Lemon Tart

Today I will show you how to make a delicious and tangy Lemon Tart, with a creamy lemon curd filling, and a sweet tart crust.

This recipe is a classic lemon tart, also known as tarte au citron.

Each bite is loaded with the zesty tang of lemons from the luscious filling, and the buttery richness of the flaky pastry crust. This dessert is both indulgent and refreshing, and if you love lemon desserts, you will absolutely love this easy lemon tart recipe.

Lemon Tart Recipe

I will show you step-by-step how to make this delicious french lemon tart recipe. Find the full ingredients amount at the bottom of the page, and here you can enjoy the instructions with pictures and detailed tips and tricks.

Let’s start by making the tart shell.

The tart dough is very easy to make. It’s basically a shortbread crust, that has a cookie texture, and a subtly sweet taste.

Tart Dough Recipe

To make the flaky pastry crust, we will start by beating some room temperature butter with a mixer. You can use a stand mixer or a hand mixer.

Add the powdered sugar to the bowl and beat to combine. Next, add the egg and mix.

As always, remember to scrape the sides of the bowl while making anything in the mixer, to ensure the ingredients are properly incorporated together.

Add the flour and the salt, and mix on low. You can finish mixing with a spatula to ensure the dough won’t get over mixed.

The tart dough should be soft, without any dry pieces of flour.

Lay out a piece of plastic wrap on the counter. Place the dough on top of the plastic. Wrap it tightly, flatten the dough into a disc, and place it in the fridge for at least one hour.

Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit on the counter for a few minutes to soften up slightly.

Sprinkle some flour on the counter.

Roll the dough with the rolling pin, into a 11 to 13-inch circle.

Fold the dough in half and lift it. Place it on top of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. You can also use a regular pie plate.

Unfold the dough and gently press it down the pan, being careful not to stretch it too much, otherwise the dough can shrink once baked.

Trim off any excess dough on top of the tart pan. Use your fingers to crease the sides. See the picture below.

Poke the bottom of the dough with a fork. Place it in the freezer while the oven pre-heats.

Blind Baking

Remove the dough from the freezer and line the pan with the silicone mold or with a piece of parchment paper of aluminum foil. Fill the parchment or aluminum with the pie weights, or dry beans. Bake the dough in the oven for 15 minutes. Remove the silicone edge, or the parchment with the pie weights and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the bottom of the pan is lightly golden brown.

Let the pie crust cool down before filling.

Lemon Tart Filling

To make the Lemon Curd Filling, start by beating the butter with the sugar. Add the yolks and eggs, mix to combine for 2 to 3 minutes.

Add the lemon zest and lemon juice, mix to combine.

The reason why we beat the butter with sugar and eggs is because that helps speed up the denaturation process of the eggs, which is the uncurling of the proteins in the eggs. And that will prevent the curd from having an eggy taste, it will essentially prevent the eggs in the mixture from becoming scrambled eggs once we cook it.

Pour the mixture into a saucepan and cook over medium low heat, stirring non-stop, until the curd is thick. Use a thermometer to check the temperature and it should be 170ºF.

Pour the curd into the baked tart crust, and bake it in the oven for 15 minutes, until slightly jiggly, but set around the edges.

Let the tart cool down, and then place it in the fridge for at least 5 hours.

To decorate

To serve and decorate the tart, pipe whipped cream on top. You can decorate it with fresh berries and lemon slices, or mint leaves.

Tips for making the tart crust

One of the biggest issues you might encounter with making tart crust and blind baking it is shrinkage. There are several things that can cause the dough to shrink as you bake it. We will cover some ways here to prevent that from happening.

• When making the dough, don’t over work it once the flour has been added.
• When rolling out the dough, don’t roll it out too thin, that can also cause shrinkage.
• Avoid using too much flour to roll out the dough.
• When lining the tart pan with the dough, gently press it down the sides and the bottom of the pan, but don’t stretch it too much because that can cause the dough to shrink when baked.
• Place the tart pan lined with the crust in the freezer for 15 minutes before baking.
• Use pie weights to blind bake the crust to prevent it from shrinking, or use one of the pans like I am using in the pictures. Search on Amazon for: tart pan with crust shaper ring.

Tips for making the Lemon Tart Recipe

• Make sure to beat the butter and sugar with the eggs before cooking, which will prevent the pie from tasting eggy.
• Cook the curd until it registers 170ºF, so the pie has a chance to set.
• Bake the pie enough, if the pie is underbaked, it will be too runny.
• Let the pie crust cool down before filling it with the lemon curd, otherwise it can become soggy.
• Ensure the pie has enough time to chill before serving.

Variations

Here are some other ways to spruce up this recipe:

• You can make this recipe with essentially any other citrus, lime or orange.
• Top the pie with meringue frosting, and toast it, to make it into a Lemon Meringue Pie.
• Use a different type of crust, such as a graham cracker crust, or pie crust, or even an Almond Cookie Crust, like I use in this Lemon Pie Recipe.
• Top the pie with crystallized lemon slices.
• Make the recipe into mini pies.
• Sift some powdered sugar on top of the pie to decorate it.

I hope you enjoyed this Lemon Tart recipe. Here are some other indulgent and refreshing recipes you might enjoy:

• Lemon Brownies
• Lemon Pie Recipe
• Limoncello Tiramisu
• Lemon Pavlovas
• Lemon Cheesecake
• Lemon Bundt Cake

If you make this recipe make sure to leave a comment below or tag me on instagram, I love hearing from you! Thanks for reading!

Lemon Tart

Camila Hurst

This is a delicious and tangy Lemon Tart, with a creamy lemon curd filling, and a sweet tart crust.

Print Recipe Pin Recipe

Prep Time 45 minutes mins

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Chill time 5 hours hrs

Total Time 6 hours hrs 15 minutes mins

Course Dessert

Cuisine American, French

Servings 8 slices

Calories 320 kcal

Ingredients

  

Tart Crust

• 6 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature (85 grams)
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar 41 grams
• 1 large egg
• 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 191 grams
• 1/4 tsp salt

Lemon Curd Filling

• 10 tbsp unsalted butter room temperature (141 grams)
• 1 cup granulated sugar 200 grams
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tbsp lemon zest
• 1/2 cup lemon juice 120 ml

Whipped Cream

• 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream 180 ml
• 2 tbsp powdered sugar optional
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To decorate

• Lemon slices
• Fresh raspberries

Instructions

 

Tart Crust

• Beat the butter with a mixer on medium speed for 30 seconds. You can use a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or you can use a hand mixer.
• Add the powdered sugar and beat for one minute.
• Scrape the bowl as needed.
• Add the egg and beat to combine, for about one minute.
• Add the flour and salt, and mix on low. The dough will start to come together.
• Use a spatula to finish mixing, or finish mixing by hand.
• Don’t over mix the dough once you add the flour in, but make sure there aren’t any dry bits of flour in the dough. It shouldn’t be too sticky, but also shouldn’t be dry.
• Gather the dough into a ball and wrap in a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten it into a disc.
• Place the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or up to 2 days. You can also freeze the dough for up to 2 months, in an airtight container, or freezer ziplock bag. To thaw, remove the dough to the fridge the night before you plan to use it.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and let it sit at room temperature for 10 minutes.
• Unwrap it, and place it on a lightly floured counter.
• Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough until it’s about 1/4” thick, and its diameter measures about 11 inches.
• Fold the dough in half and lift it from the counter. Place on top of a 9-inch tart pan with a removable bottom, or a 9” pie pan.
• Then unfold the dough to cover the entire surface of the tart pan.
• Adjust the pastry to fit into the pan, don’t stretch it too much. Press the dough gently on the bottom and up against the sides of the tart dish.
• Use a knife or scissors to trim off the excess dough off the top. You can also use your fingers to crease the sides of the dough along the edges of the pan.
• Prick all over the bottom of the tart with a fork.
• Place the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile pre-heat the oven to 375ºF for conventional, or 350ºF for convection oven.

Blind bake

• Remove the dough from the fridge and line the bottom of the dough with parchment paper or foil. Fill it up with baking beads or dry beans. I didn’t line my pan with the beads or beans because I use this pan that has a silicone edge that fits the bottom and sides of the pan and prevents shrinkage, you can check it out on the photos above in the post.
• Bake the crust for 15 minutes in the pre-heated oven. Remove the beads by pulling the parchment paper up, or if you’re using a pan like mine, remove the silicone edge, and return the pan to the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, until the bottom and sides are fully baked, and lightly golden brown.
• Remove from the oven and let the pie crust cool down for at least 20 minutes or so. Waiting for the pie crust to cool down will prevent it from getting soggy once you fill it with the Lemon Filling.

Lemon Curd Filling

• Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF for conventional oven and 325ºF for convection oven.
• Beat the butter and sugar together with a mixer for one minute.
• Add the egg yolks and beat for 30 seconds. Add the eggs to the bowl and beat for one minute. Scrape the bowl and beat for another minute.
• Add the lemon zest and lemon juice to the bowl. Beat to combine.
• Transfer the mixture to a medium saucepan, place over medium heat.
• Cook the lemon filling, stirring with a spatula.
• Don’t stop stirring at any point, and don’t keep the heat too high.
• You don’t want the mixture to come to a boil. Cook for a few minutes, until the curd registers 170ºF. It should be thick and coating the spatula.
• Remove the curd from the heat.
• If you notice little bits of cooked egg, which will look like white clumps, strain the curd. If you did a good job at stirring the whole time, and maintaining the heat low, that shouldn’t be an issue. However, it can happen, specially if it’s your first time making this type of curd.
• Pour the curd over the slightly cooled crust.
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until the filling is slightly jiggly in the center but looks a bit firm.
• Remove from the oven.
• Let it cool down before placing it in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.

Whipped Cream

• Beat the heavy cream, powdered sugar, and vanilla with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer over medium-high speed. It should take about 3 minutes or so to achieve stiff peaks.
• Place the cream in a piping bag fitted with the tip of your choice.
• I used tip 4B.

To decorate

• Place the pie plate on top of a cup, to slide the sides down.
• Pipe the cream on the pie. Decorate with the lemon slices and fresh raspberries.
• Slice and serve.

Storage

• Store the pie in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can freeze the pie for up to 2 months.

Notes

Crust- Read the post above for many tips on how to avoid the crust from shrinking when you bake it. Basically, the tips would be:

• Don’t overwork the dough once you add the flour in.
• When rolling out the dough, don’t roll it too thin.
• Freeze the dough before baking.
• Don’t stretch the dough too much in the pan, give it room to fit in the pan without stretching it.
• Use pie weights or a pan like the one I am using to prevent the dough from shrinking.

Tart pan- The pan I used can be found on Amazon, simply search for: tart pan with crust shaper ring.

Lemons- I used meyer lemons for this recipe.

Keyword lemon, tart