Rich lemon tart

Serves 6-8 Desserts and puddings

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Method

To make the lemon sugar, follow our recipe here.

To make the pastry, whizz the flour in a food processor with the lemon sugar or caster sugar and a pinch of salt. Add the butter cubes and whizz together to form a crumb texture. Mix 2 of the egg yolks with 3tbsp cold water and process until the mixture clumps together. Tip onto a large sheet of baking paper, flatten out a little and chill for 10-30 minutes, depending on how soft you like it.

Preheat the oven to 200C/ 180C Fan/Gas 6. Put a baking sheet in the oven to heat up. Roll out the pastry and use to line your tin. Prick the base with a fork and chill for 30 minutes.

Line the pastry with a circle of scrunched-up baking paper cut to fit up the sides of the tin, add baking or ceramic beans and bake blind for 20 minutes. Remove the beans and paper and bake for a further 5 minutes. Brush with the egg yolk and bake for another 5 minutes, until crisp and golden.

Meanwhile, heat the cream with the lemon zest on a medium heat until bubbles just start to appear around the sides of the pan, then turn off the heat. Remove the tart shell (on its tray) from the oven and reduce the oven temperature to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3.

Break the eggs into a bowl with a pinch of salt and the sugar and stir gently using a balloon/hand whisk to just break them up: you don’t want the mixture to become frothy. Stir in the lemon juice, then, stirring gently with the whisk, add the hot lemon cream to the egg mixture a little at a time to avoid cooking the eggs.

Put a sieve over a large jug and pour in the lemony mixture, discarding the zest.

While the pastry is still warm, pour the mixture into the tart shell until it is around 5mm from the top. Bake for 20-25 minutes until just set: to avoid over-cooking, check every 5 minutes towards the end of cooking. The second the filling has just a slight wobble when the tray is moved gently, it’s ready. Transfer the tin to a wire rack to cool completely, then remove from the tin and store in a cool, dark place.

If wished, dust with icing sugar and brulée the tart's surface with a kitchen blow torch. Serve at cool room temperature with yoghurt, crème fraîche or double cream.