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Beautiful Lemon Tart Recipe

Course Dessert
Cuisine Baking
Keyword lemon, tart
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
5 hours 30 minutes
Total Time 7 hours
Servings 6 tarts
Calories 508kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup cold butter cut into small cubes (I freeze my butter for about 15 minutes)
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 - 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 large egg yolks
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup powdered sugar sifted
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice juice from 2 lemons
  • 1 Tbsp lemon zest zest from one large lemon
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions

  • In a food processor, combine flour, sugars, and salt and pulse 5 times to mix the ingredients.
  • Add butter and pulse to fine crumbs. It will look like cornmeal.
  • Add egg and vanilla and pulse about 20 times. Again, it will look like cornmeal. You will know it is done if you grab a small amount, squeeze it, and it becomes dough.
  • If you do not have a food processor, you can do the first few steps with a pastry blender.
  • Turn dough onto a floured surface. Press the ingredients together until it forms a dough ball.
  • Press dough into a 1/2 disc and refrigerate for 30 minutes or overnight. This dough can be refrigerated for 24 hours or frozen for a month. If frozen, defrost overnight in the refrigerator.
  • Remove dough from the refrigerator, and set it on a floured surface. Make sure to flour your rolling pin also. Allow to thaw for a few minutes and then start to roll out your tart shell to 1/8" thickness. Rotate while rolling to assure that tart is not sticking to a floured surface. Add more flour if necessary.
  • Using the bottom of your tart pan as a template, cut the dough almost 1" larger all the way around.
  • Lightly press dough into the tart pan, coaxing it into the curves. Using a sharp knife, carve off excess dough from around the top edge. An alternative technique is to drape the extra pastry over the rim of the tart pan. Roll a rolling pin across the top to cut off the excess.
  • Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes or freezer for 15 minutes. Cold dough prevents the dough from shrinking.
  • Poke tart shell with a fork at the base and fill with pastry weights to prevent dough from puffing up. You can put the pastry weights directly on top of the tart but will get small round impressions. Alternatively, you can put a piece of parchment paper between the tart shell and the pie weights.
  • Cover edges with foil and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.
  • Remove foil and bake for another 5 minutes or until lightly browned on the top. Remove from heat and cool completely. Carefully remove pie weights from the tart shells.
  • Preheat the oven to 275 degrees F.
  • Combine all the filling ingredients in a large bowl, and whisk on high for 1-2 minutes until fully combined.
  • Pour the mixture into the cooled tart shells.
  • Bake for 18-20 minutes. The filling will still have a small wobble.
  • Allow lemon tarts to cool completely. Place in the refrigerator and chill for four hours before serving.