Lemon Tart

One of our current favourites at the moment, we fell in love with this Tart when we were in Alsace two years ago.  It is wonderful refreshing in taste and not sour at all. The tart shell was first baked, following by the filling and then, topped up with a meringue.  I am a happy camper when hubby gave his thumbs up because he dislikes lemons!  Do give this recipe a try!

Dough Ingredients:
200 g flour
1 egg yolk
100 g soft butter
50 g fine sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bourbon sugar or vanilla sugar
1 - 2 tbsp of iced water to form a pliable dough

Filling Ingredients:
3 medium-sized eggs
2 egg yolks (medium-sized)
190 g fine sugar
juice (about 125 ml)  & zest from 2 large lemons or 3 medium-sized lemons
10 g Crème Fraîche

Meringue Ingredients:
3 egg whites
200 g icing sugar

Method:
Grease a tart form (28 cm diameter) with butter and set aside.  In a bowl, mix all dough ingredients to form a pliable dough.  Wrap dough in cling film and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat conventional oven (with top and lower heat) to a temperature of 180° C.  Roll out dough between two plastic bags to a size of 32 cm in diameter.  Remove top layer of plastic and invert dough over tart form as shown below.

Carefully remove plastic layer and ease out the dough into the corners of tart form. Poke tart base with a fork everywhere.

Place a baking on tart base and add baked chickpeas or other type of dried beans. We are going to "blind bake" i.e. bake in oven for about 10 minutes.  Once done, remove tart form from over and discard the chickpeas and baking paper.  Return to oven and bake for a further 5 minutes.  Note:  If the base of tart starts to bulge up, just poke it with a fork to release the air.  Once done, remove from oven and leave to cool down completely on a wire rack.  Reduce oven's temperature to 150° C.

Prepare filling:  In a bowl, lightly whisk sugar, egg yolks and eggs together.  Add lemon zest and juice. Whisk until the mixture is smooth.  Stir Crème Fraîche until smooth before adding to the bowl, mix well.  Pour filling onto tart base and bake for 30 minutes.

By using a cake mixer, whisk egg whites until stiff.  Gradually, add sifted icing sugar and whisk until mixture is stiff like shown below.

Transfer to a piping bag with a large star nozzle.  Once filling is done, remove from oven.  Start piping the meringue from the centre of tart outwards as shown.

Return tart to oven and bake for a further 15 minutes.  Once done, remove from oven.  By using a burner torch, burn some part of meringue to give the burnt effect.

Happy Baking!