Recipe: Tarte au Citron

Tarte au citron is arguably France's most iconic dessert. It's ominpresent on pretty much all French dessert menus and, here at Elena's L'Etoile, we sell more tarte au citron than any of our other offerings. Its timeless popularity is for good reason, who can possibly resist the sharp tang from the lemon contrasted with the short buttery pastry casing?

To make your own, you'll need the following ingredients:

For the pastry:
200g Plain white flour
2tbsp icing sugar
100g butter, chilled and cubed
1 egg yolk

For the filling:
4 eggs
1 egg yolk
20g caster sugar
150ml double cream
2 lemons, zest and juice
1 tbsp icing sugar

Additionally, you will need a 20cm fluted, loose bottomed pastry case.

1. Start by sifting the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub together with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Create a well in the centre

2. In a separate bowl, beat the egg yolks with 2 tbsp of cold water. Add it to the well and then use a round bladed knife to mix it altogether. If the mixture is too crumbly, add a tiny bit more water.
3. Bring the pastry into a ball, wrap in cling film and then chill for at least half an hour in the fridge.

4. Preheat the oven to 190C. Roll out the pastry until it's 3mm thick using extra flour to stop it sticking to the worktop surface and rolling pin. Use it to fill the pastry case and trim the excess. Prick all over with a fork.

5. Cover with baking paper and add baking beans (or in our case, dried chickpeas!) and blind bake for 15 minutes.

6. Remove the baking beans and bake for a further 5 minutes.
7. Reduce the oven temperature to 150C.
8. Now to make the filling. Beat the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar, then stir in the cream until smooth. Stir in the lemon juice and zest and pour into the pastry case. A top tip here is to put the pastry case empty into the oven and then pour the filling in using a jug - spillages avoided.

9. Bake for 30 minutes until just set. Allow to cool and dust liberally with icing sugar.

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