Lemon tart: a crisp base that refuses to go soggy
A lemon tart is usually lost not on the curd but on the base: a wet lemon filling softens the pastry from within in a matter of hours, leaving a damp mat. The solution has two parts: blind baking all the way through, until the base is dry and sandy, and sealing with egg white — a thin layer that sets in the oven and forms a barrier. The curd is made separately in a pan and poured into the finished shell.
Your own work in that: 2 h 20 min.
- Pastry shell 115 min
- Lemon curd 25 min
- Chilling 120 min
Step by step
0 / 6 doneMake the shortcrust
Mix the flour, icing sugar and salt, add the cold butter and chop it in with a knife to crumbs. Add the yolk and iced water and bring it together quickly, in a minute, just until it holds. Wrap and chill 45 minutes.
Ingredients: 250 g plain flour · 140 g butter · 70 g icing sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · 2 tbsp iced water · 1 pinch salt
TipShortcrust is ruined by warmth and working time. The longer you knead, the more gluten you develop and the tougher the base — a minute really is the ceiling.
Crumbs, yolk, one minute of workingLine the tin and chill again
Roll the pastry to 3 mm and line a 26 cm loose-bottomed tart tin, pressing it into the fluted sides. Trim the excess by rolling the pin across the rim. Prick the base with a fork and put it in the freezer for 20 minutes.
TipFrozen pastry does not shrink in the oven. It is the simplest way to stop the sides sliding down in the first ten minutes of baking.
Three millimetres, then twenty minutes in the freezerBlind bake all the way
Line the base with paper and fill with baking beans (ceramic, dried beans or rice). Bake 20 minutes at 190 °C, lift out the paper and beans and bake another 12 minutes, until the base is golden and dry in the middle, not only at the edges.
Ingredients: 250 g plain flour · 140 g butter · 70 g icing sugar · 1 pcs egg yolk · 2 tbsp iced water · 1 pinch salt
Twenty minutes with beans, twelve withoutSeal with egg white
Brush the hot shell thinly with beaten egg white and return it to the oven for 2 minutes. The white sets into a thin, invisible layer that slows the moisture of the curd from soaking into the pastry — the base stays crisp even after a day in the fridge.
Ingredients: 1 pcs egg white
TipThe trick works in any tart with a wet filling: lemon, fruit, quiche. It costs two minutes and markedly delays a soggy base.
Cook the lemon curd
In a saucepan whisk the eggs with the sugar, starch and salt, then add the juice of four lemons and the zest of two. Cook over low heat 8–10 minutes, whisking constantly, until it thickens and the whisk leaves a trail. Do not let it boil.
Ingredients: 4 pcs lemons · 4 pcs eggs · 180 g sugar · 120 g butter · 1 tbsp potato starch · 1 pinch salt
TipZest only the <b>yellow part</b>. The white pith beneath is markedly bitter, and in a curd made from four lemons it would be very noticeable.
Eight minutes, constant whisking, never boilingWhisk in butter and fill the shell
Off the heat, whisk in the cold butter a cube at a time, waiting for each to melt. Push the curd through a sieve straight into the shell (the sieve catches the zest and any threads of egg), level it and refrigerate at least 2 hours, until the curd has set.
Butter cube by cube, then through a sieve
Before you start
With meringue
Whip 3 extra egg whites into meringue (50 g of sugar per white), spread it over the chilled tart and scorch it with a blowtorch or 3 minutes under the grill, watching closely, as meringue burns in seconds. That is the lemon meringue pie version, familiar from British tables.
How many lemons
Four medium lemons give about 150 ml of juice. If yours are small or dry, add a fifth — the curd must be frankly sharp, because 180 g of sugar mutes that acidity considerably.
How long it keeps
Two days in the fridge, covered. On the third the base softens despite the seal. The curd itself keeps up to a week in a closed jar in the fridge though — and it is excellent with pancakes.
Without a loose-bottomed tin
It can be baked in an ordinary dish, but you won't lift the tart out whole. Line the tin with strips of paper standing proud of the rim and use them as handles.
