Lemon tart is a perfect dessert all-year-round, but it’s arguably made even more perfect by the warmth of summer. The beautiful yellow curd, cradled by a crumbly melt-in-your-mouth crust, is reminiscent of the sun on a bright summer day. This recipe combines a few simple ingredients to make beautiful airy lemon curd in a slightly-sweet tart shell.

A scoop of ice-cream pairs perfectly with a slice of lemon tart. So does a handful of blackberries, raspberries, or any berries for that matter. You can swap ice-cream for whipped cream if you prefer. Don’t forget to finish with a light dusting of powdered sugar.

The process involves making a tart crust, which is slightly different from a pie crust. You can also make the tart in a store-bought pie crust (I have done this before. It saves around 2 hours and is still very good!), but it’s quite rewarding to make the crust yourself. For a detailed description of the tart crust process, including an explanation of each ingredient, check out this recipe on Pretty. Simple. Sweet. I hadn’t thought to use a blender or food processor for the crust until I read that blog post. I followed the process pretty closely and was very happy with the result.

I prepare the lemon curd using a process that I find much simpler than the bain-marie approach: It involves sequential addition of ingredients on the stove at low-medium heat and whisking continuously until it starts to boil. I also prefer to weigh out the ingredients. This helps me to achieve the curd thickness that I want.

Recipe

Ingredients

Crust

1 1/4 cups (180 g) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (55 g) powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (115 g) cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Curd

125 g butter
250 g granulated sugar
150 g lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
2 eggs
zest of 3 lemons

Instructions

Crust

Place flour, powdered sugar, and salt in a food processor or blender. Pulse until the ingredients are combined. Add butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly. Add egg and vanilla extract. Pulse again for a few seconds until the mixture is clumpy but still crumbly.
Lightly flour your work surface and pour the mixture onto the surface. Shape into a large ball with your hands. Then flatten the ball into a thick disc. Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and leave it in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
Take the dough out of the fridge and leave it on the counter for a few minutes to soften slightly. Unwrap the dough and place it on your floured work surface. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out evenly into an 11-inch circle. Then place the dough on your tart pan. To do this, you can flour your rolling pin, roll the dough onto the pin, then roll it out over the tart pan. Lightly press the dough into the pan and trim the excess dough. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the freezer for 30 minutes.
When ready to bake your crust, preheat the over to 375 ºF.
Remove plastic wrap from the tart crust and replace with foil, lightly pressing the foil into the crust. I don’t have pie weights so instead I placed about 1 cup of uncooked rice on top of the foil to reduce the space between the crust and foil. Ensure that the rice (or pie weights) are evenly distributed.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the crust is toasty and dry. Let crust cool completely.

Lemon curd

Juice lemons and strain the juice through a sieve. Add the lemon zest to the juice.
In a medium pan, melt butter at low-medium heat on the stove. Once the butter is melted, remove from the heat and whisk in the sugar. Removing the mixture from the heat allows it to cool down so that you can add the eggs without them cooking immediately.
Whisk the eggs into the mixture one at a time. Return the pot to the stove, continuing to whisk the mixture.
Add the lemon juice and zest and continue to whisk, taking brief pauses to check whether the mixture is boiling. It is important to continue whisking the mixture to prevent the sugar from burning. Once it has reached a boil, remove the pot from the heat immediately and let it cool.
Fill the tart crust with your lemon curd. Cover it with a reusable plastic lid or plastic wrap and place it in the fridge to chill for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight. Serve with berries and powdered sugar, ice-cream or whipped cream.