Quentin Whittle from Georges on Waymouth st has given us another delicious recipe for Christmas.
Lemon Tart
Serves 10 – 12
Sweet pastry
350g plain flour
Pinch of salt
175g unsalted cold butter cut into cubes
100g icing sugar
3 egg yolks
For the filling
Zest and juice of 7 lemons
350g castor sugar
6 whole eggs
9 egg yolks
300g unsalted butter, softened
Method-
For the pastry- Pulse flour, salt and butter in a food processor until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the sugar then the egg yolks and pulse. The pastry will combine and come away from the sides of the bowl. Remove, wrap in cling film and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 160C.
Roll out pastry on a floured work surface or (between 2 sheets of greaseproof) ¼ cm thick.
Transfer pastry to a 30cm loose-bottomed fluted flan tin, press evenly into the sides and base.
Blind bake for 20 mins until light brown. (Baking beans, chick peas, so it cooks evenly and doesn’t colour too much)
Set aside to cool.
For the filling- Place all ingredients except the butter into large saucepan over a very low heat and whisk until the eggs have broken up and the sugar has dissolved.
Add half the butter and continue to whisk.
At this point the eggs will start to cook and the mixture will coat the back of a spoon.
Add remaining butter and continue stirring until the mixture becomes very thick.
(Keep mixture constantly moving to prevent curdling)
Remove from heat and continue to stir until lukewarm.
Raise oven temperature to 230C
Spoon lemon filling into the pastry base and bake until the top is brown. (5minutes)
Let cool on a window seal to make your neighbours jealous, slice and serve with your choice of cream...crème friache is my favourite.
Serve with a cold glass of dessert wine.