Delicious Lemon Tart

Mommy Diva's Note:

I found this recipe in The Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas. He calls it "Nellie's Lemon Tart" and credits a friend of his from Toulouse, France for gifting him this recipe as his favorite. It sounds absolutely scrumtious to me - but then I love lemon desserts to cap off a meal!! I estimated on the prep times, which include chill times, some cooks may be faster than I am in the kitchen!!

• Total Time: 1 hrs 35 mins
• Prep Time: 45 mins
• Cook Time: 50 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 8

FOR THE DOUGH

• ¾ cup butter , at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

FOR THE FILLING

• 2 eggs , at room temperature
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 2 lemons, juice and zest of , grated
• ¾ cup butter , at room temperature

GARNISH

• 1 lemon
• granulated sugar , to sprinkle

Directions:

1. To start the dough, cream together the butter and confectioners' sugar using a mixer.
2. Add the flour and mix until consistency becomes course/grainy.
3. Place dough in a ziplock bag and chill for 30 minutes.
4. Press and form dough into 10-inch tart pan covering bottom and sides.
5. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
6. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and cool.
7. Reduce oven heat to 350 degrees and hold to wait for tart.
8. Next, blend together the granulated sugar and the eggs.
9. Mix in the lemon juice, grated lemon peel, and butter, combine well.
10. Put tart pan on a cookie sheet for stability and pour the filling mix into the tart shell.
11. Using a potato peeler, peel the outer rind off another lemon so that only the white "pith" (thin layer) remains.
12. Make 8 thin slices from that lemon and place them carefully on the tart.
13. Place tart on tray in oven and bake for 35 minutes ( at 350 degrees).
14. Remove from oven and sprinkle granulated sugar on the lemon slices.
15. Increase oven to high broil and place tart back in oven on the top rack allowing to brown lightly on top.
16. **WATCH THIS CLOSELY as you can easily burn the crust or the tart.***.
17. Cool tart completely before serving.
18. Enjoy! ;).
19. ***Hint- a culinary torch/ creme brylee torch could be used to brown the top of the tart if desired**.

Reviews

[Kittencalskitchen]

very good, I add in a teaspoon vinegar to the dough to make it easier to handle and tender, the filling was not too sweet so next time around I will increase the sugar to 1 cup, make certain to bake this on the second-lowest oven rack, thank you for sharing Mommy D!...Kitten:)

[mommymakeit4u]

This tart looked beautiful, and tasted great! We did find that we had to take the lemon slices off the top because they were a bit too tart. I had difficulty with the butter in the recipe raising to the surface while it was cooking. This resulted in it leaking out the bottom of my tart pan. Not sure what I did wrong, maybe my egg and butter were not completely at room temp? Nonetheless, it ended up turning out, and everyone enjoyed it.

[Boomette]

The dough is delicious. I like the texture. I used icing sugar. For the filling 3/4 cup sugar is enough. I find it perfect. My BF told me it was too sweet but he likes it tart lol The garnish looks beautiful. But I couldn't eat the lemon slices, too tart loll I used my creme brulee torch to caramelized the sugar. Thanks Mommy for this wonderful recipe :) Made for beverage tag.