I’ve made loads of lemon tarts… but I’ve never felt moved enough, confident enough to share a recipe. It’s all been a bit hit and miss. Sometimes grainy, sometimes too tart and often too flat. But, I made a lemon tart the other day – and perhaps I’m jumping the gun a little here, having only made it once – but I’m going to share this recipe because it’s the best one I’ve ever made. AT made the bold call of saying it’s the best lemon tart he’s ever eaten – followed by telling me that I’ll never be able to make one that good again. The highs and lows of home baking…
I thought I’d add some coconut to the pastry base because let’s face it, everything’s better with coconut and I selected the recipe from a blogger that pilfered hers from a pastry chef. I wanted the tartness of lemon curd but the luxury of a cream-based custard filling, and this one looked perfect. Sitting high and silky in the tart case, this filling is light, smooth, tart and the right amount of sweet. If only my photography skills could match the quality of this recipe. The thorough baking of the crust is important and while my crust looks dubious in this photo, the pie had just been taken out of the fridge. For best eating, let the pie come to room temperature.
Luxury Lemon Pie with Coconut Crust
Ingredients:
For the crust
200g flour
100g butter
30g coconut
2 tbs icing sugar
For the filling
250ml double cream
125g sugar
4 eggs
125ml lemon juice
Zest of 2 lemons
Oven 180C
Method:
Blitz the flour, sugar, coconut to mix and then add butter, blitzing until you get ‘fine breadcrumb’ texture.
Add a few spoons of cold water until the mixture just comes together.
Press into a pie/tart pan. Freeze for about ten minutes.
Blind bake until the edges are golden and then remove the pie beads (or what ever you use – I used barley these days) and bake again until the filling is properly cooked through.
When the crust is ready, take it out of the oven and turn the oven down 100C
While the crust is cooling, make your filling by putting the cream and sugar in a sauce pan and heating until the small bubbles start to form on the edges. Take it off the heat and stir.
Whisk the eggs and pour them slowly into the hot cream, whisking the whole time.
Then add the lemon juice and zest and mix through.
Finally, sieve the creamy filling and pour into the crust.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until the custard is just set.
Cool in the pan and then refrigerate.