Bitter Sweet Lemon Tart

This Bitter Sweet Lemon Tart is one of my favorites, it’s creamy, tart, sweet and bitter on a tender sweet crust. The candied lemon slices on top still have a slightly bitter taste to them the really adds a complex depth of flavor to the lemon curd filling.

When you candy slices, it’s a much gentler cooking process than making candied lemon peel and the syrup that’s left over makes amazing cocktails, perhaps I’ll experiment with a Bitter Whiskey Sour tonight.

With this tart, you’ll need to blind bake the tart shell, which may sound a little scary, but it is not at all difficult. What blind baking does is browns an empty pie or tart shell so you can fill it with something that doesn’t go into the oven. The dough is weighted down so that the bottom of the tart stays flat and level and the sides don’t collapse into the center.

Basically, after rolling out the dough and placing it into the tart mold, you’ll gently place a piece of parchment paper directly onto the surface of the dough, then fill the parchment with a lightweight, I use dry beans or lentils. At this point, you’ll bake the shell at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until the sides of the tart are just starting to brown. Remove the shell from the oven, gently remove the weights and the parchment from the shell, return to the oven for another 5-10 minutes until the sides and bottom are both golden brown.

INGREDIENTS:

Tart Shell:

• ½ Recipe of Pâte Sucrée

-Roll Pâte Sucrée to 1/8-inch-thick, place in a tart mold and refrigerate for one hour.

-Blind bake the tart shell, let cool

Lemon Curd:

• 350 grams Sugar
• 8 Lemons Zest
• 240 ml Lemon Juice (about 8 lemons)
• 8 Whole Eggs
• 345 Grams butter (3 sticks), cold, ½ inch cubes
• 4 Leaves Gelatin
• Mint leaves to garnish, chiffonade
• Powdered Sugar, garnish

-Place gelatin in a bowl of ice water to soften

-for a double boiler, fill a saucepan halfway with water, bring to a boil

-Combine sugar, zest, and lemon juice in a saucepan and bring to a boil

-Place eggs in a heat resistant bowl, whisk

-To temper the eggs, whisk the eggs and slowly start adding the hot lemon mixture. Whisk constantly so you don’t make scrambled eggs

-Place the egg mixture on top of the double boiler, ensure the bowl does not touch the water, whisk constantly until the curd reaches 160F, remove from the double boiler

-Add softened gelatin

-Add two to three pieces of butter at a time, whisking constantly, until all butter is incorporated

-Strain the mixture into a clean bowl, let cool slightly

-Add Lemon Curd to the tart shell, refrigerate

Candied Lemon Slices:

• 6 Lemons, sliced 1/8-inch-thick, seeds removed
• 2 cups Sugar
• 2 cups water

-Combine sugar and water in a saucepan, bring to a boil

-Add lemon slices, reduce heat to a low simmer

-Gently swirl pan occasionally to keep the lemon slices from sticking together

-Simmer 15 minutes, until the white pith is clear.

-Remove from heat, let cool slightly

-With a fork, gently remove the slices from the syrup and arrange them decoratively on top of the tart.

-Save syrup for cocktails!

-Refrigerate until ready to serve