Lemon Tart

Hi Everybody!
Welcome back to the blog. This week I'm sharing a recipe that I discovered while I was in college and I've been meaning to remake it ever since; tangy lemon tart. This tart is definitely not for the faint-hearted and you need to really adore citrus as it's bursting with lemony goodness! The recipe is broken into two parts; the pastry and the lemon filling
So let's get started...



You'll need:
 Pastry:                                                                Lemon Filling:
- 225g plain flour                                                 - zest of two lemons
- 60g cornflour                                                     - 100g lemon juice
- 145g butter                                                        - 135g caster sugar
- 70g caster sugar                                                - 80ml fresh cream
- one egg yolk                                                      - 2 eggs
- 50ml milk                                                          - 2 egg yolks

To make the pastry:
1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a pie dish with some butter. My tray was 8.5 inches. Shift the flour and cornflour together into your mixing bowl

2. Cut the butter into small pieces, add to the flour and use the rub-in method. The mixture is ready when it resembles breadcrumbs

3. In a separate bowl mix together the caster sugar, milk and egg yolk. Add the to the flour mix and combine until you have a smooth pastry. It helps to start the mixing in a bowl and then tip it onto the counter to kneading and fully mix it together

4. Roll the pastry out until you have a big enough pastry disc to cover the pie tray. To help to avoid cracking the pastry roll it up around the rolling pin and then unroll it over the pie dish

5. Place a sheet or circle of silicone paper on top of the pastry case and fill with baking beans

6. Pop it into the oven for about 20 minutes. This will 'blind bake' the pastry and then you won't get a soggy bottom on your finished tart

While the pastry is baking you can prepare the lemon filling:
1. Mix together the zest, juice and caster sugar. Then add in the milk

2. Beat together the egg yolks and eggs. Then add this in additions to the lemon mix until well combined and there are no lumps

3. When the pastry is finished blind baking, take it out of the oven, remove the beans and lower the oven temperature to 150C

4. Pour the lemon filling into the pastry case and pop back in the oven for approx 60 minutes. The low heat means the tart will take longer to bake and set but it will prevent it from colouring

5. When the tart is done, remove from the oven and allow to cool. If you want to decorate the tart a bit more I would recommend getting an icing sugar stencil and adding a pretty design! These are super simple to use but can create gorgeous patterns. All you need to do is place the stencil over the tart and then sieve icing sugar on top. My stencil was a bit too small for the tart size but it still turned out really cute. If you don't want to decorate, you can dig in straightaway!

Thank you for reading, have a lovely day :)