Lesson 4: Tartapalooza!

Tarts, and more tarts! Last Friday, we made three different tarts–one with apples, the other with strawberries, and last one with lemons. All had incredible depth of flavour.

The tangy lemon tart was by far my favourite. Here’s the recipe. I’ll share the other two in the weeks ahead. The flavour for this recipe is comes from both the zest and the juice. Make sure when you are grating the zest that you don’t add the white pith–it’s quite bitter and will change the taste of your tart. I like to use a fine-gauge Microplane as it removes the zest without digging into the skin.

There are four parts to this recipe, so it will take at least 2 hours to make. You will have to make the pie crust, almond cream, the lemon filling and the Italian meringue. Except for the Italian meringue, you can make the other parts in advance.

Part One—Pie Crust

200 g flour, sifted

100 g butter

70 g icing sugar

3 egg yolks

4 ml milk

1 lemon, peel

Directions

1. Add zest to flour.
2. In a mixer on lowest speed with paddle attachment, add the butter and icing sugar, incorporate until soft.
3. Add the salt and eggs, mix, and slowly incorporate the flour. Add milk at this point if the dough is dry.
4. Form into a ball, flatten, saran wrap and chill until it’s the dough has hardened.

While you are waiting, prepare the almond cream and the lemon filling.

Part Two–Almond Cream

60 g icing sugar, sifted

60 g butter, softened

60 g almond powder

6 g flour

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp Grand Marnier

Directions

1. In a mixer on low speed, whisk the butter until creamy.
2. Add the sugar, mix until incorporated.
3. Add the almond powder, whisk until incorporated.
4. Add one whole egg, and combine.
5. Add the vanilla and rum, whisk until its pale and thick.
6. Wrap and refrigerate.

Part Three–Lemon Filling

2 lemons, juice

1 lemon, zest

100 g sugar

3 eggs

Directions

Add lemon juice, zest, sugar, eggs in a large pot over medium heat, add a ½ tsp of flour or cornstarch to help coagulate the eggs. Whisk the mixture until you start seeing steam, and the mixture changes to a bright yellow and is thick enough to coat your spoon or spatula. Cool off the cream.

Rolling Pie Dough

When the almond cream and lemon filling are done, butter your pie mould. Take out the cold pie dough, and lightly flour your surface. If your pie dough is not cold, it will shrink when cooked. Rollout the dough slowly from the centre and push away from yourself. Turn the dough a quarter turn to the right and repeat. Turning the dough helps to roll it out evenly and to make sure it’s not sticking. Keep rolling and turning the dough a couple until it reaches the size you need. Roll the dough a couple inches larger than the mould. To see if the dough is a the right size, hold the pan over the dough.  Place the rolling pin at one end of the dough and loosely roll the dough up around the rolling pin. Place the mould directly underneath the rolling pin and gently unroll the dough into the mould. Carefully lift up the sides of the dough and fit it against the bottom and sides of the mould, without stretching or tearing, which will cause the dough to shrink as it bakes. To remove the excess dough, run the rolling pin over the top edges to cut the dough evenly.  Chill the pie dough for 5 minutes.

Pre-Bake or Blind Bake Crust

Preheat oven 375F. Score your pie dough with fork marks, so that the crust can release stem. Line the pastry shell with parchment paper, leaving excess of parchment paper on all sides so you can lift it. Fill the shell top the top with pie weights to hold its shape during baking. Bake for about 8 minutes. When the first stage of blind baking is done, carefully remove the weights, spread the almond cream and return the pie crust back in the oven for about 15 minutes. When baking is done, let cool. Keep the pie crust/almond cream in the mould.

Part Four-Italian Meringue

100 g egg whites

200 g sugar

1 tsp cream of tartar

70 ml water

Directions

1. Heat the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture boils. Boil until a candy thermometer placed in the syrup registers 117C or 243F.
2. While the syrup is cooking, whisk the egg whites in a mixing machine with the cream of tartar until they form soft peaks.
3. With the machine running, very slowly whisk the hot syrup.
4. Continue beating until the meringue is cool and forms firm peaks.

Assembly

1. Spread the cooled off lemon filling to pie crust/almond cream.
2. Pipe Italian meringue in ripples or peaks.
3. Bake at 375F for about 6 – 8 minutes or until surface is browned. Do not use higher temperatures, which will cause the surface of the meringue to shrink.
4. Remove from the oven and cool. Serve immediately because the meringue will start to “weep”–fall apart, particularly in humid conditions. So make plenty!

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