This lemon and lime tart is a recipe from Julie Goodwin from the first serie of the Australian Masterchef. Julie ended up winning the competition, you can follow here progress on her website.
The tart is tangy, the lime softens a bit the flavour. I have done it a number of times, sometimes adding a soft meringue on top.
The pastry can be prepared a day ahead if required.
pinch of salt (not necessary if you use salted butter)
½ cup icing mixture – I used icing sugar, it works perfectly well
100g butter
1 egg
Filling
½ cup lemon juice (about 2 lemons)
¼ cup lime juice (about 2 limes)
1 cup caster sugar
2/3 cup thickened cream
5 eggs, lightly beaten
Method
Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan forced). Grease a 25 cm fluted, loose-based flan tin.
Place flours, salt, icing mixture and butter in a food processor and process until it looks like breadcrumbs. Add the egg and process again until the dough comes together in a ball. Turn out onto a board. If the dough seems very dry and crumbly, add a teaspoon of cold water and briefly knead it in. Wrap in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 15 minutes.
Remove the pastry from the fridge and roll out to about 5 mm thick. The pastry is very short – it will be very difficult to move in one piece. Tear pieces from the pastry and bit by bit, cover the base and sides of the flan tin. Press the edges of the pastry pieces together, taking care to keep it the same thickness throughout.
Put a sheet of baking paper into the flan tin and fill with baking weights or rice. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove the baking paper and weights and bake for a further 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown.
Combine the lemon and lime juice, sugar and cream in a bowl. Whisk in the beaten eggs a bit at a time until it is mixed. Pour the mixture into the pastry case and bake for 25 minutes or until set. Refrigerate until needed.
I decorated with mint leaves from the garden and candied lemon and lime slices.
Tarts are a bit like salads, there can be one for every day. Tarts can be a lunch main item or family diner main or a side. Tarts are very versatile. There are the “every day tarts” and the “special occasion tarts”. They can be served simply in the tart dish or on a serving dish.
The pastry
The three main pastry types are:
The shortcrust pastry (pate brisée)
The sweet shortcrust pastry (pate sablée), and
The puff pastry (pate feuilletée)
From there, there are many variations especially when it gets to the sweet shortcrust pastry when used as a base for cakes.
The shortcrust pastry is by far the most commonly used. Many people are surprised when they learn that it is used for savoury and sweet tarts. It is much better homemade, and can be done in advance. You can also make a larger quantity and keep in the fridge for a few days or freeze in portions of 150 to 200 grams.
Shortcrust pastry consists solely of flour, half the weight of the flour of butter and a bit of water, I will add the method later.
The shortcrust pastry is most commonly used for strawberry tarts, lemon tarts and chocolate tarts. I use the same recipe to make shortbread biscuits for the kids. I have never tried a bought version (yes, this means that it is that easy!).
The puff pastry requires a bit more time and technique but it is not hard and I find it quite fun to make. I have now made it a few times. I make a large batch, cut into portions and freeze. Depending on where you live, you may find some good ones at the supermarket, but watch out for the ingredients, it should contain butter and not margarine.
Savoury Tarts
The most known of the savoury tarts is the quiche. A quiche is essentially based on eggs and cream. If you add bacon dices (lardons), it is a quiche Lorraine. The quiche Lorraine is a children favourite! The steamed broccolini on the photo was added after cooking purely for decoration! I had served the quiche with a few bunches of steamed broccolini. With the quiche, I love a cheese quiche and an Asian mushroom quiche: I love using Asian mushrooms and placing them as if doing a landscape on a large quiche, they also taste great!
Funki quiche…
I also love and often make the following:
red-pepper (capsicum) tart. It is quite light. Salty with the sweetness of the capsicum.
a spinach tart. This is a perfect dinner dish.
an onion tart. Handy when you run out of fresh food, there are always a few onions around.
a “flamiche” or leek tart, really delicious, this is a specialty from Northern France.
a mustard and tomato tart
Red capsicum tart
I use the puff pastry with onions or when doing a light tomato tart. Puff pastry can also come handy if it comes already rolled or ready to roll (i.e. no need making a shortcrust pastry).
Sweet Tarts
Fruit tarts are often made using the shortcrust pastry, typically apple tarts and pear tarts for an everyday meal would be done so. The elaborate version of apple tart / pear tart may use puff pastry or a sweet shortcrust pastry (or variation of). The simple fruit tart is very easy: roll your pastry, place in the tart tin (no need to butter the tin by the way), cut your fruits in slices, place them in a round shape. You can choose to just add a couple of nuts of butter and a bit of sugar or a small mix made of one egg, 1/2 cup of milk or cream and a bit of sugar. For those fruits like pears that typically give away a lot of juice, you will need to add 1 big tablespoon of almond meal. The almond meal will soak up the juice and prevent a soaked pastry at the bottom of the tart.
Fruit tarts are a great use of fruits which are very ripe or need to be used rapidly. It is a double hit: you don’t throw away those fruits and your family gets desert!
For a simple strawberry tart, prepare a sweet shortcrust pastry, place it in the tin by either rolling it or by pushing it into the tart tin with your fingers. Make dots with a fork on the basis to prevent the formation of bubbles, cook until lightly golden. Place strawberries on top and brush them with red currant or apricot jam warmed and slightly diluted with water. A more elaborate version would be to add a layer of creme patissière below the strawberries. Pastry shops which may prepare the tart more in advance than you would at home, often add again another layer (sponge or almond-based) to soak up liquids and prevent the pastry to become soggy.
Simple strawberry tart
Lemon tarts come in two kinds: the one where the lemon filling cooks into the tart and the ones where the lemon curd is made ahead. For the one alike a quiche, I like Julie Goodwin’s lemon and lime tart recipe.
Pastry left over….
And if there are small pastry left over, you can:
Shortcrust pastry
Make one or several tartlets with fruits from the fruit basket or frozen berries. Alternatively, you can put some jam in the tartlets.
Do an afternoon tea for the kids: place the scarp together, roll, place on baking paper, put a bit of brown sugar on top. An option is to add a drizzle of thickened cream. Then bake on a tray.
Sweet shortcrust pastry
Make a ball, roll to 6 mm thick, use a shape or a kitchen glass to make biscuits, place on a baking sheet and bake.
Puff pastry
Place leftover puff pastry on a tray, pre-cut them in long strips and grate cheese on top, you can also add chilli, ground coriander or fresh herbs. It will make a good appetizer.
Another use for puff pastry leftover is to push them down a buttered muffin tin and fill with creme patissière (assuming you have some handy), egg-wash the sides, sprinkle a bit of sugar on top of the egg-wash and bake.
This weekend was my third and last session (unfortunately) of a baking class on brioche, puff pastry and viennoiseries I took out at The Essential Ingredient. The class was taught by Jessica Pedemont, pastry chef and chocolate master. I was not going to write much about this, but my sister, who got forwarded the above photo of my brioche by my Mum, insisted on having the recipe. I may as well share it with you all. The recipe is from the class I took, you can use it for many applications, one of my next use will certainly be small brioches parisiennes (the ones with the little head on top). If you want to put chocolate, it is better to used Nutella (as in the recipe) as the dark cooking chocolate tends to “burn” a bit.
Best if you have a stand mixer for those recipes, especially for the brioche as the dough will be very sticky and needs a fair bit of work.
Here are some photos of my puff pastry (at home) production and viennoiseries products (at the class). I am yet to use some of my puff pastry for a millefeuille (vanilla slice), at the moment there is a batch of chocolate chip cookies (for lunch boxes treats) and a left over lemon tart to go through, plus some amazing strawberries from the market.
Puff pastry sheeting and rolls with cheese and tapenade – home
A range of small size viennoiseries on the day of the class
Lemon and lime tart and choc chip cookies
The lemon tart is from Julie Goodwin, I like the mixed lime and lemon flavors in it. I served it with homemade vanilla ice cream. For the tart process, it is a bit like a quiche, i.e. you do a “tarte aux cailloux” / “stone pie” as we call it in my family, which is a blind bake, then bake it with the filling. There was not much left by the time I manage to secure a photo . Also, it is a bit darker on the edge than I would like (not burnt though) my mistake for leaving it a few minutes too many while blind-baking. As opposed to the recipe instructions, I find that if you roll the pastry between 2 sheets of baking paper you can actually manage to put it in your tray at once.
These cookies I am speaking about are a real treat, so good and so easy. I will type in the recipe as soon as I can. I am now at my daughter’s gym class and running out of battery.
