Passport & Plate - Lemon Tart
USA | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 5 photos
Lemon Tart - Simple and delicious!
Crust: Ingredients
85g (3oz) butter
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 tbsp water
5g sugar
1/4 tsp salt
150g (1.25 cup) flour
Filling: Ingredients
100g sugar (.5 cup)
120g lemon juice (.5cup)
85g butter (3oz)
2 eggs
2 yolks
One 9-inch tart
This makes a modest lemony layer but if you want more, the recipe is easily doubled. Keep in mind that this curd is very tart and sweet and a little goes a long way.
Making the crust:
Necessary tools: non-reactive pot, wooden spoon, measuring implements, 9-inch tart mold with removable bottom
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F
2. In the pot, combine the butter, oil, water, sugar, and salt.
3. Cook over medium heat until it smells nutty (roughly 10 minutes)
4. When done, take the pot off the heat. Dump in the flour and stir it in quickly, until it comes together and forms a ball
5. Transfer the dough to tart mold and spread it a bit with the spoon
6. Once the dough is cool enough to handle, make the tart shell by pressing the dough firmly onto the mold's side. Reserve a small chunk, thumbnail size to help mend your crust if it cracks
7. Prick the dough with the tines of a fork about 12 times. Put the crust in the freezer for 5 minutes. Bake tart shell in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the dough is golden brown
8. Remove the tart crust from the oven, and mend cracks
Making the tart:
Necessary tools: non-reactive pot, whisk, finely-meshed strainer, rubber spatula, measuring implements, medium bowl
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (Or lower it, if you just made the crust)
2. In pot, heat the lemon juice, zest, sugar, and butter.
3. In bowl, beat together the eggs and the yolks.
4. When the butter is melted, whisk some of the lemon mixture into the eggs to warm them. Stir constantly. Scrape the eggs into the pot and cook and whisk over low heat, until the mixture thickens. It is ok for it to still be slightly runny.
5. Pour the lemon curd through a strainer directly into the tart shell, scraping with a rubber spatula to press it through.
6. Smooth the top of the tart and pop it in the oven for five minutes, just to set the curd.
7. Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing and serving.
The story behind this recipe
I grew up in a predominately Chinese diet. Most of the things that I learned how to cook was from my mother and it did not involve an oven. Everything that I had to learn about baking was self-taught. Cookbooks were devoured and blogs were scoured in my quest for baking knowledge.
I always had an interest in baking. It started with boxed cake mix, then cookies from scratch and then finally cakes from scratch. Pies and tarts always eluded me due to the fussiness of making the crust. Recipes always said that "you must keep the butter cold", "don't over mix", "be careful of temperature", etc. It just seemed so difficult as a young baker.
One day, I received a giant bag of wax-free, pesticide-free lemons from my uncle. This was the start of my adoration of this tart recipe. I looked up a lemon tart recipe and stumbled upon David Lebovitz's blog and found this recipe. I tweaked it to accommodate my tastes. I wanted to make it simpler and less likely to injure myself on bubbling material. This is where the tart dough made in a pot came in.
Whenever I make this tart, it brings to a warm and sunny place. It brought me outside of braising, steaming, soy sauce and ginger. It taught me that baking did not have to be difficult or fussy. It taught me that going to another country was as simple as a delicious slice of tart.
(I accidentally deleted this description, so I rewrote it.)
