Alice Oehr is a designer and illustrator from Melbourne. Her distinct colourful style incorporates her love of food, pattern, collage and drawing with many of her ideas having made their way onto textiles, homewares and magazines. Alongside illustration and design, Alice teaches still life classes with Apple iPads at Lamington Drive Gallery. She has previously illustrated Happiness is Baking, Around the World in 80 Cocktails, Tacotopia and Australia, among others. Her latest book is called The Art of Cake and today we have a recipe from the book for lemon tart to share with you!
Read on to find out how to bake this scrumptious lemon tart …
Lemon Tart
This is a favourite in my family, and once you get your head around making pastry the rest is extremely easy. I’m a big enthusiast of sweet and sour flavours, and this is always a luscious and refreshing end to a meal.
I use an unsweetened pastry case because I like the savoury flavour of the tart shell without sugar, but feel free to substitute with a sweet pastry recipe if you prefer. The filling of the tart calls for half lemon juice, half orange – but you can use whatever citrus you have on hand (a bit of lime will be fine, for example). The orange is there to offset the sour lemon, but if you think you can handle it go ahead and replace it with more lemon juice. The tart is best served with cream, to soften the sourness.
Ingredients
For the pastry
240 g plain flour
1 pinch salt
180 g butter, chilled
60 ml water, iced
For the filling
4 eggs
200 g caster sugar
1 Tbsp lemon zest
120 ml lemon juice
120 ml orange juice
2 tsp pouring cream
To serve
Heavy cream
Finely sliced lemon wedges or lemon zest
Method
Grease a 24 cm fluted tart tin using butter or oil, and line the base with baking paper.
For the pastry, mix the flour and salt in a large bowl, then grate in the butter using a hand grater. Rub this mixture between your fingers until it forms a crumb-like texture, then slowly add in the water and form into a ball. Do not over mix.
Refrigerate the pastry for 30 minutes, preheating the oven to 180°C while you wait.
Once chilled, remove the pastry and roll it out on a floured surface so that it’s about 3–5 mm thick.
Gently lay the sheet of pastry over your prepared tin and press it in, trimming off any excess (chef’s treat!) using a sharp knife. Blind bake the shell for 15 minutes, using rice or cooking weights to prevent it puffing up.
After 15 minutes, remove the rice/weights and allow the case to colour for a further few minutes before removing from the oven and allowing to cool slightly.
For the filling, beat the eggs with the sugar, zest and pouring cream until light and frothy. Add the citrus juices and mix to combine.
Carefully pour the mixture into the shell and bake until the centre is just set (but not yet firm). This should take about 20 minutes, but you can wobble the tart a bit to test if it’s done.
Decorate the tart with finely sliced lemon wedges (candied in a pan with sugar, if you like) or a sprinkling of lemon zest.
Serve cold, with cream.
—The Art of Cake by Alice Oehr (Thames & Hudson Australia) is out now.
The Art of Cake
The Creme de la Creme of the World's Favourite Desserts
For dessert lovers everywhere, a mouthwatering illustrated history of cakes from around the globe.
Discover fifty of the most beloved cakes from around the world in this delectable guide to a classic dessert. Each delicacy comes to life through the charming writing and delightful illustrations of Alice Oehr, who has fun facts...
Four non-fiction reads recommended by Cass Sharp!
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