Cooking for Beginners recipes, structured

Lemon Tart

A thin sweet pastry shell sealed with egg white, filled with a strained lemon cream and baked barely warm so it sets glassy.

Prep
45m
Cook
1h
Waiting
5h
Total
6h 45m
Serves
10
Effort
Involved
Scale
10
Units

Method

Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.

6 Whisk the filling, then let it stand 30 minutes 35m Standing lets the foam collapse, so the baked surface is glassy rather than pitted. Strain the filling into the warm case, already on the oven shelf 5m Filling a case in situ means no walking a brimming tart across the kitchen. Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 30 minutes until the centre trembles as one 30m Low heat throughout. Above about 80°C the eggs curdle and the filling turns grainy. Cool, then chill 3 hours until sliceable and dust with icing sugar 3h 5m Cut with a hot dry knife and wipe it between slices.
250 g
200 g
3 lemons
200 g
250 g Rub to crumbs, bind with the yolks, and rest 1 hour 1h 10m Roll thin, line the tin leaving an overhang, and chill 30 minutes 40m Chilled pastry does not slump. The overhang is trimmed after baking. Blind bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, then 10 more uncovered 32m Brush the hot pastry with egg white — it sets into a waterproof film in seconds.
140 g
75 g
2
1 tbsp
1
Read left to right: ingredients merge into steps, and the rightmost cell is the last thing you do. Steps account for 6h 37m of hands-on and cooking time.

  1. Whisk the filling, then let it stand 30 minutes

    35m
    • eggs 6
    • caster sugar 250 g
    • lemon juice 200 g
    • lemon zest 3 lemons
    • double cream 200 g

    Standing lets the foam collapse, so the baked surface is glassy rather than pitted.

  2. Rub to crumbs, bind with the yolks, and rest 1 hour

    1h 10m
    • plain flour 250 g
    • unsalted butter 140 g
    • icing sugar 75 g
    • egg yolks 2
    • cold water 1 tbsp

  3. Roll thin, line the tin leaving an overhang, and chill 30 minutes

    40m
    • from 2 Rub to crumbs, bind with the yolks, and rest 1 hour

    Chilled pastry does not slump. The overhang is trimmed after baking.

  4. Blind bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, then 10 more uncovered

    32m
    • from 3 Roll thin, line the tin leaving an overhang, and chill 30 minutes
    • egg white 1

    Brush the hot pastry with egg white — it sets into a waterproof film in seconds.

  5. Strain the filling into the warm case, already on the oven shelf

    5m
    • from 1 Whisk the filling, then let it stand 30 minutes
    • from 4 Blind bake at 180°C for 20 minutes, then 10 more uncovered

    Filling a case in situ means no walking a brimming tart across the kitchen.

  6. Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 30 minutes until the centre trembles as one

    30m
    • from 5 Strain the filling into the warm case, already on the oven shelf

    Low heat throughout. Above about 80°C the eggs curdle and the filling turns grainy.

  7. Cool, then chill 3 hours until sliceable and dust with icing sugar

    3h 5m
    • from 6 Bake at 140°C / 275°F for 30 minutes until the centre trembles as one

    Cut with a hot dry knife and wipe it between slices.

Setting without curdling

The filling is a custard held together by egg proteins, but lemon juice at pH 2.3 is doing half the work — acid denatures those proteins too, which is why the mixture already thickens slightly on the bench. Sugar raises the temperature at which the proteins link up, buying you a wider margin, and the cream’s fat gets between them so the set stays silky. Bake it hot and those same proteins tighten past the point of holding water, and the tart weeps.

Notes

  • Rub the zest into the sugar with your fingers. The oils carry more flavour than the juice does.
  • Trim the pastry overhang with a serrated knife once baked, not before.
  • Chill to set, but serve at cool room temperature. Fridge-cold mutes the lemon.

Try butter, 30 minutes, braise, or an ingredient you need to use up.