Tarte au citron

In the eighties when I was at the begining of my Chef career  the Roux brothers, Albert and Michel senior, bought us the Tarte au citron; however; the first book I saw it in was White Heat; by Marco Pierre White. This classic French lemon tart was like no other, It is shockingly good, simply made,  and best served at room temperature with a dusting of icing sugar. One important point to remember when cooking this recipe is to make sure  the middle of the tart is still on the wobbly side of runny when it is taken out of the oven and the tart is left to sit for an hour or so to set. If possible make the day before and refrigerate over night to let the flavours develop then bring it out and allow it to come up to room temperature before serving.

Ingredients

250g plain flour plus a little extra

Pinch of salt
150g butter plus an extra knob
75g icing sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk

For the filling
4 large unwaxed lemons
5 large eggs
150g caster sugar
200ml double cream
Crème fraîche to serve

Method

You will need a 22cm by 2.5cm deep flan ring.

To make the pastry, sift 225g flour into a mixing bowl with the salt. Cut the butter into chunks into the bowl and rub it into the flour until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Sift the icing sugar over the crumbs. Stir. Lightly whisk the whole egg and egg yolk and add to the crumbs. Quickly work everything together and knead a few times. Dust with a little flour if it seems very sticky. Form into a ball, wrap in Clingfilm and chill for 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 180C/gas mark 4. Rub the knob of butter over the inside of the flan ring. Dust with flour, shake out the excess and place on a baking sheet. Dust a work surface with flour and roll out the pastry to make a 28cm circle. Roll up pastry on the rolling pin and place over the prepared flan ring, pressing to neatly line the ring, leaving a 1cm overhang. Drape a sheet of greaseproof paper over the ring and fill with baking beans. Bake for 20 minutes. Separate one of the eggs required for the filling and lightly whisk the egg white with 1 tbsp water. Paint the cooked pastry case with beaten egg white to seal. Plug any holes with leftover pastry. Return to the oven, uncovered, for 5 minutes.

Lower heat to 150C/gas mark 2.

To make the filling, remove the zest from the lemons and chop finely to make about 1 tbsp zest. Juice the lemons through a sieve to make approx 175ml and stir in the zest. Whisk 4 eggs and the reserved egg yolk with 150g caster sugar, continuing until the sugar disappears. Lightly whip the cream and stir it into the eggs. Add the lemon juice and zest.

Pour the filling into the pastry case and bake for 45-60 minutes until the tart is just set but still slightly wobbly in the middle. If the top shows signs of browning, lay foil over to protect it. Remove from the oven and leave it to cool and firm up. Just before you remove the ring, use a serrated knife to shave the pastry overhang. Before serving, dust the tart with icing sugar. If liked, place under a grill or use a cook’s blowtorch to caramelise the sugar.