Lemon Tart

I've decided to start a blog on my baking adventures, just to have a compilation of recipes I've tried. So for the first post, I will share the recent recipe that I've tried from Allrecipes.com : The Best Lemon Tart. I love all thing lemony - from lemon tea to lemon tart. 

I was supposed to attend a baking class earlier in the day, but due to some unforeseen circumstances, the class has to be postponed later that week. And I thought, "hey that's not gonna stop me from baking something today!". So I started browsing my pins on pinterest for recipes, finding inspiration on what to bake.. and then I remembered my mum just bought me a set of mini pie pans! That narrowed down my search! Walking to and fro the kitchen to ensure I have enough flour, eggs, etc.. and I found some lemons chilling in the fridge..and that's it! Lemon Tart it shall be!

This recipe is by far the easiest and yummiest lemon tart I've ever made! I made a little changes to the recipe though.. The original recipe required the lemon curd to be baked with the crust for the 2nd time, I chose not to bake the curd but to cook it using double boiling method instead. The only difference is that when you double boil it, the curd will look shiny and it taste less chewy. If you bake the curd with the crust, the curd will be a bit chewy and of course the end product is less shiny. :)

The Best Lemon Tart

adapted from Allrecipes.com

Prep time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 35 mins

Yield: 4 x 4" tarts or 1 x 9" tart

Ingredients:

A. Crust:
     170 g butter (room temperature)
     100 g sugar
     3 ml vanilla extract (I used vanilla bean paste) 
     1 g salt
     220 g all purpose flour

B. Filling:
     300 g sugar (gonna try reducing it to 250 g the next time I bake this again, 'cos 300 is a little on the sweet side)
     3 large eggs
     6 g lemon zest
    120 ml freshly squeezed lemon juice (I used around 3 lemons)
    60 g all purpose flour
    3 g confectioners sugar (optional - for dusting)


Directions:

1. Combine butter, sugar, vanilla bean paste, and salt in the mixing bowl. Mix ingredients with an electric mixer until well combined. 
2. Add in flour to the mixture in 4 separate addition, making sure flour is well combined in the mixture before adding more flour. Mix until mixture form a smooth dough.
3. Divide the dough into 4. Press dough into the pans (4 inch pan) and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 175 degrees C.
5. Bake crust until light golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes.
6. Whisk sugar, eggs, lemon zest, lemon juice, and flour in a bowl until smooth. Cook the mixture over a pot of boiling water til it thickens. Pour lemon filling into crust. 
7. Dust the lemon tart with confectioners sugar and it's ready to be served.