28cm diameter flan tin with pastry and place in the fridge until firm. (The pastry can be successfully frozen at this stage and will keep for up to 2 months. It can be blind baked straight from its frozen state.) Blind bake the pastry. See here to blind bake.
Filling
2 whole eggs
100 gm caster sugar
120 ml lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest, very finely grated
125 gm butter, melted and cooled
60 gm almond meal
Icing sugar for dusting
Whipped cream to serve
Candied lemon zest (optional - see below)
Beat the eggs and sugar until thick and a ribbon trail is left in the mixture when the beaters are lifted. Stir in the lemon juice and rind, melted butter and almond meal.
Pour into the prepared pastry case.
Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the filling is just set and the top is golden brown.
Serve at room temperature.
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with whipped cream and candied lemon zest if desired.
Candied Lemon Zest
3 lemons, washed and dried
220 gm caster sugar
250 ml water
100 gm caster sugar extra
Zest the lemons into long strands. Place in a small saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil. Strain.
In a small saucepan, combine the caster sugar and 250ml water over a low heat stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to a simmer and add the strained lemon zest. Allow to simmer slowly until the zest has a translucent appearance, around 10-15 minutes.
Carefully strain as the sugar syrup will be very hot. Transfer the strained zest to a piece of baking paper placed on a heatproof surface. Tip the extra 100gm caster sugar over and with gloved hands gently toss so that all the strands are separated and covered in sugar. Allow to cool completely before storing in an air tight container.
Candied lemon zest stores well if kept air tight.