What makes this Lemon Tart so perfect? It’s the lemon curd filling. It’s not too sweet but not mouth-puckeringly sour either, and so custardy it just melts in the mouth. This is a classic French tart that’s elegant and pretty as a picture, yet the filling is as simple as can be: just eggs, sugar, butter and fresh lemon!
🇫🇷Welcome back to FRENCH BISTRO WEEK!🇫🇷
Welcome back to the final instalment of French Bistro Week! 🇫🇷 This is a week in which I’m sharing all the recipes you need to recreate your very own French Bistro experience at home. Here’s the menu of recipes I shared:
Starter: Warm Goat’s Cheese Salad – A classic French Bistro starter. This fresh leaf salad sports nuts, bacon, and pan-fried goat’s cheese medallions that are golden outside and oozing inside.
Main: Duck Confit – An iconic French dish that’s so much easier to make than you think! It’s the ultimate make-ahead dinner party dish for showing off!
Side: Lentil Ragout – A traditional side for Duck Confit, these French lentils are mouth-wateringly good!
Dessert: Today’s Lemon Tart – A perfect finish to the meal that’s not too heavy, this is a tart you’ll find in virtually every patisserie across France.
Lemon Tart
Today’s Lemon Tart recipe is a classic tart known in French as Tarte au Citron. Endlessly popular, you’ll find it on the shelves of patisseries all across France, and it’s a favoured dessert served at French bistros or even fine dining restaurants. Tangy, refreshing and light, this tart makes the perfect dessert to follow on from decadent and rich French mains!
About this French Lemon Tart
The filling in this Lemon Tart is a brilliantly yellow, beautifully fresh lemon curd that’s completely smooth. It sets enough that you can cut neat slices as pictured throughout this post, yet soft enough that it melts alluringly in your mouth just like custard.
As for the taste, it’s a Goldilocks bullseye: not overly sweet, not overly sour, just right. I found that other Lemon Tart recipes I’ve tried veer too far in one direction or the other. A perfect balance between the two is my ideal!
The crust I’ve used is a sweet French Tart Crust called Pâte Sucrée. This is an excellent master pastry for all sorts of sweet tarts. It’s buttery and not too sweet, and flaky without being so crumbly that it’s difficult to eat with a fork. Bonus: The dough is extremely easy to work with – even easier than Shortcrust Pastry.
Feel free to use sweet shortcrust if you prefer, or if you’re pressed for time just buy a pastry case! Who’s going to know? 😊
Ingredients in French Lemon Tart filling
Here’s what you need to make the lemon curd filling for this tart.
Lemons – We use both lemon zest and juice for this recipe. You’ll need 2 normal size lemons, or 3 smaller lemons.
Butter – Unsalted butter, cut into cubes so it melts more evenly.
Eggs – Eggs are what sets the lemon curd filling into a custard. We’re using both whole eggs and egg yolks. Yolks add richness which gives the filling a nice and creamy mouthfeel.
Leftover egg whites – Here’s my list of what I do with them and all my egg white recipes can be found in this recipe collection.
Sugar – Caster / superfine white sugar is best, for ease of dissolving. However ordinary white sugar will work just fine here.
How to make the Lemon Tart filling
It’s dead simple: put it all in a saucepan and whisk over low heat until it thickens!
Combine ingredients: Put ingredients in a saucepan and whisk together. Turn the stove to a low to medium-low heat. Don’t fret about scrambling the eggs – the lemon juice and sugar dilutes the eggs enough that they’re won’t easily set!
Whisk over low heat: Once the butter melts, it will become a fairly thin and smooth mixture. Whisk constantly so the base doesn’t catch, until the mixture thickens in a pourable custard – about 5 minutes;
Check thickness: The above and below photos illustrate the thickness you are aiming for. Use a spoon or spatula to dollop some custard onto the mixture’s surface. It should hold shape briefly before disappearing. You could thicken it further on the stove but there’s no need. We are going to bake the tart briefly to set it so we can cut neat slices;
Strain: Pour the custard into a fine mesh strainer set over a bowl, and use a rubber spatula to push it through. This makes the filling completely smooth, and strains out the zest plus any rogue lemon seeds, as well as any bits of the filling that might’ve solidified on the base of the saucepan.
Filling and baking
Next, we fill and bake the tart.
Fill pastry case: Fill the tart crust you’re using (here’s the French Sweet Tart Crust pictured). Shortcrust is also an excellent option, else buy one (a single large or 12 to 15 small individual tart cases);
Smooth the surface: This is easiest to do using a small offset spatula;
Bake: Bake for just 5 minutes. Nothing needs cooking here, it’s just to finish setting the custard without getting any colour on the surface. We don’t want to bake it any longer because otherwise the filling will overcook and become curdled and dry, rather than soft and custardy;
Decorate as desired! I’ve used lemon slices, raspberries and mint leaves. I’ve listed some more decorating options below.
Lemon Tart decoration suggestions
A naked Lemon Tart is a bit plain, so I think it’s nice to add a finishing touch, even if it’s just a dusting of icing sugar / powdered sugar. But here are some other ideas – feel free to mix and match!
Lemon slices
Raspberries, strawberry slices or other berries – for lovely pops of colour!
Mint leaves and edible flowers
Cream – pipe blobs around the edge
Melted chocolate – a thin squiggle of melted dark chocolate artfully (casually!) drizzled across the surface. Channel your inner Jackson Pollock! Or, a handwritten message if that’s what’s called for … 😂
What to serve with Lemon Tart
This tart is terrific eaten plain (2 seconds after snapping the above photos I was buzzing around the shoot room, cleaning up with one hand and devouring the pictured slice with the other!) When serving people, I think it’s nice to add a dollop of something on the side to complete the plate.
Here’s what goes well with this Lemon Tart:
Creme fraiche – Pictured in post. The uber-rich cream plays delightfully against the zippy tartness of the lemon;
Whipped cream – Lightly sweetened with a touch of sugar and vanilla (use restraint, the lemon tart is the star here!); or
Vanilla ice cream
And with that, French Bistro Week is done! 🇫🇷 I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did creating, photographing, filming and writing about the dishes. And, of course, EATING them!!
Got a request for the next theme week?? Pop it in the comments below! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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French Lemon Tart – Tarte au Citron
Ingredients
- 1 sweet tart crust (or homemade pie crust, or store bought 23cm / 9" sweet pie or tart crust)
Lemon Tart filling:
- 1 tbsp lemon zest (1 lemon's worth)
- 1/2 cup lemon juice (from 1 – 2 lemons)
- 3/4 cup white sugar
- 12 tbsp / 170g unsalted butter , cut in 1cm (1/2") cubes
- 3 whole eggs large, (Note 1)
- 3 egg yolks (from large-size eggs, Note 1)
Instructions
Tart crust:
- Make tart crust per linked recipe, including blind baking the empty tart crust. Allow to fully cool before filling (to ensure it won't go soggy).
Lemon Tart filling:
- Preheat oven: Preheat oven to 180℃/350℉ (160℃ fan)
- Whisk ingredients together: Put all ingredients in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine.
- Thicken on stove: Place the saucepan on the stove over low / medium low heat. Whisk constantly, especially as the butter is melting, to ensure it doesn't split. Keeping stirring until the mixture thickens enough to visibly mound (ie. holds its shape briefly) on the surface when dolloped – about 5 minutes, though it might take longer depending on stove strength, saucepan heat retention etc. See video and photos for thickness guide. Don't take it off the stove until it's thick enough otherwise the Filling won't set.
- Strain into a bowl using a fine mesh strainer.
- Fill tart: Pour into tart shell and smooth the filling surface using an offset spatula or similar.
- Bake: Bake for 5 minutes. It will still be a soft custard when you touch it but not liquidity. It will set more when cooled so it's sliceable.
- Cool: Cool tart fully to allow it to set before slicing to serve. Pictured with a dollop of creme fraiche (a thick, rich cream that has a slight tartness, and goes very well with the lemon tart) or whipped cream and even vanilla ice cream.
- Decorate if desired with lemon slices, edible flowers, raspberries. Else pipe on dollops of whipped cream or dust with icing sugar!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Looking très chic, Dozer!
Thank you for this recipe. My family and I love this recipe. It is just right for us. Not too sweet or too sour. I too find most recipes too sweet for my taste. I have adapted it into a lemon meringue to make good use of the egg whites. Really enjoyed this recipe. I trust your measurements, always on point.
it was rlly good ngl
I was looking for a new lemon tart recipe and this was a great choice. The recipe worked well and it was a nice balance of sweet and lemon.
A delicious tart. Your recipe was easy to follow. I need to practise getting the right technique for rolling pastry. 10/10. Thank you Nagi
Just made this tasty tart.
So easy and came out looking and smelling delicious.
Thank you for a wonderful recipe.
I’m a nervous baker and thought I’d try the lemon tart and make it to bring to Father’s Day lunch. The recipe and ingredients looked pretty straight forward so felt it was achievable. However, like some of the other comments, I could not get the curd to thicken and took ages and eventually it split :(. Ended up throwing out the batch and used a different recipe for the curd which was very similar but instead of putting all the ingredients together into the pot, suggested putting in the butter last which worked! On the positive; the pastry recipe was great! We added some vanilla essence for some flavour. Definitely keeping this pastry recipe on rotate!
Help please!
I used to have a recipe for an apple curd filling. It was butter, sugar, eggs and GRATED apples. The butter & sugar were melted in a saucepan, but the whole lot was cooked in a Pate Sucree case in the oven. Does anyone have a recipe for this as I’ve lost mine & can’t remember much more?
The pastry base was exactly as this one, with the ground almond, & never let me down when cooking from raw with the filling.
It was a delicious tart, and I sometimes added a bit of crumbled Wensleydale on top before baking.
My first attempt spilt after 15 min of trying to thicken, right at the end.
I followed exactly but my next attempt much the same, filling wasn’t settling and heated for much longer. It still wasn’t to the consistency of video but used it anyway. The favour was perfect and so was the pastry.hopefully ok for guests tomorrow as I’m not going to give it a third try.
Made this as written – worked perfectly and was so so impressed
Tried a second time but with mandarins. I couldn’t set the custard – on ultra ultra low heat took almost 40mins on the stove before it started thickening, then never got to the right consistency. Once I stopped stirring to check if it was mounding and noticed it was starting to boil!
Pulled it off and into the crust just to see how it went – by the time it was sieved there was a buttery oily sheen, texture was still a bit grainy, and couldnt set it at all, stayed runny.
Assuming the acid in the lemon is necessary to set it??
I have made this many time it is a real favourite and tastes the same every time thanks Nagi.
I’ve just made my very first tart using your recipe and it tastes amazing! Thank you so much. Looking forward to trying many more of your recipes! Xx
Holy moly!!! This was great. Not too sour, not too tart, not too sweet. Just perfect. Having it with whipped cream took it to the next level.
I did have to cook it on the stove for a lot longer then 5 minutes, it was more like 13 minutes.
It went in to the oven for around 15 minutes, not 5 minutes,
The very same thing happened to me. To save the split custard, add 1-2 Tbsp of corn starch (or flour) and whisk briskly until smooth. It set perfectly. I baked it about 8 min instead of 5 and it set beautifully.
A little tip when making the filling, I always heat the butter, sugar and lemon juice first before removing from the heat and slowly adding the whisked eggs, then return to the heat to thicken. Less chance of curdle.
The BEST lemon tart recipe ever! Nagi does it again!
Any chance I can use ginger cookies as a base for the lemon curd ? If so, do I bake the crust & then pour the lemon curd?
A bit tedious on my first attempt, but no doubt I should try this again. Looks perfect, but will have to test on my guests to get their approval. I am a bit of a lemon meringue pie girl. Thanks Nagi.
L❤️VE this recipe. First time I made it my partner dropped it while juggling too many things… Lucky I had a backup pav… But what survived the 3 second rule was delish! Second time was *chefs kiss* and thnn this time, made it with SR flour 🤦, but, was still OK.
Does anyone have any tips for less crumbly pastry? When I roll it out it never rolls onto the rolling pin to be able to drape over the tin. I always have to kind of press all the pieces together, which is OK as it’s on the inside so covered by the tart but it would be nice to do it in one piece and then gently press into the tin!
Oh my, the lemony goodness! I was given some lemons from a friend’s tree, so looked up something to use them up. I’m so glad I stumbled across this recipe.
I’m not much of a baker so I cheated and used a store-bought case, but I’ll definitely be making this again.
Hello, just wanted to provide some feedback on the recipe!! In step 1, it doesn’t mention whisking them over a stove top
I know it has it in the video, and in the preamble to the recipe above, but thought to mention it in case it’s helpful 🙂