The lemon tart is one of the most classic in all of French pastry. It shines in its simplicity – a sweet dough tart crust and a sharp lemon cream (and maybe some meringue if you want to get fancy) – that’s it!
In this recipe, we’ll be taking the classic creation and tweaking the components and presentation to modernize it just a little. The addition of ginger in the meringue is really pleasant as well.
This is the perfect type of sweet treat to get spring and summer kickin’. The lemon is bright and wonderfully sharp and the balance of textures with the crust and baked meringue lightens the flavors even more. The overall dish is the kind of thing that works really well at the end of brunch, or light lunch or dinner.
Even if you aren’t into the idea of making your own lemon tart, you may want to check out the food science notes, because I’ll be talking about meringue, which is fundamental recipe and technique that’s found in all sorts of different products.
Cheers – Chef Scott
Ingredients
sweet dough
- 220 g pastry flour
- 77 g powdered sugar
- 5 g vanilla extract
- 2 g salt
- 115 g butter unsalted
- 40 g whole egg about 1 egg
lemon cream
- 106 g sugar
- 112 g whole egg about 2 eggs
- 100 g egg yolk about 5 eggs
- 176 g lemon juice fresh
- 130 g butter unsalted
french meringue
- 90 g egg white about 3 eggs
- 1 g cream of tartar
- 1 g salt
- 120 g sugar
- 60 g powdered sugar
- 8 g ginger fresh, grated
Servings:
Units:
Instructions
- Bring the butter and whole egg to room temp. before starting.
- Combine the butter, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract and mix on low speed with a paddle attachment until homogenized.
- Add the whole egg and mix until well emulsified.
- Add the flour and mix until just combined into a dough.
- Wrap the dough and chill it for a minimum of 1 hour.
- Roll the dough to 1/8"/3mm, and punch a disk of dough using your tart ring. Save the scrap dough to use next.
- Prepare a sheet pan with a non-stick baking mat or parchment paper, then place the disk of dough on the mat with the tart ring around it.
- Roll the scrap dough to a log about 2ft. long.
- Flatten the log, and roll into a 1/8"/3mm strip.
- Trim one edge of the strip with a straight edge and paring knife.
- Carefully roll the strip up.
- Place the roll of dough into the tart ring with the clean edge facing down.
- Unroll the dough against the sides of the tart ring, gently pressing to adhere it to the ring.
- Trim the excess dough from the sides and the top using a paring knife.
- Chill the dough, uncovered, for 2hr. minimum up to overnight.
- If using both a perforated tart ring and baking mat, no baking weights are needed. If using a standard ring and/or mat, line the tart shell with cheese cloth and use baking weights.
- Bake the shell at 182C/360F for 15-20min. If using baking weights, remove the cheese cloth and weights for the final 5min. of baking.
- Let the tart shell cool, then remove the ring.
lemon cream
- Combine all of the ingredients in a sauce pot, except the butter, and whisk over medium heat.
- Cook, while whisking, until the mixture thickens.
- Transfer the mixture to a tall container and add the butter.
- Hand blend or whisk until well emulsified.
- Pour the lemon cream into the baked tart crust until filled. Save the remaining lemon cream to use later.
- Cover the tart with plastic wrap to touch, to avoid a skin forming while the lemon cream cools.
- Chill the tart until the cream is set.
french meringue
- Combine the egg whites, cream of tartar, salt, and 1/3 of the sugar and whisk with a whip attachment on medium speed until the egg whites form a full foam.
- Add the remaining sugar in 3 to 4 additions, increasing mixing speed with each addition.
- Once all the sugar is added, whip on high speed until the meringue forms stiff peaks.
- Add the fresh grated ginger and whip briefly to incorporate.
- Add the sifted powdered sugar and fold into the meringue gently.
- Remove the tart ring, and transfer the meringue onto a flat sheet pan.
textured meringue disk
- Prepare a tart ring that fits inside the diameter of the tart shell.
- Cast approx. 1/2 the meringue onto a non-stick baking mat or parchment paper between two 1/4"/3mm casting bars, spreading it even to the bars with a scraper.
- Remove the bars, then place a sheet pan or plastic sheet onto the meringue until just touching, and slowly remove it to create the custom texture.
- Place the tart ring into the meringue, and scrape the excess from the outside of the ring.
- Bake the meringue at 88C/190F for 1.5-2hrs.
plain meringue disk
- Repeat the first two steps for the textured disk, using 1/2" / 6mm casting bars.
- Remove the casting bars, then place the tart ring into the meringue, and scrape the excess from the outside of the ring.
- Bake the meringue at 88C/190F for 2hrs.
assembly
- Place the plain disk of baked meringue onto the top of the lemon tart.
- Using the reserved lemon cream, pipe a disk of lemon cream onto the meringue, leaving a 1" gap along the outside edge of the meringue.
- Place the textured meringue disk onto the lemon cream.
- Garnish with lemon cream and lemon zest.
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Brilliant explanation of the science of meringue! Really helpful to have a context for the steps to making it. Thanks!
One comment and one question. First a simple practical point “roll the dough out before putting in the refrigerator” no more shape into a disc. The latter never made sense to me. Secondly, is the technique for pastry cream intentionally different with the variety of recipes you have posted using variations of pastry cream? Some of your recipes recommend heat until thickened while other heat until simmering or boiling. Some remove from heat while others suggest continue to whisk 1-2 minutes.
Thank you for your posts, inspiration and explanations
Hi Rod,
How are you? Good questions and comments as always! Shaping the dough into a disk is helpful if you have the proper amount of dough for a single project and you plan to roll into a disk…for obvious reasons it’s easier to develop an even disk of dough (in thickness and shape) if starting with a round block of dough as opposed to a square one. For that reason, I always recommend that small step when making a pie. For this project however, since I was just punching a disk of dough out, the overall shape didn’t matter much, provided it was large enough for the diameter of the tart ring.
In a pastry cream, the big difference is that starch is being used as the primary thickening agent. The brief boiling helps to cook any starch flavor out. Since the lemon cream relies on egg protein and butter as the stabilizing ingredients, no boiling is needed. As for the whisk on the stove/off, etc. – the coagulation process occurs so quickly in pastry cream that once it begins to thicken I recommend removing it from the heat briefly to avoid the common mistake of over-cooking which produces lumpy curds. I always recommend stirring an egg-based custard/cream after removing from the heat to mitigate the impact of carry-over heat in the sauce pot. Many people make a beautiful cream only to have it sit and scramble in the pot (off the heat) while they prepare the next step in the recipe. Another consideration is whether or not something is being added to the cream immediately after cooking. The lemon cream gets butter and is then blended, both of which serve to reduce the cream’s temperature, so in this instance it isn’t as crucial to whisk off the heat.
All in all, each of these little steps is really intended to improve the finished product when the recipe is in the hands of someone that may not have as much experience baking as a pro might. Call it proactive troubleshooting!
Cheers – Chef Scott
Chef Scott,
I’m a culinary school-grad bread baker (ICC, NYC) in Seattle who dabbles in desserts. Your video is excellent, and I enjoyed your non-traditional method of lining the tart pan. It’s a wonderful example of examining a desired result and a standard practice and turning it inside out to achieve an improved result. Well done!
One video suggestion, if I may: rather than editing your stand-up explanation that resulted in several jump cuts, simply cover the audio edit with a cut-away shot or two of what you’re speaking about. Your ad-libbed stand-up was flawless. You obviously know your subject and naturally speak well. (Before I started baking I spent decades in broadcast news.)
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the tip, I appreciate it! I will think about how to put that to good use.
Cheers – Chef Scott
clarification on the ingredients for the lemon cream: 2 egg yolks are only yielding about 40g. so is the weight wrong or the “about 2 eggs” wrong? thanks Chef!
Sorry for that, “about 2 eggs is wrong”, it should be 100g of yolk (5 eggs). I’ve updated the recipe card, thanks for the catch!
Hope all is well with you Jim!