Another lemon tart? Yes indeed! And there’s even a chance I might end up liking it ^^ Lemon and I aren’t exactly friends. It’s not really my thing. However, I must say I really love the freshness of lime. A little zest over any dessert (or almost), and it lifts the whole thing, it adds zing! I’ve already made several lemon tarts — I’m always on the lookout for THE recipe, the one that will make my other half or my dear Fanny, big fans of this dessert, drool with delight.
I first wanted to try Eric Kayser’s recipe, but it wasn’t a success: the lemon cream was far too dense. So I tried again, using the lemon cream recipe I’d already made and adding zests (lemon, lime and kaffir lime). And to add a little touch of originality, I added a few drops of concentrated bergamot lemon flavouring to the Italian meringue. And there you have it… I present to you a four-citrus tart, no less!
Ingredients & preparation
5 components · Full recipe
Pierre Hermé’s Lemon Sweet Pastry (you will have some left over, which can be frozen)
Ingredients
- 140 g (4.9 oz) softened butter
- 75 g (2.6 oz) icing sugar
- 25 g (0.9 oz) ground almonds
- 1 pinch of fleur de sel
- 1 egg
- 250 g (8.8 oz) flour
- zest of 1 lemon
Preparation
1
Cream the softened butter using the paddle attachment of a stand mixer or a spatula, then add the icing sugar and lemon zest.
2
Add the egg, ground almonds, salt and flour. Do not overwork the dough.
3
Once the mixture is smooth, roll it out thinly between two sheets of baking paper.
4
Pre-cut a large square to the dimensions of your tart frame and a wide strip for the sides of the tart. This is Mercotte’s method, which I highly recommend, as the dough is very fragile and warms up quickly (even after a stint in the freezer).
5
Place the pre-cut dough in the freezer.
Tart Assembly
Ingredients
- None
Preparation
1
Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.
2
Place the tart frame on the square of dough as soon as it comes out of the freezer. Immediately add the pre-cut strip around the frame. Bear in mind that the dough defrosts quickly and is easier to work with while it is still slightly firm.
3
Prick the base and cover with baking paper and baking beans to prevent the pastry from rising during baking.
4
Bake for approximately 12 to 15 minutes (the pastry should be golden). Leave to cool on a wire rack.
5
To prevent the pastry from going soggy when it comes into contact with the lemon cream, you have two options: coat the base with melted chocolate (dark, milk or white) using a pastry brush, or — as I did — brush the base with a little beaten egg 5 minutes before the end of baking.
Lemon Cream
Ingredients
- 180 ml (6.1 fl oz) lemon juice (yellow and green lemons)
- 3 eggs
- 135 g (4.8 oz) caster sugar
- 60 g (2.1 oz) butter
- 1 tablespoon cornflour
- zest of 1 lemon, 1 lime and 1 kaffir lime
Preparation
1
Squeeze the lemons and limes and collect the juice. Also collect the zests (plus the zest of a kaffir lime). Put everything in a saucepan and bring to the boil.
2
In a bowl, beat the whole eggs with the sugar. Add the cornflour and mix.
3
When the lemon juice starts to boil, pour it in a thin stream into the bowl while straining (to remove the zests), stirring constantly, then return the whole mixture to the saucepan over a medium heat.
4
Once the mixture has thickened and become smooth, remove the saucepan from the heat. Leave to cool slightly, then add the butter cut into pieces, whisking well.
5
Blend everything with a stick blender to make the cream perfectly smooth.
6
If your tart shell is ready, you can pour the lemon cream in straight away. Otherwise, transfer to a jar.
7
Leave to cool before refrigerating.
Italian Meringue
Ingredients
- 2 egg whites
- 125 g (4.4 oz) sugar
- 50 ml (1.7 fl oz) water
- a few drops of bergamot lemon concentrated flavouring (or zest of ½ bergamot lemon)
Preparation
1
Separate the whites from the yolks and leave the whites to rest at room temperature for 1 hour. Pour the whites into a bowl.
2
Pour the sugar and water into a saucepan. Heat over a medium heat with a thermometer in place.
3
Begin whisking at minimum speed to slowly build up the whites while the syrup heats.
4
When the syrup reaches 110°C / 225°F, whisk at full speed to obtain firm whites.
5
When the syrup reaches 118°C / 244°F (do not exceed 120°C / 250°F), pour it in a thin stream over the whites while whisking at full speed. Once all the syrup is incorporated, continue whisking until the meringue is cold. This can take up to 10 minutes.
6
Don’t forget to add the drops of bergamot lemon concentrated flavouring.
Assembly
Ingredients
- None
Preparation
1
Take your tart shell filled with the lemon cream.
2
Fill a piping bag fitted with a large Saint-Honoré nozzle with the Italian meringue.
3
Pipe the meringue over the cooled lemon tart.
4
Brown the meringue with a blowtorch (be careful — this happens very quickly, and you should not hold the blowtorch too close to the meringue). If you don’t have a blowtorch, you can place the tart under a hot grill for a few minutes.
5
Keep the meringue tart in the fridge until ready to serve.
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