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becoming madame, cooking, food, french cuisine, french culture, Life in Paris, paris life, recipe, tart au citron
Tarte au citron is a French pâtisserie delight. Served as a dessert, as party to an aperitif, with afternoon tea or un café, it’s light, fresh flavor is just the perfect blend of sweet and sour. Tarte au citron is versatile, it’s elegant, it’s classic and it’s quintessentially French.
Once more I found myself in the hands of my mother-in-law as she was preparing a tarte au citron for a small party of her friends who were to arrive that afternoon for après-dejeuner café. I jumped in and asked if I could help. Rather than letting me lend a hand, she walked me through doing in on my own.
© Le Palais de Délices
Which isn’t saying that much, really, this time as tart au citron is intensely ease to make and delicious. Outrageously delicious! It takes about seven minutes in prep time and 35 minutes in the oven.
You’ll need:
- 1 pie tart (pate feuilletée like for the quiche)
- 2 lemons
- 3 eggs
- 125 g melted butter (1/2 cup)
- 150 g sugar (3/4 cup)
The directions are all in the video below, step by step. But a few notes to keep in mind:
If you don’t have a handy-dandy all-purpose mixer/blender/food processor contraptions like my belle-mère, you can use a hand mixer or mix by hand. The key is to beat the eggs and sugar until they are white. This takes about 3 minutes with a machine doing the heavy lifting.
The pate feuilletée is store-bought, which I realize is cheating a little. I have not yet mastered the making of this rather sophisticated pastry dough and my belle-mère insists she will never again make one now that it is so readily available in stores; there’s no reason to put yourself through the struggle, she says. Apparently it takes a good deal of time and precision. I will give it a whirl anyway, one of these days, when I have the time one Sunday afternoon to get it wrong a few times.
As for now, I hope you enjoy the recipe and bonne dégustation!
UPDATE:
I recently made this tart again using a pâte sablée which is a short-crust, sweetened pie crust instead of a pâte feuilletée. Also, given my space restraints here in Paris, I used a hand mixer instead of the all-purpose machine my mother-in-law has at her house. I garnished with slices of fresh lemon. Although a touch over cooked (25 minutes in gas oven), the tart turned tasted great!
I love lemon tart and this seems super easy to make! I will definitely have to try this out, with my own pie crust of course! Do you know if the crust that is commonly used is much different from the pie crusts that we use in the US? Here is a link to the pie crust that I like the best if you are interested. Great post!
Laura V.
http://theartfulgardener.wordpress.com/2011/01/02/the-best-taste-of-2010-part-i/
Thanks for stopping by! Pâte feuilletée is more like a phyllo dough or a puff pastry. Pepperridge Farms has one, I believe as does Pillsbury.
This is a really cool blog! I WISH I could just move to a different country!
I had one of these when I was in France this summer. Loved it. I have a question though. Since you’ve read a couple of my blog posts, you know I’m a southern cook.
In the south we do not have pate feuilletée. What do you think would most closely substitute for this? Biscuit dough or pie crust? Or is it something completely different?
Hi there, I would go with Pilsbury Flo pastry dough. http://pillsburybakery.com/products/ViewProduct.aspx?productId=221&CatId=37 That is about the closest thing I’ve found in the States. You want a phyllo dough or a puff pastry. Sometimes you can find these in the frozen section. Pepperridge Farms has one, last time I was home to check. Soon I do a video on how to make the dough from scratch! It’s coming! :) Thanks for stopping by!
I keep telling myself I don’t need a mixer because I don’t do a lot with desserts, but then I see stuff like this… It makes me realize that I need to break down and get a nice one or I will be destined to have popeye forearms. :)
This looks devine…I think my mom and I will have fun making this together…she might even test out my french speaking skills. I’m so rusty!
Nothing beats a lemon tart! Thanks for the great tip on beating the eggs and sugar until they are white. I don’t think I have been beating them for long enough.
I really enjoyed watching the video – what an awesome mixer/juicer!
I enjoyed watching you make the tart. The table looked lovely, and I was thinking the finishing touch would have been the ladies enjoying the feast! Love the chainsaw in the background… or was that the mixer?? ;)
I have to try this. I love citron tart and always get it from the local French patisserie. Now I have a recipe :) Thanks!
This dessert sounds interesting and I can’t wait to try it myself! I’ve never made a tart or a pie before so I am a little nervous. And living in France sounds so dreamy :)
Looks like a delicious pie and a great recipe. I can’t wait to try it. Lemon is my favorite after chocolate of course :)
I really enjoy reading your blog! It’s great! The lemon tart recipe sounds and looks great too.Thanks so much for sharing. Just a question-do you need to pre bake the pastry first? I just tried to do it and the bottom of the tart didn’t bake at all..:( Is it my oven settings?any suggestions?
Hi there, thanks for your kind words about the blog. As for the tart, I had a similar problem the first time. The trick is to leave it in longer than you think by looking at it. The top of the tart could be almost black and it’s still okay. The goal is to have a golden crust. You don’t need to prebake the crust. Definitely preheat your oven to 350°F, though, and cook for 35 mins, then check the crust and continue until it is golden. Let me know how it works out.
Thanks so much for your reply. I will definitely try again,next Sunday probably.