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
Hungry for more? Subscribe to my newsletter and follow along on Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram for all of the latest updates.
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!
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.
Could I turn this into a lemon meringue pie or would it overcook the filling
That is one we have on the testing list!! Not sure as I haven’t tried it here but you could always let me know how it goes! I suspect it would be ok underneath the meringue as meringue cooks quickly. N x
Hi Nagi,
I hope you are doing well! Really loved this tart. So simple and compliments many meals plus it looks beautiful on the table. I will be making it again for sure.
Many thanks,
Holly xx
I am so glad you enjoyed it Holly! N x
Thank you – My lemon tart was awesome and I followed ur recipe.
Hi! I made this tart, the mixture took ages to get thick and now after cooking for five minutes it has lines in the custard & there seems to be a lot of oil on top. Does anyone know where I went wrong?
Kidding it fixed itself and tasted heavenly! Yummm.
That had me concerned for a moment! N x
Hi Nagi, love this recipie. I hope your well and keeping safe. I’ve made this recipe a few times but my last time the I made the lemon filling, it turned out grainy. Would you know what I did differently, for the life of me I don’t know. 🤔
Hi Maybelline – I suspect you cooked the curd a bit too long and it curdled. N x
Made these for a dinner party and it was such a hit 😍
Wondering what the approximate calories would be in the filling for a single small tart?
Hi Phoebe..That would depend on what size tart shell you used. You can divide the provided nutrition info depending on what percentage of the filling you use in your tart. N x
All your recipes are great, love the picture of Dozer here
Loved all yr recpies! Mouth wateringly great!
I am glad you enjoy them! Thanks, N x
Hi Nagi,
You are a star. Novice cook here making this recipe (including the pastry) and shared it around. Everybody loved it and said it was perfect!
I did not add the salt as I used salted butter in both my pastry and filling.
Thanks again Nagi.
Can I store cooked Pate Sucree in fridge in tart tin for 2/3 days before filling is added ?
Anne
Is there any way I can make this as mini tarts instead of a big one, and what changes wouId I make to the oven temp and time (I use the pate sucree and par bake so guessing par bake less and final bake to set the curd is less).
Is there a general rule of thumb when converting from full to mini (ie – tart vs mini tart, cake vs cupcakes/etc)?
Thanks
Ooh yay! I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Sounds like you nailed it!! This one is such a great tart to know, it’s ideal for an elegant dessert after rich meals 🙂 N x
I made this today & decorate with my home grown strawberry, mint & blackberry…wished I could show you…it looks great and tasted even better
Made it twice this week it’s so good!
Used the pastry base as well.
Delicious
This was a hit with our dinner guests last night! Perfectly balanced and so beautifully presented! The crust was easy to make and looked so good!
Thank you for another winner Nagi ☺️
You’re so welcome Emily, I’m so glad you enjoyed it! N x
Thank Nagi, delicious tart! I was wondering if you wanted to make the flavour more ‘tart’ as in tangy, would you use less sugar or more lemon?
More lemons. I’ve made this using Nagi’s recipe and also the David Leibovitz recipe. Both have the same amount of sugar and butter, but David’s has double the lemon juice and his is definitely more tart.
Thank you! That’s perfect. 🙂🍋
Hi, I made the lemon tart over the weekends and it turned out perfect! However, I noticed that as the tart cools, cracks/lines starts appearing on the surface of the curd. Do you know what has happened? Thanks.
Hi KL, did you place it in the fridge to cool by any chance? N x
Our lemon tree has given us an abundance of fruit this year & I have been using the lemons in my cooking which included this delicious lemon tart. I took it in to work to share with my colleagues and it was a huge hit. Thanks Nagi xx
Hi Nagi – I don’t want to waste the egg whites so was thinking I could turn this into a lemon meringue pie. Should I just cook it in the oven for longer? Any other steps I should take?
Hi Patricia, I have a link to lemon meringue in the post 🙂 N x
Hi Nagi,
I wondered the same about lemon meringue pie, it’s one of my husbands favourites, but I’m yet to make one that doesn’t ooze the next day, your recipes are so awesome I’d love it if you had one.
I can see the reference but no clickable link.😊
Hi, Nagi.
Umm…I can’t find the link to the lemon meringue in your post.
I see a mention of lemon meringue, but no link.
This was an amazing recipe. Very straightforward and easy, and tasted divine. I used the sweet pastry recipe as well. Thanks Nagi and team! Xx
A wonderful, easy Lemon Tart, perfect consistency and flavour. Pastry easy and delicious.
I think I messed up… the custard never became as thick as yours. I think I was cooking it over low heat, constantly whisking, for almost 20 minutes and it was still as runny as it had been at the beginning. Stopped when it begun to separate. What went wrong?
Hi Sarah, sorry you had issues here – did you weigh the eggs that you used? N x