I saw the contestants make this tart on episode 2 (I think!) of the Great British Bake-Off and decided it would be perfect to make for my mum, who loves everything zestily lemony. I rarely make pastry (I’m just not keen on it in most forms). The recipe calls for 6 lemons (I made it up to 7 for increased lemony-ness) and TEN EGGS.
Here’s what you’ll need to make it! I’ve revised the original recipe since it makes too much pastry and way too much lemon filling for one tart. Between this and her awful baking mixes, I’m beginning to think Mary Berry is just pretending to be a domestic goddess!
- For the pastry
-
- 225g/8oz plain flour
- 150g/5oz cold butter, cut into small cubes
- 25g/1oz icing sugar
- 1 free-range egg, beaten
- 1 tbsp water
- For the lemon filling
-
- 7 free-range eggs
- 250ml/½ pint double cream
- 300g/12oz caster sugar
- 6 large lemons, finely grated zest and juice
First, lets make the pastry! Combine the flour, icing sugar and cold butter into a bowl and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Alternatively, if you have one, use a food processor. Once the mixture looks like breadcrumbs, bind it together with the egg and cold water.
It should come together fairly easily – now turn it out onto a floured work surface and give it a little knead (you’re more just patting it all together).
At this point, the original recipe has you go straight ahead and line the tart tin with the pastry but having made it that way, I’d recommend you chill the pastry first. Wrap it in clingilm and put it into the fridge for about 20 minutes.Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees (gas 6).
Once its chilled, roll it out with a rolling pin until its just bigger than the size of your tart tin. Make sure your work surface and rolling pin are floured and keep moving the pastry around so that it doesn’t get stuck. Once you’re ready to line your tin, use your rolling pin to life the pastry up gently and onto the tin.
Trim off the excess pastry around the edge of the tin (as you can see my tart-lining skills are not exactly amazing!).
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes and set aside to cool (oops a little too brown – Mary’s original recipe called for the oven to be at 200 degrees- I’ve suggested 180 for you if you make this tart!).
Time to get started on the filling! Crack the many many eggs into a bowl! If you keep chickens, that would come in handy!
Whisk in the douuble cream and the sugar and start zesting the lemons! Zesty zesty zesty! Zesting seven lemons is quite boring! Once you’ve zested, cut them in half and squeeze out the juice. Pour the resulting lemony goo into the tart tin and put it into the oven.
Bake for around 40 minutes at 180 degrees as before, or until the filling is set with a slight wobble.
Yum! The tart was delicious and very lemony indeed! I was pleased that mine didn’t crack across the middle like some of the bake-off contestants versions did.
Related articles
- A tart wins praise, but not for neatness (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
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Cupcake Crazy Gem said:
Hmm sounds really good, I love anything citrus! Well done on braving the pastry, I usually cheat and buy ready roll!
I already have lots of gel colours actually and I tried them but they didn’t quite make the red velvets as vibrant as I wanted so I found liquid was the way to go and I added some grated orange zest which didn’t give it an orange taste but it eradicated the taste of the colour!
kerrycooks said:
Wow thanks Gem! I didn’t realise that gel doesn’t make a really vibrant red – interesting! Good tip about the orange zest
Too!
Ames said:
Mmm, looks good! What are your thoughts on using less sugar? Do you think you could balance that out by using less lemons? Hope to try it sometime soon :). Thanks for sharing :).
kerrycooks said:
Thanks Ames! Glad you like it. I’m sure you could reduce the sugar by at least 50 or 100g with no problems (you could probably use agarve or sweetner too), as it was quite sweet as it was. You could use less lemons or just add lemons one by one and taste so you can tell when it gets to the level of tartness that you like 🙂
jimmie chew said:
i am always scared to bake, (you have to follow the directions too close) but i will try this.
I love lemon anything!!
can i use whole wheat flour instead of white flour to bake?? or is it going to taste funny?
kerrycooks said:
Don’t worry about following the instructions too much, cookbooks always say that but I just pretty much do what I feel like and it always turns out fine!
I’m sure you can make it with wholemeal flour – check out this recipe here http://www.cookitsimply.com/recipe-0010-0147c75.html (by lard they mean crisco type stuff I think)