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 so much for this recipe. It was my first time making a tart, it was amazingly delicious from crust to tart filling and everything was so accurately measured thank you 😭💖 and from how good it was my family and I finished it in one day 👍🏻
This recipe is amazing! Made it for family luncheon and it went down an absolute treat. Easy to make and the perfect balance of sweet and tart 👌🏻
I recently discovered lemon curd as as an alternative to jam or fruit spread to put on toast or bagels or crumpets ( Nagi’s recipe). I think it’s an English or Aussie thing. I didn’t at first put it together that it was the same thing we use in tarts and other deserts. So if there is anyone else out there who, like me didn’t know this, this delicious lemon curd filling isn’t just for tarts and pastry The amount of sugar is spot on, not too sweet, but sweet enough.
Thanks for those tips Terri!! N x
I recently discovered lemon curd as as an alternative to jam or fruit spread to put on toast or bagels or crumpets ( Nagi’s recipe). I think it’s an English or Aussie thing. I didn’t at first put it together that it was the same thing we use in tarts and other deserts. So if there is anyone else out there who, like me didn’t know this, this delicious lemon curd filling isn’t just for tarts and pastry.
Hi Nagi
Thank you very much for such awsome receipe. This is my first time making lemon tart. When I was trying to thicken the filling, I found that the oil is starting to seperate from the custard. Did I overcook it? I would to like to know what I have done wrong and try again as it tastes really yummy!
Val
Hello. Maybe you overcooked it. Usually if I want to thicken curd, I just add 1 tsp(if necessary 1 tbsp) of cornstarch at the end. In this recipe I also reduced the butter to 150 grams and added less lemon juice, and it was very good.
I made the lemon curd (first time in my life) and it was beautiful, delicious, and the perfect balance of tang and sweet. Thank you so much for posting this recipe, i love lemon curd the most and this is the easiest and best recipe find ever!
I’m so glad you liked it Layla!! N x
Hi Nagi, is it really necessary to put the tart in the oven for 5 mins? Wouldn’t it just set anyway when cold with that much butter in it? I managed to cook a bit of egg but it strained out.
Hi Elaine! For the perfect set, yes it really makes a difference 🙂 It is safer to finish it for 5 minutes on the oven to set the curd rather than cooking it on the stove for a bit longer so you get a nicer smooth finish on the surface AND no risk of the thickening curd catching on the base of the pot. I’ve tried it both ways! I don’t add steps necessarily 🙂 N x
Im an experienced pastry chef and this recipe was spot on and yielded perfect results. Definitely make the crust listed in the recipe and don’t use pie dough. The tart even froze whole wrapped in plastic and thawed and sliced beautifully. Make sure you measure your size of the tart tin. I had an 11” tin and multiplied the recipe by 1 1/2. It made extra crust (I just froze the extra dough) but the filling was perfect.
Hi Nagi, I just made this tart for the first time – my filling had the same consistency as yours before I put the tart in the oven, but it came out runny, where did I go wrong?? I tastes delicious though!
This was my second attempt at the sweet short crust pastry and the first at this lemon tart filling. Absolutely delicious! The filling took around 20-25 minutes to thicken and I began to fret I had mis-measured the quantities. This was probably because I cooked it on quite a low temperature because I was petrified of splitting it. I definitely recommend serving with raspberries, mint and creme fraiche as they complemented the lemon really nicely as well as presenting very prettily. I think I will add more lemon juice than specified next time as I would have preferred a slightly tarter filling. However, it was beautifully silky and set well upon cooling.
I would reduce the sugar to half a cup if you want,more zing, the lemon juice to egg ratio seems to be important here and I have, made reduced sugar curd (never makes it into a tart case) successfully as I love the zing!
Made this for the first time and OMG! Added a meringue top and hands down the best thing ever! ❤❤
Totally yummy classic!! N x
could I make this with a graham wafer crust?
Hi Nagi, many years ago my mother made this tart (your recipe is almost exactly as hers in taste) I remember Mum using her same recipe but somehow swapping out the lemon for passionfruit, could I possibly do this with your recipe or does it need the lemon juice to set?
Loved this recipe made for the first time. Wish I’d had the right depth flan as pastry sides look too tall. Was divine!
Hi Nagi,
Wanting to make this with Nuttelex instead of butter for the filling and homemade pie crust due to allergies. Will the recipe still work?
Hi Nagi, thinking of making this for Christmas day. Can I make the curd ahead of time and reheat it on the day
My lemon curd is smelling like eggs and it smells really bad!
What’s wrong with it?
Want to make this but don’t have a tart pan. Will it work in a regular pie pan? If yes, anything special I need to do?
Thank you!
First ever lemon tart. Turned out perfectly. Good clear uncomplicated instruction. Thank you. I used a loose bottomed 7 inch sandwich tin…perfect
Hi Nagi. Do you use a tart tin with a removable base? If I’m using the Pate Sucree and making the whole thing ahead, should I remove it from the tart tin before storing in the fridge? Thank you
Hi Janine – you can store it covered in the fridge in the tart tin and pop it out of the tin later and let it come to room temp. N x
Hi Nagi, just wondering if one could use the filling recipe (up to point where you add it to the tart shell) as a lemon curd for sandwiching with the lemon cream cheese frosting on your blueberry lemon cake for an added bit of decadence, or does it need to be baked? Thanks so much!
I made this, scrumptious as usual, im a Nagi purist so i do not alter her fabulous recipes, I cannot count how many folks I have told about the Nagi recipetin eats site.Thanks again, best wishes to Dozer…of course.