Laura Bradbury's Lemon Tarte recipe

An invasion of Minis

As promised yesterday, here is Laura Bradbury's Lemon Tarte recipe that went down well here last night when we were invaded by a small convoy of Minis, driven by friends of over 20 years, despite my best efforts at cocking up Laura's simple recipe.

Lemon Tarte

This is one of those stalwart, life-saving recipes. It really isn’t that difficult, but it gets absolutely rave reviews every time. The first time I tried it was at my friend Marie’s house. She made it for dessert one day when just she, Franck, and I were having lunch together. Between the three of us we ate almost the ENTIRE tarte. 

Shortbread Pastry

Ingredients

1 cup (125 grams) butter (salted or unsalted)

1 cup (125 grams) white sugar

2 cups (250 grams) flour

1 egg

Method

1.    Preheat oven to 360° F (180° C).

2.    Mix all the ingredients with an “S” blade in your food processor until they form a ball.

3.    Wrap with Saran Wrap (clingfilm) and flatten into a disc. Let it sit in the fridge for an hour or more.

4.    When you are ready to make the tarte, roll out the pastry and press it into a buttered and floured quiche pan. It is normal for the pastry to be a bit crumbly. You’ll want to press it together likes pieces of a puzzle. Once pressed into the pan, poke all over with a fork.

5.    Bake the pastry shell for 10 minutes. You can use those bean thingies to keep your pastry from puffing up, but I never have them on hand, and it turns out fine. Keep the oven at 360° F (180° C).

Lemon Filling

Ingredients

¾ cup (150 grams) cream or crème fraiche

2 eggs

1 cup (100 grams) sugar

1 soupspoon flour

2 lemons

Method

1.    Boil the cream in a saucepan. Set aside to cool.

2.    Zest and juice the lemons.

3.    In a bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, cooled cream, lemon zest, and 50 ml lemon juice.

4.    Pour mixture into pastry crust. It’s normal that the mixture just barely covers the shell.

5.    Bake for 15 minutes or until it doesn’t jiggle in the middle anymore.

6.    Cool in the fridge, then serve. 

It was at the 'cool in the fridge' point that I realised I had forgotten to add in the flour to the lemon filling, hence the slightly odd looking texture to my tarte, sorry Laura, I promise to try better next time! However, my polite friends did confirm it is very tasty and as Ed tucked into the leftovers for his breakfast this morning, I guess it can't have been too bad and I will certainly be trying it again soon, with the flour.

My lemon tarte, not quite perfect, but tasted great.

Thank you Laura. If you missed my review of her latest memoir My Grape Paris, click here and to read all about her Lazy Sunday in Burgundy, click here. Sign up for her newsletter here which contains recipes, insider information, and lots of treats. She can also be found on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram