Baked Fresh Lemon Tart

This aromatic Baked Lemon Tart is fresh and has a perfectly set lemon custard filling, all encased in a sweet tart butter crust.

Author: Nick Makrides

5 from 6 votes

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Prep 25

Cook 35

Rest 1 15

Total 3 20

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Servings

Calories 220 kcal

Ingredients

▢ 1 Sweet Tart Crust or Butter Pie Crust. Can by a 10-inch store bought tart crust as well

Lemon Filling

▢ 170 g caster sugar superfine sugar
▢ 30 g all-purpose flour plain flour
▢ 3 large eggs 55g each
▢ 3 egg yolks
▢ 300 g heavy cream whipping cream
▢ 2 tsp vanilla extract
▢ 3 lemons zested
▢ 250 g lemon juice freshly juiced (see notes)

Instructions

Tart Crust

For this recipe I made my Sweet Tart Crust. You’ll need to blind bake it for 15 minutes before adding the filling for further baking.

Lemon Filling

Pre-heat your oven to 140C / 285F (fan off), 120C / 250F (fan on). Place the rack in the middle of your oven.
Combine dry ingredients - Add the caster sugar and flour to a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.
Whisk eggs and cream - To a separate medium sized mixing bowl, add the eggs and egg yolks and whisk lightly. Add the whipping cream and vanilla extract and whisk until well combined. Add the sugar and flour mixture and whisk to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and place the mixture in the fridge for 20 minutes to rest. This is a really important step as it will give the air in the mixture time to rise to the top so you can take it off before baking which will prevent cracking.
Zest your lemons - To a separate medium sized mixing bowl zest your lemons.
Juice your lemons - Juice your lemons and run through a small sieve into a jug to get rid of any lemon pulp and small seeds. Set aside.
Skim bubbles off egg mixture - Use a spoon to carefully skim as much of the bubble mixture off the top of your egg and cream mixture. Discard the bubbles.
Sieve egg mixture - Run the egg mixture through a sieve into the bowl with the lemon zest. Use a spatula to gently mix together.
Finish the filling - Add the lemon juice into the egg mixture (only right before you’re ready to bake) and use the spatula to mix until smooth. You want to mix quickly but gently to prevent the lemon from curdling the cream.
Bake - Pour the filling into the tart shell. If there are any bubbles on top of the filling once poured in you can get rid of these using a kitchen torch. Very slowly and carefully transfer the tart to the middle rack of your oven. Bake for 45-47 minutes. Do not open the oven door until the 40 minute mark to check if it’s done.
How to check your tart is baked - Gently tap the tray with your hand (use an oven mitt if you need) and if there’s a slightly jiggle in the center of the filling, it’s finished baking.
Cool down - Once baked, keep the tart in the oven and allow to cool with the door slightly ajar for an hour. Take out of the oven and bring to room temperature then chill in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight. Slice using a large, sharp knife and serve!

Notes

Tart - To make this Lemon tart you will need to bake my Sweet Tart Crust.

Lemons

Lemon Juice - for this recipe you must use fresh lemons. You cannot use long-life lemon juice. The flavor is dead on arrival. 250g of lemon juice is a lot of lemon juice but it’s a lemon tart. Lemons are the star of the show. It’s a lot of lemons to juice too. About 11 small lemons.
Lemon Zest - In addition to the lemon juice, the lemon zest adds loads of lemon flavor in the filling. Wash and dry your lemons really well before using a zester to zest your lemons. Some stores polish their lemons with wax and you don’t want that in your pie filling.

Why did my lemon filling crack?

This can happen for 3 reasons.

Overbaked - The pie was overbaked. Bake only until the center of the filling has a very slight wobble.
Cooled too quickly - allow to cool in the oven for 1 hour with the door slightly ajar. I use a wooden spoon jammed in the door to keep it open.
Bubbles - if there are bubbles or froth from whisking the eggs left on top of the tart when it goes in the oven, those can cause the filling to crack as it cools. During my testing I found that leaving them on, would be one of the reasons why it cracked. Make sure you let your cream and egg mixture rest in the fridge, then skim off the froth/bubbles before adding the lemon juice. It’s a super important step!

Don’t stretch the dough! - When you unroll the dough back into the tart tin, you must lift the dough to let it fall to the bottom of the tart tin instead of stretching. If you stretch the dough, it will shrink as it bakes and become uneven around the top.

Baking Beads - You can use dried chickpeas or rice instead of actual ceramic baking beads which can be expensive. Simply fill them as you would baking beads then once you’re finished with them, let them cool completely in a bowl before placing back in a container or zip lock bag.

Storage - Tart - This tart crust can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container for up to three days.

Storage - Lemon tart can be stored in an airtight container for up to three days before it begins sweating. Please note: the tart shell will begin to soften after about a day as it soaks in the moisture from the filling.

Nutrition - is an approximate and does not include the tart crust which is a seperate recipe. Nutrition is based on per slice. This serves 8-10 people.

A note on measurements - this recipe is offered in weight measurements. This is in an effort to offer the most accurate way to get the best results. Cup measurements simply aren’t accurate enough for a recipe that needs precision and cup sizes differ depending on where you are in the world. Here is where you can learn more about how to measure ingredients using digital kitchen scales!

Nutrition

Keyword Lemon, Meringue, Tart

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