A simple, unadorned lemon tart is one of my favourite desserts. And over the years I’ve had some memorable ones – a thin smear of intense ‘lemoniness’ on the crispest of roughly formed pastry in a country bistro in France; a perfection of deep, wobbly curd in a gallery restaurant in Sydney; and mini tartlets from a dear friend while chatting over a cup of coffee. All delicious.
Try your hand at our silky version that uses our Revenge Gluten-free Shortcrust Pastry and it may well become your preferred dessert too.
Caren
LEMON TART
Serves 10-12
Tart Base
1 28cm x 3.5cm deep Revenge Almond Shortcrust Pastry base (see below)
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Blind bake the pastry base (see below) while preparing the filling so the warm filling can be poured into a hot tart base.
Filling
400 ml strained, freshly squeezed lemon juice
6 whole eggs
2 egg yolks
300 gm caster sugar
300 ml pouring cream
Whipped cream to serve
Whisk eggs, yolks and sugar together in a bowl and place over another bowl with warm water in it. Set aside for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Stir in cream. Bring the lemon juice to a boil. Add to the egg and cream mix. Pass through a sieve into a jug.
Reduce oven temperature to 150°C.
Place blind baked tart case in the oven and pour in the filling (this helps prevent spillage).
Bake for approximately 20 minutes. The filling should still be wobbly in the centre and will firm up as the tart cools. Allow to cool completely (at least 2 hours) before cutting.
Serve with whipped cream if you want to gild the lily.
REVENGE ALMOND SHORTCRUST PASTRY
Makes one 28cm - 32cm round or one 22cm x 32cm rectangular flan tin.
250 gm Revenge Gluten-free Almond Plain Flour Mix (see below)
85 gm caster sugar
1 pinch salt
½ lemon, zest only (optional)
65 gm unsalted butter, cold, cubed
1 whole egg
1 whole egg, extra, beaten, for sealing (optional)
Place dry ingredients and lemon zest, if using, into the bowl of a food processor and process for a couple of seconds to combine.
Add cold butter cubes and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
Add egg and process until the pastry comes together into a ball. You may need to add some iced water, a teaspoon at a time.
Place the pastry onto a sheet of plastic wrap, flatten into a disc about 1cm thick, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. The pastry will keep in the fridge for at least a week.
Remove pastry from the fridge and knead until it is smooth and pliable. Roll out in between two pieces of nonstick baking paper to a thickness of around 3mm, reserving any pastry off-cuts.
Line your tin with the pastry and return to the fridge until quite firm. The pastry can be wrapped and frozen at this stage for up to two months.
Preheat oven to 160°C.
Remove tart base from the fridge and blind bake. A blind baked tart will stay fresh, if wrapped, for several days before filling.
BLIND BAKING
To blind bake, line your pastry lined tin with foil, gently pressing well into the corners. Fill with baking weights, pushing them up the sides of the pastry shell. (Raw rice, dried beans or purchased pastry weights all work equally well.) Place in an oven preheated to 160°C and bake for 20 minutes.
Remove from the oven and carefully remove the foil and baking weights. Return the tart shell to the oven for a further 7-10 minutes until golden on the base.
If any splits appear in the pastry, simply and gently fill them with small pieces of the reserved pastry off-cuts, smoothing over the joins, and return to the oven for 5 minutes.
For absolute confidence that your tart shell will not leak you can seal the pastry by brushing with beaten egg and returning to the oven for a further 5 minutes.
REVENGE GLUTEN-FREE ALMOND PLAIN FLOUR MIX
280 gm almond meal
210 gm besan flour
280 gm fine white rice flour
175 gm corn flour
Mix up a batch and store in the fridge.