Friday, December 7, 2012

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! ^^



12 comments:

  1. Hi Hui! Your lemon tart looks neat and yummy.

    Have you tried the lemon tart from Tiong Bahru Bakery? I tried last Sunday and it was amazing although pricey at $6.50 per small piece.

    I would like to try yours and make a comparison. :)

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  2. oh, alvin.. if only i knew you earlier.. now you are making me regret that i didn't make the most of my trip ^^|| 1st its the chwee kueh.. now you tell me about the lemon tart.. i could've easily made a trip to tiong bahru cos i didn't do much except visit sunlik! aaargh..i really missed much! ^^||

    you gotta be kidding! my lemon tart cannot be compared! and definitely not for the faint-hearted! ^^ 'cos not up to standard! haha ^^

    in case, you're ever in kl, check out levain's orange tart and cream cheese rye bread.. it's good. the luscious orange tart kinda started me on the chase for the perfect homemade orange/lemon tarts since it's not always available for sale ^^

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  3. um...this looks amazing, Hui!!...it came out beautifully (the edges are perfect) and I can only imagine how buttery and flaky the crust is paired with your silky creamy curd...ah, I'm salivating over here!!!

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  4. This is exactly what I wanted to make for Christmas!! Thank you for the recipe, this is awesome!

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  5. No problem Hui! Try it next time when you are in town! :)

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  6. Oh my... this tart looks beautiful! I wish I had a tart pan like this!

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  7. Hui..

    We have the same WANT!!!
    I so wanted the rectangular tart pan for a very long time, and finally bought it more than 8 months ago...and it is still pristine, mint condition... unopened unwrapped :O
    I am so teruk :(


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  8. Hi Hui
    Oh I am so late coming over to this post.... and wow, wow, wow.....absolutely beautiful and now you are making me drool over your lemon tart. Really....one look at it can really makes your mouth watering wet.... I loves to bake in this rectangular pan too, it sure look very elegant. I might try your recipe one day. Aiyo, did you pass by driving JB the other day? If yes, you should message me and maybe we can meet up even if for 5 minutes I be most happy.

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  9. As I'm not much of a baker, I'm totally lacking of all sorts of pan. This rectangular one, bundt mold, madeleine pan, and more. I tell myself, okay when I start baking... but then I need these pan to bake! lol. I love how your lemon tart looks. Gorgeous!

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  10. "squishy" angie ~ thanks ^^ was worried that the pastry dough was spread too thin and not hold.. but luckily turned out rather nicely ^^ and you can never go wrong with brown butter anything! ^^

    cathleen ~ david's recipe is really nice, easy and delish ^^ minimal cleaning up too.. ^^ you really cannot go wrong with this recipe! ^^

    alvin ~ big pig will be visiting spore this weekend.. will tell him to check out tiong bahru bakery's lemon tart ^^ hope he gets to do it, and maybe bring a slice back for me ^^

    lynna ~ you really should look out for a rectangular tart tin ^^ it makes quiches/tarts look so much more interesting and elegant ^^ you'll love it, even if you may not need it ^^!

    lisa ~ how could you??? but i'm like that too, haha! after getting the tin, i too didn't know what to do with it ^|| and if not for my SIL's repeated checks if i'd made anything using the tin, it would've remained unused today! ^^

    mel ~ it's never too late to hear from friends ^^! i'm also late in responding too to everyone's sweet comments as i was away.
    well, i did think of meeting up with you, and share some of nami's cheesecake which i made (again!) for relatives but stupidly, didn't quite know how to contact you without having to share my email/contact with the rest of the world. if you know how, please share with the IT-challenged me ^^

    nami ~ thanks! you are a good baker! i swear by the japanese cheesecake recipe you shared which i make everytime i needed to impress.. it's so easy and everybody loves it! can't wait for you to get more baking tins and share more yummy interesting bakes with us ^^

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  11. Hi Hui! Your lemon tart looks absolutely delicious! I love rectangular tart pans too, look so much more classy! ;)

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  12. thanks for dropping by, jasline ^^ now i know there are MANY rectangular tart pan lovers out there ^^! and i'm not the only baking-ware obsessed-person, haha! i really didn't expect the normal sized tin to be so big actually.. it always looks so elegant and "slim" in pictures ^^ but i'm still loving it! ^^

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