French lemon tart

At last, a short trip down south (after 6 years ^^||!).. and a rectangular tart tin ^^

And that's really all I have to show from the trip! But I'm happy as a lark ^^!

Anyway, just so you know, I've been coveting a rectangular tart tin since forever.. You have no idea how I drooled over your new tin, mel! I've always WANTED (not need ^^||) one too! ^^

So what do you do with a rectangular tart tin? Make quiche? tarts? orange or lemon? Well, big pig preferred a lemon tart over orange.. so I thought I'd make the lemon tart recipe shared by mel ^^. But somehow, I got distracted by david lebovitz's unusual pastry recipe using "oven browned butter" ^^.. and also the use of less lemons and eggs in the lemon curd.. I'm also a sucker for anything "french" ^^!

ignore uneven slicing ~ too lazy to get a proper serrated long knife ^^ 

French lemon tart (recipe shared by david lebovitz)

French pastry dough (by paule caillat)*
90g unsalted butter (I used 100g ^^)
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I omitted this)
3 tbsp water
1 tbsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
150g / 1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 210C.

2. In a medium oven-proof bowl (Pyrex), combine butter, oil, water, sugar and salt.. and place bowl in the oven for 15 minutes, till butter is bubbling and starts to brown just around the edges. Isn't this interesting ^^? And it smells heavenly too ^^

3. When done, remove from oven (be careful of hot bowl and sputtering mixture!). Immediately dump flour in and stir quickly till it comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

4. Transfer dough to a 9-inch tart mould with a removable bottom, and spread it out with a spatula/spoon. No rolling needed, yay! ^^

5. When dough is cool enough, press to fit tart mould. Prick dough all over with a fork and bake tart at 200C for 15 minutes or till golden brown. Leave to cool before filling.

* recipe makes a very thin, but yummy shell.. make more if you prefer a thicker shell ^^ 

Lemon curd filling
1/2 cup/ 125ml lemon juice
grated zest of 1 lemon
1/2 cup/ 100g sugar
6 tbsp / 85g butter
2 eggs
2 egg yolks

1. Beat together eggs and yolks.

2. Heat lemon juice, zest, sugar and butter in a saucepan.

3. When butter is melted, whisk some warm lemon mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly. Then add the warmed eggs into the saucepan and cook over LOW heat, stirring constantly, till mixture thickens and begins to bubble around the edges.

4. Pour lemon curd through a strainer directly into the pre-baked tart shell.

5. Smooth the surface of the tart and pop it in the oven at 180C for 5 minutes to set the curd.

6. Leave to cool before slicing and serving. Dust with icing sugar or serve with whipped cream if it's too tart..

And you know what? This is another delicieux recipe from david ^^! ~ the buttery, flaky and biscuity thin crust makes a perfect foil for the tart, silky smooth lemon curd ^^!

Ze lemon tart fan/critic, big pig.. approves ^^

p.s. ze tart is still quite tart for most.. and that means more for big and me! ^^