Meyer Lemon Tart
Our go to recipe for lemon tart comes from Lindsey Shere, the beloved pastry chef and partner of Chez Panisse restaurant who, in 1985, wrote the Chez Panisse Dessert book. Our first edition copy is a well used, stained and tattered mess filled with notes and comments for variations and new combinations that occurred to us while using her work. Lindsey holds the view that her recipes are guides, more of a method and expects the user to adjust as needed to suit the variations that the ingredients will present. We follow the lemon filling recipe to a tee but have adjusted the tart dough by using 100% whole grain pastry flour from a heritage wheat that we grow and mill ourselves at Roan Mills. We find that flavor of the whole wheat compliments the tart lemon flavor in the filling. This recipe is useful as the parts can be made well ahead and stored without a problem for 2 weeks before baking.
Ingredients
Serves 8-10 people
For the Dough
- 1 cup Roan Mills Whole Wheat Pastry Flour
- 1 Tablespoon sugar
- ¼ Teaspoon salt
- ¼ Teaspoon grated lemon peel
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1½ Tablespoons water
- ½ Teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Filling
- 2 lemons: peels grated, lemons juiced
- 2 eggs
- 3 egg yolks
- 6 Tablespoons sugar
- 2 Tablespoons milk
- ¼ Teaspoon cornstarch
- 3 Tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 Tablespoons salted butter
Preparation
Prep: 10 min • Cook: 30 min • Ready in: 40 min
For the Dough
Place the flour, sugar, salt and lemon peel into a medium bowl and mix together by hand, cut the butter into the mix and work it, using your fingers, into the dry mixture until the whole resembles corn meal. Toss the water and vanilla extract in and work until the dough holds together. Shape the dough into a flattened disc and wrap it in plastic wrap, leave it to chill in the fridge for 20 minutes or up to 2 weeks, or freeze for up to 6 months. When you are ready to pre bake the crust, press the dough into a tart pan and line it with a piece of parchment paper and weigh the pastry with pie weights to keep it from puffing up in the oven. Place it in a preheated 375°F oven for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven, carefully remove the parchment paper and pie weights and spoon in the lemon filling. Return to the oven and bake for another 20 minutes. Serve when cool.
For the Filling
Grate the peels from the lemons, juice the lemons and combine these in a glass bowl. Over medium heat, beat the eggs and the yolks with the sugar in a heavy, non-corroding saucepan just until mixed. Combine milk and cornstarch and add to mixture, stir well and add the juice. Keep stirring as you add the butter, a little at a time and cook until butter is combined and the mixture thickens to coat the spoon. Let it stand 5 minutes to thicken and then whisk to smooth it. Pour into the prebaked tart shell and return to the oven for 20 minutes. OR cool the filling and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
Recipe from the Kenter Canyon Farms test kitchen