Tarte au citron
A light, lemony and luscious spring sweet, the classic tarte au citron.
Method
Start by making the pastry. Add the flour, ground almonds and butter with a pinch of salt to the food processor. Pulse a few times until you get breadcrumbs. Sieve in the icing sugar and pulse a couple more times. Add one egg yolk and a tablespoon of milk then pulse again until you get a wet sandy mix. You may need to add a little more milk.
Turn out on to a clean work surface lightly floured with a little icing sugar and shape into a pastry disc. Wrap the disc in cling film and place in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Take a 23cm tart loose bottom tart tin. Place the pastry onto a sheet of grease proof paper dusted in a little icing sugar. Carefully roll the pastry to fit the tin. Roll the pastry sheet loosely with a rolling pin and drape over the tart tin. Carefully press the pastry into the tin using a little ball of pastry to push it into the tin and up the sides. Trim most of the over hang from the tin. Press the pastry up the sides again a little more to allow for shrinkage. Prick the base all over with a fork and place in the fridge to chill for a further 30 minutes.
When ready to bake preheat the oven to 180c/gas mark 4/350f.
Line the pastry case with parchment and fill with baking beans. Place the pastry on a baking tray and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the baking beans from the case. Return the case to the oven to bake for a further 10 minutes or until golden. Brush the inside of the case with the remaining yolk and place in the oven for a further 1 minute. Remove the case from the oven and allow to cool whilst you make the filling.
Turn the oven down to 150c/gas mark 2/300f.
To make the filling add the eggs, caster sugar and lemons juice to a large bowl and whisk well to combine. Pour in the cream and whisk again. Pour the mixture in to the tart case and bake for 30/40 minutes or until set. Don’t worry if the mixture balloons a little it will coat the pastry with a lovely glaze and will settle back down as it cools. Allow to cool for a 1-2 hours. Dust with a little icing sugar that you can blast with a blow torch for a few seconds until lightly golden (optional) and then serve with raspberries and fresh cream.
Ingredients
Filling
5 Burford Brown eggs
175g golden caster sugar
100ml fresh lemon juice plus the zest of 2 lemons
150ml double cream
Pastry
200g plain flour
20g ground almonds
110g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
Pinch of salt
75g icing sugar
2 Burford Brown egg yolks
1 tablespoon cold milk